My First 6 Months as a DevOps Intern at IFS: Journey so far
Life at IFS as a DevOps Engineering Intern
Why I’m Writing This Blog:
I’ve been getting a lot of questions on LinkedIn about my internship at IFS especially from people curious about the work environment and what it’s like to be a DevOps intern there. I thought it would be great to write this blog and answer those questions in one place, even though I’ve replied to everyone individually. It’s also been a while since I posted anything, so this is a good opportunity to share my journey so far and reflect on my experiences.
So, this is my story…
How It All Started
My internship at IFS wasn’t something I applied for traditionally. It came through a recommendation from the two interns who had already joined before me (shoutout to them!). Even before my official onboarding, I got an invite to a platform outing, where I met most of the upper management and architects people I’d have probably never gotten a chance to talk to otherwise for a long time since many were from the UK. It was a cool experience to see how approachable everyone was right from the start.
Around the same time, I also joined the volleyball team for Team Hufflepuff (yeah, we had Harry Potter houses!). Before I even stepped into the office for my first day, I was already training with the team. Then came the onboarding, my first visit to the office, and a warm welcome from IFS and our Cloud Engineering team.
Getting Started at Work
Like any corporate job, my first few weeks were filled with onboarding modules learning about company processes, work culture, and expectations. While I was doing that, I also had to juggle volleyball practice for the upcoming sports meet, which was tricky since I was working from home and had to travel to Colombo for the sessions.
Then came my first task: building a system to monitor unwanted branches in GitLab. The idea was to track branches that weren’t deleted and notify team members, ensuring proper branch naming conventions and linking them to ongoing Jira tasks. This also included a way to delete the branches if no action was taken by the branch owner. Oh, and there was also a dashboard involved to keep everything in check. It was a solid introduction to DevOps problem-solving.
Becoming the Unexpected Captain
Fast forward to the sports meet somehow, I found myself appointed as the captain of the volleyball team. It felt kinda crazy because my team had my supervisor/ manager and some seniors who had been at IFS for years. At first, I hesitated to call the shots, but the work culture at IFS made it easy. No one expects you to throw around titles or call them ‘sir’ respect is mutual.
Even though we weren’t the strongest team, we managed to win every match and became champions! To top it off, on the final day of the sports meet, I was awarded Best Player for volleyball. Couldn’t have done it without the team because volleyball is a game of six!
“The view from the top. A scenery I will never be able to see on my own, but if I’m not alone, then… I might be able to see it.” — Shoyo Hinata, Haikyuu!!
Had to throw this in here because if you know you know, and let’s be real Haikyuu!! was a banger
Diving into Projects
The first big initiative I was involved in was Code Promotion Automation (CPA). This was a crucial project to streamline the process of moving code from development to production. I was paired with a Senior Lead DevOps Engineer, which was an amazing opportunity to level up my skills and get a deeper understanding of Cloud Engineering pipelines.
In between working on CPA, I also made progress on my branch monitoring project and did a demo for our team. Then came another project building a dashboard to monitor Azure resources. The goal was to help the management team get a clear view of how resources were being used.
Aside from the hands-on work, I started attending support meetings, where I got insights into how issues are resolved and how Root Cause Analysis (RCA) works. Pretty cool stuff to see the big picture of DevOps in action!
The Social Side of IFS
If I had to sum up the social life at IFS in one word? Lively.
Every Wednesday, when we head to the office, there’s always something happening birthday celebrations, someone returning from a tour, or just an excuse to have cake or some snack. And let’s not forget the pool table on our floor, which adds to the chill work atmosphere.
Then there were the outings laser tag, team dinners, and a recent two-day trip that was a total blast. I don’t think I’ve seen another company do team outings as frequently as we do.
Looking Back
Six months in, and I can say this internship has been more than just work it’s been about learning, growing, and making awesome memories. Whether it’s the projects I’ve worked on, the volleyball championship, or the amazing people I’ve met, it’s been a solid journey so far.
Now, onto the next six months. Let’s see what’s in store!
