My Experience as Microsoft Azure Data Engineer Intern at Cognizant Technology Solutions
I started my internship with Cognizant Technology Solutions amidst mid January, 2022. My tenure as an intern at Cognizant was an out-of-the-world experience. From enhancing my persona to developing my technical skills, the exposure I got from Cognizant was the kickstart that every fresher in this rapidly growing IT sector demands. Indeed, it was with tons of hardwork and a stroke of luck that I got selected as an Intern in such a prestigious organisation. These six months flew by and here I’m sharing my amazing experience with this Multinational Corporation.
JANUARY
Week 1: (18th January- 21st January, 2022)
My first week at Cognizant was indeed a thrilling one, despite having a Work from Home internship, the level of interaction we had during our Teams meet was unparalleled. Interns from all over the country were present in the induction session, where various company policies were shared. Diversified sessions were held from time to time, focusing especially on interns’ mental wellness and heartfulness. These programs assisted us to connect with our inner-self & helped in decluttering one’s mind. A boot camp was also organised which focused on minimising waste, it was a simple series of steps delivered via an online pragmatic course for gaining knowledge, resources and guidance and it influenced us to drive change at personal level within our families and community.
Moreover, in this week vital topics to thrive in this corporate world were also discussed, which included Data Security, Code Of Ethics Acceptable Use and prevention of sexual harassment at the workplace.
Week 2: (24th January — 28th January, 2022)
My second week started off with Behavioural training sessions and Working remotely ethics. To succeed as an individual, training and tips especially related to growth mindset were held from time to time. Another big change that cognizant brought in my life was the introduction of Cognizant Health Challenge. Its perks included:
· Eight weeks of fun, health and fitness
· Exciting rewards and giveaways each week
· Personalised, AI-powered diet and fitness plan
· Engaging live webinars
In the words of the CEO — Brian Humphries, “You are working for a company with a big heart that cares deeply about you. Together, we’ve come through a two-year, COVID-induced humanitarian crisis that has also caused severe stress and fatigue.I would encourage all of you to pay close attention to your mental and emotional well-being as well as your physical health. The leadership team and I want you to know that your health and well-being take priority over absolutely everything else.”
FEBRUARY
Week 3: (31st January — 4th February, 2022)
First week of February began with a test, it was used to assess our reading, listening, grammar and speaking skills for ensuring that we are business ready. Apart from these tests, a series of well-being sessions were conducted from time to time in this epoch.
Week 5: (7th February — 11th February)
From the second week of February, our technical training started, it began with brushing up our skills to get industry ready with courses like: User Interface Programming (HTML 5, CSS 3 & JavaScript), Database Programming using ANSI SQL. This week was dedicated to SQL Learning specifically.
Week 6: (13th February- 18th February)
With almost over a month and a half in the company, working in the corporate sector had me in exponentially growing my learning curve. The main focus of this week was learning about Responsive Web Design, and connecting SQL with Java Databases.
Week 7: (21st February- 25th February)
This week was allotted to us as a buffer week to complete any backlogs that are left. So, most of the sessions in this week were Outreach.
MARCH
Week 8: (28th February- 4th March)
As we ushered into March, the celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD) in the coming week encouraged us to take advantage of Women Empowered (WE)-sponsored events that shared women’s contributions across Cognizant, the importance of male ally-ship, mentorship opportunities, and ways you can help “Break the Bias.” Participation of Women in Technology was highly encouraged especially to #BreakTheBias.
Week 9: (7th March — 11th March)
After getting trained on a vast range of technology, this week began with assignment of a domain. The technology allotted to me was Data Engineering with Azure.
Week wise plan was allocated to us and it resulted in completing Python for Beginners: Learning Python Programming.
Week wise plan was allocated to us and it resulted in completing Python for Beginners: Learning Python Programming.
Week 10: (14th March — 18th March)
With the advent of the tenth week, multiple Python courses started in parallel, Python for Programmers and Python Bible along with a hands-on of around 100 problems in Python.
Week 11: (21st March — 25th March)
The week was flooded with knowledge, from learning to do visualizations using python libraries to creating dashboards. It was a fun filled week with completion of courses, these were Python Enablement, Data Analysis, Complete Courses on Data Visualization, Matplotlib and SQL, with a deadline to complete the courses by the end of this week.
Week 12: (28th March — 1st April)
This week focused on data bricks and its various aspects. Introductory Knowledge about Spark was an enlightening experience. Another test for English proficiency was held by EFSET for ensuring our business communication skills are upto the mark.
APRIL
Week 13: (4th April- 8th April)
After performing miscellaneous self-learning tasks, a Python trainer was allocated. Most of the sessions conducted during this period were Doubt sessions. Over the course of April start, everyday assignments and sessions were held which helped in grasping most of the concepts in a pragmatic learning approach. Attached are the snippets of all the assignments.
Week 14: (11th April — 15th April)
Week 14th consisted of Python Doubt sessions with assignments. The snapshots of assignments are attached alongside. Concepts like exception handling, file handling, working with libraries, etc were practised frequently and helped in building a strong fundamental knowledge about Python Programming.
Week 15: (18th April — 22nd April)
Over the course of these three weeks, we were required to acquire knowledge of Programming with Databricks. Since, Apache Spark has lately conquered the big data world, so special emphasis was given on grasping concepts of today’s “Big-Data King” platform.
Week 16: (25th April- 29th April)
In this week, a programming test for SQL was scheduled. The test focussed most on SQL Joins and also considered our knowledge whilst applying queries and a few concepts of normalization were covered — namely 1st Normal Form — . Furthermore, rest of the week was focused on practicing SQL hands-on problems on hacker rank.
Week 17: (25th April- 29th April)
As this week started, along with Daily Connect meets, Started BH- sessions. These sessions were usually for understanding the corporate culture. Along with these sessions went on Python Classes which became more interactive and became a source of learning.
MAY
Week 18: (2nd May- 6th May)
In this week, we were assigned with a case study, for evaluating our skills in a business unit. The case study was about creating a Python based Web App for checking the analysis of COVID patients all around the world. Here within, I have attached my GitHub link of the implementation. Looking forward to write a blog about that as well :p . Make sure to star and follow me on Github as well.
Week 19: (9th May -13th May)
This week started with Azure Training. From learning concepts of cloud computing i.e., creating a virtual machine, resource group,learning about datacenters, policies, tags, Azure SQL, Dynamic Data Masking, etc.
Week 20: (16th May- 20th May)
In week 20, major tasks allocated included creating a blob storage and understanding the differences between blob storage and datalake. In the diagrams “maysa” is a blob storage and “ADFmay2022” is a data factory created as a sample.
Week 21: (23rd May- 27th May)
As week 21 started, the creation of pipelines in Azure Data Factory started. Here is a summary of a pipeline in Data factory which copies data from Azure Bob Storage to another Blob Storage.
Week 22: (30th May- 3rd June)
This week was allotted for completion of self-learning tasks and Udemy courses, especially for preparing for Microsoft certifications like DP-900 and DP-100.
JUNE
Week 23: (6th June-10th June)
With the advent of 23rd week, concepts such as :
· Parameterized pipeline,
· ARM template,
· Automation,
· Triggers,
· Datalake,
· Self-hosted ADF, etc were covered.
Week 24: (13th June-17th June)
In the final week of my internship, most of the focus was on covering Udemy course concepts and pragmatic learning, Data Engineering DP-203 by Microsoft. Conceptual clarity and implementation, specific to Azure Data Factory was covered. Our target was to create pipelines that helped in efficiently managing and transforming data so that assorted and unstructured data files become business-ready.
As my internship experience comes to an end, I’m highly grateful for getting this experience. Through the cycles of ups and downs, I have almost completed this internship. It’s a huge milestone for me in this world of technology, with many other paths to explore. I’m indebted to my family and friends who went with me through this Work from home phase as it wasn’t really easy. Also, I would like to thank Sachin Bagga sir, my college professor who boosted my morale in these tough times and asked me to stay in high spirits. Looking forward to a this portal that has opened a world of opportunites for me as a Data Engineer, hopefully…🤞😃
