Garima Singh: How a Virtual Internship Fosters a Global Culture

As the world transitions to a new normal, Nasdaq’s annual internship program is too. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we have turned circumstance into a learning opportunity for interns joining us this year to participate in meaningful and long-term projects.

In the Nasdaq Futures Internship Program, we offer a variety of professional experiences for emerging talent through an immersive 10 to 12-week virtual internship program. From Stockholm to the U.S., meet few of the bright minds joining us digitally from all around the world. They are playing integral, hands-on roles to help Nasdaq #RewriteTomorrow. Today, we speak with Garima Singh, Software Development intern, Web Properties Team at Nasdaq.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your position.

I am Garima Singh, currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in computer science and engineering from National Institute of Technology, Patna, India. I am working as a Software Development intern in the Web Properties and the Global Web Services Team of Nasdaq. I am surrounded by a dynamic group of brilliant-minded people who manage everything that goes on nasdaq.com and its subsidiary websites. So far, I've worked alongside the team in carrying out the Notification Service project for news and insights, and stock symbols. I've helped ideate use cases, user stories, architectural designs and worked upon maintaining scalability throughout this process for providing a hassle-free experience to millions of users that visit our site every day. Ultimately, my role at Nasdaq is to drive more user base on our website.

What is your favorite project you've worked on thus so far, or one that you're looking forward to?

It's really difficult to pinpoint my most favorite project so far, but the Notification Service project I am working on as a Nasdaq intern is extremely diverse and impactful. It has opened my eyes to various business needs and compliances we have to follow apart from the technical understanding. Every second spent on this project helps me gain new insights to how technology components work at a deeper level. I am getting to learn latest technologies and languages like Apache Kafka and Golang as a contributor to this project. We are framing user stories based on quantitative data (user visits per month and click rates) and qualitative analysis (UI/UX journey of users, integration to various web browsers and communication of the right content to users), which makes it one of my most interesting projects so far. The primary tools and programming languages I work with in my role are JavaScript, Golang, Databases, Kafka, Version Control System, Confluence and Jira. Daily stand-ups conducted in the morning are really amazing as they help each member of the team to stay on the same page. My hope is that we are able to create an end-to-end notification service application and integrate it with various browsers, thus leaving an impact after the summer is over. 

What about Nasdaq stood out the most, now that you are part of the global team?

Nasdaq is a fast-paced and dynamic company of vision, which upholds the capacity to change the status of global markets, to say the least. It is remarkable to experience the Futures Internship program of 2021 in a virtual setup. We had beautiful onboarding sessions where we got to meet the site leaders, played fun games and got to know about security, social media branding, etc. This helped us to get comfortable with our managers and fellow interns. The thing that stands out most about Nasdaq is that the people here stimulate individual problem-solving and creativity in interns, while being so communicative and assistive at the same time. Working doesn't feels like working anymore, and that's exactly what I wanted my professional career to be like. The pool of people we have here are so dedicated and talented in their own realm with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Everyone is open and willing to share what they do and work upon in Nasdaq. Every week, we attend several meetings with different parts of the team like Quality Assurance, Scrum masters, Product Managers etc., which gives us the discernment of the intricacies carried out in different business units to pull off a final feature or product in the end. We are no longer limited to a single office or team. This virtual Internship offers us to connect with Nasdaq employees around the globe. The fact that as interns, we will get to attend sessions by our CEO, Adena and other senior leaders of the company later in July stands out the most.

How is this Internship supporting your goals long term?

Building hackathon projects and personal applications during my college life, scalability, system design, production and architecture were mere terms for me that were hardly touched during technical interviews. I am learning a lot about these and more as a Nasdaq intern. Every day, we work on something meaningful and learn new things which make each day extremely fulfilling. My long-term goals include meeting and interacting with new people, surrounding myself with a company that enables me to be "me" and try new exciting things everyday. Nasdaq's Internship program has provided me with an invaluable work experience that encourages me to do all this and so much more. As a Web Properties Intern, I feel that my work is quite dynamic as I get to manage the components directly on the homepage of nasdaq.com. It feels enriching to be actually carrying out development that will change the user experience of our website. I can't wait to dive deeper into the systems architecture and build new functionalities for the team. I have a strong interest in pursuing a career in software development and explore different industry domains where latest tools and technologies can be introduced to create something impactful. I take pride in saying that Nasdaq supports my long-term goals by introducing tech to empower people economically across the globe.

What is your goal as a #NasdaqFam intern?

Nasdaq is a leader in financial markets and technology innovations. It's surreal to be a part of an impactful company working with talented individuals with fresh perspectives and focused energy, as a senior in college. As a #NasdaqFam intern, my goal is to cater whatever theoretical and practical knowledge I have gained so far, to our project. I want to create a long-lasting professional relationship with my co-interns that enables us to grow and learn together. I believe that whatever I bring to the table as an intern helps people here remember me for my work. I hope to help drive my team to a complete, robust pilot implementation of our project through meticulous code development, quality assurance, testing and documentation. For my holistic development, I hope to equip myself to a fast-paced, ever-changing agile work environment, something we aren't usually taught as a student. This adaptability is an amazing asset to take away as an intern, and will help me sustain my future job endeavors like a breeze.

What advice would you give to future Nasdaq interns?

The sole purpose of an internship is to gain a short insight to your professional career ahead of time. The best part about Nasdaq is that everyone is so approachable. This gives us interns the benefit of asking questions and maintaining contact with our mentors even in this virtual setup. Before joining Nasdaq, I hardly had any knowledge about the financial business, stocks, IPOs etc., but I took my time to understand this fast-paced industry. As a Web Properties intern, I knew it would become easier to get into my internship project if I understood how the market works. Take your time to understand how things function and what you contribute to in the bigger picture. You'll come across tons of opportunities as an intern. Grab each one of them or create your own. It's up to you to #RewriteTomorrow. Volunteer for any assignment that lands on your desk, specially ones that are up your alley. I advise all interns to be curious, set goals for each day, and make these 2 months worth it by going "above and beyond." We all have a lot to aspire to, given the fact that the Nasdaq CEO started her career as an intern at Nasdaq. 

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

Other Topics

Careers