It started with an email, sent out to students of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (DECE) by senior lecturer Dr Akash Pooransingh. It was a call for applications for a space in the prestigious internship programme run by Goldman Sachs in the UK, a global investment banking, securities and investment management group.
Around the world, similar emails were being sent, and students from all over were beginning the painstaking process of applying.
“I actually wasn’t going to apply,” said Rebecca Gibbon, who was a student in the department at the time. “On the last day of the deadline, my friends got together and said— no, you’re applying. So, imagine if I didn’t!”
Rebecca, along with fellow DECE student Anjana Valsalan, were two of many who went through the detailed process, starting with submitting information and an essay. They made it to the second step — a technical challenge on a site called HackerRank, testing their ability to solve problems with programming and mathematical knowledge.
One Zoom interview later, both students were accepted into the internship programme, being the only interns from the Caribbean to enter the 2022 cohort. Their next hurdle would be getting their visa documents together to head to the UK in the midst of a wave of immigration as conflict escalated in the Ukraine.
“We ended up having to start the internship two weeks later than all the other interns,” said Anjana. “It was an intense situation to be in.”
Jumping in on team projects that had already begun meant the two, who were now flatmates, had a lot of catching up to do.
“We found a place [to live] on Wednesday. We flew out Friday. We arrived Saturday, and then we started work on Monday,” said Rebecca.
And, as they acclimatised to the internship, they were simultaneously learning from scratch a whole new programming language from the ones they had previously been exposed to at The UWI.
Despite the hiccups at the start, both Anjana and Rebecca were able to have an enriching experience in the programme.
“Knowing that I was able to create a tool with my fellow interns that would actually be used within Goldman Sachs was really, really cool,” said Anjana.
With both of them having an extra two weeks after the other interns had already left, they were able to get the full experience of the programme, with Rebecca staying on full-time at Goldman Sachs and Anjana returning home with an offer to work with Guardian Group, where she is currently. For both of them, this was a chance to work in the field they are truly passionate about.
Where did this passion come from? For Anjana, it was a childhood interest in puzzle-solving that led to the world of programming. For Rebecca, that spark was lit by Sci-Fi and robotics. They both came from families working in that sphere, with Anjana’s father being a mechanical engineer and Rebecca’s being an electrician. But, as women entering into a male-dominated environment, they had to forge their own path.
As more and more women enter into the many worlds of engineering, Rebecca and Anjana had similar words of advice for those who follow in their footsteps — don’t be afraid to try.
“Put yourself out there,” said Anjana. “Don’t think that you might not be good enough... You never know what you would be good at, but if you try, you’ll get a better idea.”
Rebecca similarly urged young prospective students, especially women, not to give up or be intimidated working in these fields. “It’s not a man’s world - it’s just as much a woman’s world.”
