During the summer, I started on an incredible journey of learning and growing into the professional world as an intern. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Anitha Kona, and as a computer graduate student, I have always looked forward to using my theoretical knowledge in a practical setting. I am excited to share my incredible experience as a summer intern at Broadcom. Over the past few months, I had the privilege of diving into the world of computer technology, working with industry experts, learning more about the IT industry, and immersing myself in day-to-day operations. This post highlights my journey, the project I worked on, and the valuable lessons acquired along the way.

I was excited at the start of my internship. A warm welcome from my manager, buddy, and other team members helped me to settle in and get acquainted with the environment.

The Project That Shaped Me:

Throughout my internship, I worked on the “Modularity and Configuration Improvements of Automated Regression Testing” project. The main objective of this project was to bring the regressions into a more modern framework with the use of Jenkins and the PTG2 infrastructure, which gives the developers or teams the ability to setup the environment and submit batch regression jobs.

During this project, improvements are made to the regression system in a way that users can configure it within a file or environment variables that Jenkins can access before running the jobs. When a job is submitted, it is submitted to the system in the form of a JCL template by the script, which reads the job data from the JSON file and then passes the data to the templates when rendering.                                  

                                              _{Job card template}

The value of the location attribute ‘Job123’ is read by the script and passes to the {{jobname }} of the jobcard template and is included into the jobcard.tmpl of the JCL template as below. 

                          _{Jobname read from the JSON file}

A pipeline job is created in Jenkins to configure the environment variables which are substituted when the build runs.

                                                                           _{CI/CD Pipeline in Jenkins}

The technical skills used for this is the Python scripting language, PTG2 which is a Python library installed in a Python environment that has capabilities to access mainframe z/OS subsystems. We are making use of the JES subsystem to run the template JCL batch jobs against an internal proprietary system. Jinja3, a Python library that allows us to build templates. A JSON file, a text-based format for representing structured data, provides the input to the template system. Jenkins which makes it easy for the developers to continuously work in an automated fashion. This project allowed me to apply my coding skills and gain knowledge about JCL, TSO/ISPF, SYSVIEW and how the Agile Scrum methodology works in a professional environment.

Mentorship: The Key To Development:

One aspect that made my internship truly exceptional was the mentorship I received. My buddy guided me through the problem solving process, providing insightful advice, feedback, and encouragement. Regular one-on-one meetings helped me in identifying areas for improvement and gave me a sense of direction for my future career path.

Learning Opportunities:

To summarize my knowledge about mainframes, a mainframe is a server that runs machine critical applications. The Mainframe is well known for reliability, securability, and high transaction throughput. It also delivers tremendous value to the company and has the ability to integrate into the modern environment. I gained an insight into how Broadcom is modernizing in order to provide a consistent, user-friendly and flexible design system for the customers, by employing an in-house system. I got an opportunity to gain knowledge and learn about Rally, JCL, and TSO/ISPF commands by attending the training provided by my buddy and other team members.

Conclusion:

My summer internship with Broadcom was a remarkable experience that developed my passion for technology and honed my skills as a software  developer. I want to express my gratitude for this incredible opportunity to be a part of such an inspiring company. I want to extend my sincere thanks to my manager, who always made an environment comfortable to seek guidance, allowed questions to be asked without any hesitation. I am also grateful to my buddy for his support, guidance, and knowledge imparted to me during this time and to the team members for their encouragement and the positive work environment. I have gained not only the technical skills but also learned how teamwork, collaboration and communication work in a professional environment.