Picture of Krishnan Iyer at NASDAQ
I was featured on the Nasdaq Towers in Times Square.

Name:  Krishnan Iyer
Major:  PM - Cybersecurity
Employer:  NASDAQ
Location:  New York, NY

How did you find the internship/co-op? What was the interview process like?   I found the internship opportunity at the University of Maryland career fair where Nasdaq had an opening for the IT Auditor Intern position. I got to interact with the representatives of the Nasdaq's talent acquisition team and express my interest for the role and relate my professional experience. I was more than delighted to get an interview opportunity with the Nasdaq Internal Audit team. It was a one-day interview with a couple of rounds with the seniors in the department and they were really pleased with my technical skillset and professional experience. The interview was very smooth and professionally conducted and I was able to answer all their questions with perfection. After discussion with the Nasdaq team, I got the offer and was onboarded six months prior to the internship start date!

What have been the most interesting aspects of your internship?  The co-op work experience enhanced my skills in continuous audit engagements across various cloud platforms, Identity and access management and security assessments. I was assigned responsibilities to lead the cloud assessments and engage with critical stakeholders to conduct the audit and evaluate its results.  I was featured on the Nasdaq Towers in Times Square.

What campus activities or courses do you think helped you, or would have helped you, with this internship?  Courses like Cloud Security, Information assurance, penetration testing and security tools in information security along with my certifications and past work experience helped set the foundation during my internship followed by co-op work responsibilities.

In fact, the online and offline career fair also helped me secure interviews with other companies and within a few weeks I had more than one offer letter in my hand!

How have your career or academic goals changed as a result of this internship experience?  I am now working full time with Nasdaq as a Technology Auditor on completion of my co-op work experience. This opportunity will not only shape my career in this industry when it comes to taking up major responsibilities and decision making roles but it also encourage me to achieve future accolades for myself and the organization.

What advice would you give other UMD engineering students seeking an internship or co-op position?  I would highly recommend continuing to develop your own skillset rather than competing to reach a particular goal. It is the process that gives you confidence and knowledge, the goal is nothing but a sense of satisfaction and victory. My advice would be to go beyond the courses offered at school, get involved in research, get certified and try learning beyond the scope of the internship program. The industry is vast, and it takes patience and effort to explore different technical domains, and this is something I followed, leading me to intern at Nasdaq.

 


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