June 4th, 2014, The day I entered the Gates of the World Largest Computing Platform, my dream company “Intel”. Frankly speaking, I was interested in Electronics because of Intel, Even while choosing my Masters I inquired about whether Intel comes for an Internship for the college and accordingly joined my Mtech VLSI program in NIT Warangal.

Our First PC was an Intel Pentium-based Processor which my Father bought around the early 2000s while I was studying 5th standard.

The article will be mostly about how I approached my Internship, how I handled the corporate world for the first time while I was still studying Mtech 2nd Year. I will divide the 12 months internship into 4 quarters and walk you through my journey.

First Quarter ( June 2014 – August 2014)

Almost 50+ interns joined that day along with me. Everyone was welcomed warmly. I met my reporting manager. Our Manager introduced me to two of the tech leads related to our Project. I was supposed to help the team in Blocks Closure doing Physical Design. Then the immediate day I went to my Manager to ask for any work. He told me when did you join? I replied “Yesterday”. He told, ” You need to have patience, the project is currently in critical stage”.

Then I went back and the next day asked our leads if I need to apply for permissions for the project and all. They sent me the email and I followed instructions and got my permissions for the Project. Now comes the block assignment.

How should I ask for any block? After 2 weeks they asked me what did you learn? I told them I practiced Unix commands and TCL ( Tool Command Language).

Then I got introduced to 2 more engineers who had 2+ experience in Physical Design. One of them suggested that I need to learn how to run and understand the ASIC flow so that I will figure out things slowly, this was great advice for me. I somehow got “one” block assigned in my name and started doing Rtl2Gds flow flush.

Later someone suggested, start reading ASIC synthesis by Himanshu Bhatnagar. Simultaneously doing shadow work and reading books that’s how I Managed. I somehow convinced them I can handle one more simple block. So I was able to grab from both 2+ experienced engineers one block each and unofficially I became the block Owner.

I created Solvnet account as advised by my seniors.

• Fallacy1: Usually whether the project is in the critical stage or not, it doesn’t matter for an Intern, Since he needs to grab opportunities and should show his enthusiasm that’s it.

Second Quarter ( Sep 2014 – Nov 2014)

Suddenly one of our experienced engineers was shifted to a new project thereby creating a void. We had an internal meeting where our Manager was asking who would take the responsibilities for his blocks. Our tech lead suggested that Harsha has ramped up really well and he will be taking those PD blocks officially. Now I started working on 3 real-time PD blocks.

Initially, our Manager was worried that giving real work to Interns is very risky. He asked me multiple times whether I can handle 3 blocks are not? I confidently said “YES“.

Since I am now accountable in the Team, I got permission to take my Laptop to my Hostel, which means I can do more practice 😊

My job was pretty simple, whenever a new RTL comes I had a cheat sheet on how to run the RTL2GDS flow and fill the table with numbers. If I see any issues I need to go to RTL engineers to get any update in constraints or if any physical cells are not proper I need to go to Layout Teams, etc. Yes, I am working on the Physical Design of 3 blocks, which I don’t completely understand.

Slowly I started downloading Design Compiler, IC Compiler, PrimeTime UserGuides from Solvnet and started preparing Notes to ensure I can understand my work in a better way. Everyday Morning 9 AM-4 PM I used to interact with our Team and try to learn by observing their work and learn some useful skills in IC design implementation.

Later 4 PM-8 PM, I used to go to Lab and used to read a lot of technical articles and user guides to understand the Tool and Fundamental Concepts and note down important points in my Handwritten Notepads.

After that, I went back to Hostel to have Dinner. Luckily I shared my room with my Mtech Friend who also was doing an Internship at Intel and we had almost similar kinds of jobs so we used to share ideas and he used to help me if I had doubts.

• Fallacy2: When someone assigns you to work, please take the work, and then figure out how to make it work. In any company, you will definitely find talented engineers whom you can leverage. Never say “NO”. Don’t be afraid.
• Fallacy3: Your Manager doesn’t care about whether you do your job by understanding it well or not. They just care about productivity/accountability that’s it.
• Fallacy4: Always be associated with good friends who can motivate and inspire you to work more, this will help you during your struggling days.

Third Quarter ( Dec 2014 – Feb 2015)

This is the most crucial quarter in my entire Internship. Our Project came to the final phase. They call it the ECO phase in VLSI. Our Entire Team was supposed to shift to a long conference Room with our Monitors and Laptops and would need to stay there for 3 months till the Tapeout. In Industry, people call it “Dungeon Room” or “War Room”.

I was the only Intern allowed inside that room the reason is simple since I have 3 blocks in my Name, I have created dependency in our Team. Hence my work matters to them.

I continued my learning by going through Synopsys articles and User manuals on one side and on the other side my usual job was to implement ECOs given by STA engineers and work on EM/IR/LVS/DRC issues. Yes, I could not even write a simple Timing ECO at that time 😭 but I stuck on how to run the ASIC flow and escalate any unusual errors/warnings with our Leads.

If any constraints issues I used to take the SDC updates from RTL and run multiple experiments to ensure my blocks are properly signed off. Even though there was a lot of pressure on me, I just showed up when it really mattered. I got a good name in the entire team for my Aggressive attitude and helping our Team in tough times. We finished the Tapeout and was a huge sigh of relief for all of us.

Fallacy5: When things matter the most, you are not supposed to escape or leave your team by giving excuses like I am after all an Intern. The only way to have Everlasting memories with your Leads or Managers is for you to show up during tough times. They will remember you and your work forever.

Fallacy6: In Most Companies, there will be situations where you may not be able to complete the task assigned to you. You will have two options either you take help from others and solve it or give up your work to others. I would suggest you keep the ownership with you and take help from your seniors. Most of the seniors are very helpful in my opinion.

Fourth Quarter ( Mar 2015 – May 2015)

Since I was exhausted, For few days I took Vacation and returned back. Now I am again kind of jobless. I thought I will get permanent in the same Team where I did my Internship. However, I was not lucky since there were no openings in our Group. I had to start searching for Full-Time jobs.

I went to my senior Manager ( currently working as Director in Intel) asking for help and I told him that my family’s financial situation is Very Bad and I need to be Bread Winner for my Family to make our ends meet. He assured me to get me a Job.

I used to go to him with few Job ID’s daily and he personally used to email other group’s Managers that I deserve a chance for being Interviewed. Every time he introduced me to Others as “Star Performer” ( A title which I still protect till today).

My First level Manager asked me to support one more project which was short of engineers since I had the bandwidth to work on a new project for another 2 months I said “Yes, I Will Support”. Until my Internship ended, I used to support the neighboring Physical Design Team.

Parallelly as any Fresher, I used to send my resumes to a lot of people on Linkedin, Of course, No one used to reply, I went for few interviews outside somehow it didn’t go well. Even inside Intel, I had two failed interviews. Finally, I got a job in Intel Graphics Team.😊

Just to give you a feel of how many notes I prepared during my 12-month internship Below is a screenshot of my Notes. My Hand used to pain a lot during those days, But I had no option rather than to do genuine Hard Work and being Honest.

(Mtech 1st year vs Mtech 2nd Year (Internship))

During my last day, I went and said Bye to all of my lovely TeamMates. My Senior Manager stood up and almost walked me to the exit door. He gave only one career advice to me. He suggested me to not get a Bad Name to your previous Team while working with my New Team.

My Team Lead almost walked to the Parking space along with me and gave a proper Sendoff. These tiny things may not matter for everyone, but it means a lot to me. Good colleagues made me What I am Today.

This is my Internship Story, a 23yr Old Youngster with his Grit, Persistence, Insane hard work handled a Critical Project at one end and Family problems at another end to emerge as a Winner and it would not have been possible without unbelievable support from my friends, family, and Colleagues. After that, I went on to do much more exciting Projects in Intel as a way to show my Gratitude towards my first Opportunity provider.

Hope is a good thing. Maybe even the best of things and good things never die.

All the best for your successful career. See you at the Top.

Regards

Sriharsha Pudi