IBM China
Short-term
Contract
Type: Intern / Contract
Client: China Development Lab
Status: Complete
Details
Details
Tools used:
- Python
- Shell script
- Groovy (minimal)
- Apache Ant
This was a two month contract, and it was a fun one. I was lucky enough to be referred by an old client/friend of mine to intern at IBM. This was an amazing opportunity to explore and learn about how this mega corporation operates, and I was greatly amazed by the kindness and intelligence of IBM-ers.
I was hired to code a plugin to integrate current programs with a system/platform that not a lot of people in the entire Development Lab were familiar with because 1. the platform was provided by a company that IBM acquired not long ago and 2. the documentation was lacking. Because of the amazing environment and amazing people around me, and my ability to rapidly absorb any information and resources I could get my hands on, I was able to complete the plugin in one afternoon which surprised both my teammates and myself.
In the meantime, I was also involved in the core functionality development of Rational Test Workbench Patterns and other things related to IBM PureApplication System and IBM Workload Deployer. Specifically, I developed scripts, a.k.a. patterns, for installing components included in Rational Test Workbench and
licensing them automatically after a virtual machine has been deployed, which enables developers to effortless set up complex testing environments. According to the statistics collected by IBM, the system we were building saves a development team weeks of manual labor.
In between the gaps of each task, I also helped my teammates to optimize and debug a Jenkins automation pipeline and helped made their programs more efficient and reliable.
During the time I spent integrating current systems, I was able to discovered a few critical bugs in the systems and worked with the core
software team across the globe to have those bugs resolved. This prevented a lot of critical issues down the road before the products were shipped.
Overall, it was a really pleasant and enriching experience to work at IBM with so many smart people. Not only did I learn a lot, I also made many friends rather than just colleagues – it was truly life changing and priceless.
References
First-line manager for IBM Rational development team:
Sam was an intern in IBM Rational development team for 2 months in July and August 2013. He was a smart and diligent boy with strong interest on technologies and solid hands-on skills. He learned about the related Rational products in a short time and wrote Shell and Python scripts to finish his work assignments. The amount and quality of his work done as an intern was well recognized by the team. He also demonstrated good interpersonal skills to reach out for help when needed and drive things to the end. He has very good sense of humor and brought a lot of fun to the team during our spare time and team building activities.
Best regards,[Name upon request]
Manager, Rational Workload Patterns Development
IBM China Development Lab (CDL)
Lead developer and senior engineer at IBM Rational development team:
To Whom it May Concern,
I am a development lead located in IBM China Development Laboratories overseeing the development of IBM Software Delivery Lifecycle Patterns. Sam worked as an intern in my team during June and July, 2013. So I had a chance to work very closely with Sam during the two months. I am the right person to write something for whom would like to know more about Sam.
When Sam joined team, we were in the Proof-of-Concept phase of SDLC 1.0.1 release. We were in a very tight release schedule, and we don’t have much time for Sam to learn or to train him. Surprisingly, Sam could understand the concepts of IBM PureApplication System in a very short time, and could start to contribute from the second week. Sam’s job is to develop scripts to install and configure Rational Test Workbench, to lookup Rational License Key Server shared service. Almost everytime I gave Sam a task, Sam could exceed my expectations, with less time and high quality. I was impressed with his strong technical skills and the ability to solving problems. Many of his designs and codes have finally go into the SDLC product o ffering.
Sam is also team player. He showed good communication skills when worked with ageo (Sam’s note: I think he meant agile because we were practicing agile methods) distributed world wide team. He is always willing to giving help to others. Everyone feels it is pleasant experience working with him. I would highly recommend Sam for the job he applies. He is solid contributor, and could always add value to the team. I believe he is the person you don’t wanna miss.
Thanks!
Best Regards,
Dr. [Name upon request],
Rational Workload Team, IBM China Development Laboratories (CDL)