Why Interning at Levo Was Key to My Success

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Bhavya Garlapati

August 30, 2022 · 2 min read

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As an undergraduate student, a key learning experience to succeed in the career industry is landing an engaging internship. That’s why after my first year of studying information technology at the University of Washington, I chose to explore the cybersecurity industry with Levo.

I came into this summer role as a cybersecurity intern with some general cyber security knowledge from a cyber warfare class I took in school, some coding skills, and a passion to learn through experience. Many say intern experience is done through meaningless “backend” work without impact, but this was not true for Levo. First off, they were flexible on the types of projects they offered and let me choose which ones to pursue. I had options varying from development, design, security, and testing, all of which were impactful. Levo is all about catering to what the intern wants to learn, and they prioritize learning over just finishing backend tasks.

My first project was to become familiar with Levo’s software and product by creating API’s and testing their product. I had never built API’s before, but learned and built off my current coding knowledge with the help of company members and resources. I chose to use AWS Console Services and the AWS API Gateway to build them. When I presented my demo, I learned that at that stage, Levo had not tested their services to export from the AWS API Gateway yet. As I was the first to try this, they had me write a tutorial article (my first article ever) to further spread the software’s compatibility with AWS users and customers. My supervisors asked me to write the article, and were very supportive while giving me feedback and promoting my writing.

Levo’s team is a tight knit community full of teammates from varying backgrounds and skills. As one of two interns this past summer, I always felt and was treated as if I was an equal member of the team, and not just an extra in the background. I knew the work they were giving me was meaningful and would grow not only my knowledge but also would directly add to their services.

For the last few weeks of the internship I was able to learn more about Levo’s security measures and further strengthen their product. I had never used or implemented these types of security tools before, so I closely worked with a Levo Security Researcher for weeks to learn about the procedures. This start to finish learning experience was a clear demonstration of how Levo prioritizes their interns’ success and understanding through hands-on demonstrations and personalized teaching. I greatly appreciate the mentors who helped me complete this project and many more. Levo team members are always eager to help and are communicative all day, every day.

My summer with Levo helped me grow personally, gaining new skills in team work and professional work relations. I also of course gained a better understanding of the cyber security industry, built a new network, and a skill baseline for the future. But most importantly, I gained a new perspective of being a part of a company looking to simplify the future of security with their project. Being a part of their developmental stage was insightful in many areas of experience.

So, I would advise everyone to take the opportunity and do an internship, whether it’s at Levo or wherever your career path desires, just make sure the company values its interns just as much as Levo does. There is much to gain from on both a professional and personal level from industry experience.