Interns in the spotlight: Software Engineer and Sustainability Warrior
How do we bring fresh talent into the industry, and what does it take to succeed at Johnson Controls? This Intern Day, we put a few of our trusty interns in the hot seat and find out what drew them to the industry, and what makes them tick.
Shashwat Sahai is one of our software engineering interns based in India. An eco-conscious individual, he was drawn to Johnson Controls as it provided an opportunity to use his skills to help fight climate change.
What do you do at work?
I was asked to create a micro-service based on a unified architecture communication protocol to interact with the sensors and devices installed in a building. I used Python with Linux (Ubuntu) as my main language for the development and Docker for the shipping and deployment part. I also helped with some small automation tasks by writing Python scripts.
Why did you choose to work with Johnson Controls?
I like to think that the era of industrial revolution and big polluting machinery has passed, and the next revolution will come in terms of sustainability with eco-friendly technology at its forefront. If there’s one big problem I could solve, it would be the carbon emissions, global warming and pollution issue, with the help of sustainable technology. Johnson Controls, with their environmentally-conscious practices and development in sustainable tech, provided me an opportunity to help me achieve this.
What is the biggest surprise / challenge that you've faced in your internship so far?
The biggest challenge for me as an intern who is still in his final semester of college was to adapt to the industrial standards and best practices of programming while producing consistent output. As a student working on personal projects, I never realized the importance of writing clean, standardized and modular code which can be understood and reused by others as well.
What's your favorite thing about the work here?
It’s the people. I was lucky to have great teammates and seniors. These people helped me every time I was stuck on the silliest of doubts and guided me throughout my internship. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of them. So, thank you guys for showing me your great support, patience, knowledge and believing in me.
Any advice for future interns?
Consistency. It’s great to show up and solve a problem one day. It’s much better to do it every single day. Also, I would suggest not to be afraid of adapting to a new technology or learn a new language or change your programming style for a new project. It’s all a learning process and the more things you try, the more you’ll learn and the more you’ll have to thank yourself for later down the line.
What are some of your hobbies when you're not hard at work?
Usually after work, I like to cook something nice to eat for myself. I also like to practice music and read books.