Sriranjini AR
Featuring Sriranjini AR for our Saturday Shoutout initiative. Read on to hear her views on being a Pythonista and a Support Engineer at Amazon.
When did you first use Python and how was your experience?
Python, I learned it in college. However, I did not use it much until joining Amazon. It is the easiest to compile at Amazon, I have been using it extensively for 1.5 years now. I feel it’s a very friendly language out of all the other programming languages present out there, it’s programmer-friendly.
What preparation tips would you like to give your juniors who will be sitting for placements?
First of all “All the best!” to whoever is sitting for placements right now.
The tips that I would like to give are
- I know the placement season is kind of a “Depression season”. You will be facing a lot of rejections in the process but don’t let that stop you from preparing, be consistent. Don’t lose hope and keep working hard you will surely receive that job offer that you have been working for.
- Don’t confine yourself to a single topic in DSA, make it a point to do at least 1 question daily. Explore different kinds of questions, good questions so that you learn something from each question you do.
Remember little progress is also progress so be consistent and work hard.
How would you describe your experience as a Support Engineer at Amazon?
My experience here has been great, it’s a company you want to work for!
There is so much to learn, new stuff and new challenges everyday through which I have got to learn a lot and it has boosted my confidence.
When I joined, I was the only woman in the team of 10+ men. Initially, I did not talk much. I used to feel I didn’t know enough so I used to keep my views limited to myself. I didn’t feel confident to share my views and felt intimidated about how much I didn’t know. Over the time I feel I have come out of my shell and have actually started keeping forth my views and contributing my opinions in project meetings. To get people to respect one’s views, one first has to share them. Start small, ask doubts. I know its a very intimidating activity, but its liberating on the other side.
I have learnt to say NO to things I am not comfortable doing, this is something one needs to learn to balance things out.
What was your preparation strategy to crack amazon?
Ok so let me be very honest! I prepared for mass placements . I had this in my mind: I need to get a job by the time I graduate, I could not go back home without getting placed after completing my B-Tech. So the first time when Amazon visited our campus in October I did not apply, like I was unconfident about it. Thankfully it came again in January, and my brother asked me to apply this time.
I found Leetcode & algoexpert very intimidating so I stuck to HackerRank throughout my placements. I used to look at 5–7 questions daily, if after looking at a question I’d run the solution in my head and see if I can arrive at an optimized solution, I used to skip that question and try those which I couldn’t think of a logic instantly. I used to do the programming assignments given by college on my own, though there were multiple pages online to copy from. One thing that I want to state is I see many people changing their programming language during placements, this should not be done at the last moment instead one should stick to the language they have been using before.
Tell us about one kickass project that you worked on using Python
“All my projects are kickass…. I don’t know….. XD”
So yeah.. There is this project I worked on, it was a ticketing system for complaints. We receive tickets for issues and they generally require initial analysis to root cause. These initial analysis are generally repetitive, and ends up wasting engineer effort. I developed a system to automate these processes and comment on the ticket with the result of the analysis. Now the engineer would have the ticket with the analysis ready for root causing resulting in faster resolution and happy customers ;)
What advice would you give to women who are beginning their journey in tech?
Ask doubts, ask all of them. It’s your mentor’s job to clear all your doubts when you join a company. I used to think that maybe I should not ask as they are busy doing the “real work”. One should never think that and shy away from asking doubts. Your work is also work, so make sure you squeeze the information out of your mentor.
Make sure you share and update the team about your work. When I had just joined amazon during the meetings when my seniors used to update their work it seemed as if they have changed the infrastructure of Amazon. But you should not feel intimidated by this, there is a reason they are your seniors and they also started out from somewhere small as you are doing now. So yeah … keep learning and moving forward.
Also google/stack overflow first, human next. Google and exhaust online solutions and then reach out to a human. Self service saves time and effort on both sides.
For the recent graduates who have started to work recently, what’s the best advice you can give that will help them look at the bigger picture rather than simply working for a job?
After I had spent 1 year at amazon there were many things I realized that we don’t know when we are a fresher. I have a lot of advice on this, so yeah first thing is Think Big!
Stop thinking that this job is the one you’re going to die with, stop settling for less and push yourself to work for better. You should refrain from planning out your life trust me it won’t work it never does. Don’t let your life revolve around your job, have proper work life balance it’s very important. Work can be your passion, but don’t miss out on your life because of that. Learn to spend time on yourself- trying out new hobbies, playing with your pet, spending time with your family. Always remember, it’s just a job. It is subject to chaos so keep your peace and take care of yourself first.
During placements there are some students who have a lot of internships/hackathons on their resume while some don’t. The latter part feels intimidated by this. What are your thoughts on this?
Ok so for this question I want to tell you that I don’t pay too much attention to resumes. You can put all the stuff you did and be prepared to answer questions regarding whatever you have mentioned. Try to keep it concise, not more than 1 page, no photo and please stop comparing your resume with others. You have to clear that coding round and that interview to get that job and people with very simple resumes have done that (i.e. me). You can do a whole lot of stuff there on your resume projects, internships etc. but if you cannot answer the question on fibonacci series, you won’t be hired.
Also you need to stop self-rejecting yourself whenever you see a job opening. Even if you’re not prepared, go ahead and apply for that job. Its the HR’s job to screen your resume, not yours. If they reject you no problem let them do some work you don’t do their work.
What are your thoughts on the statement “Can women have it all?”
So here I would like to say that one should define their “own all”, don’t go after everyone’s all.
If your priority is family before career then go forward and give it more importance. If you’re passionate about your career then build it. It’s just that whatever you do you should have work life balance and you’ll be good to go! I have my “all” currently and I know it is subject to change and would want more things in a few years. Life will throw surprises so focus on what’s important to you and you have it all.
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