Spotlight on the Balbix 2021 Internship Program

Summer is one of the most anticipated times of the year at Balbix. It’s not because the days get longer, or because general relaxation sets in after the frenetic pace of the beginning of the year. It’s because every year, we sift through hundreds of resumes, interview dozens of smart and eager candidates, and extend offers to a very select group. Then come May and June, and we welcome our newest batch of interns.

As a startup, why do we have an internship program at all?

We believe that fresh perspectives often lead to inspiration and innovation. Bringing in students who don’t see our company and our industry from the inside every day opens up new opportunities for our technology and product plans. Including interns in brainstorming sessions and encouraging them to speak up in meetings has resulted in numerous million dollar innovations. Year after year, our interns tell us that one of the most rewarding aspects of their Balbix experience has been that our mentors truly practice the “no idea is a bad idea” philosophy and each idea is given its due consideration and thought. 

The other reason why we run an internship program is because we believe that cybersecurity is one of the hardest problems facing us today, one that is not going to get any easier, unless we train and bring in bright, sharp, astute young minds and help them hone their skills. We need our best brains working on addressing the challenges of cybersecurity. 

Meet the 2021 Balbix Interns – Part 1

Without further ado, let’s hear from three interns from our latest group. And watch this space for more intern thoughts coming in the next few weeks!

Chanel Zeng
Rising senior, UC Berkeley

“During my first two weeks interning at Balbix, I have learned so much about industry practices, cybersecurity, and the Balbix platform. I have never been so aware of my vast digital footprint and the transactions I make on the Internet. I am currently working on an automation framework for testing, and it has been rewarding to apply my skills towards this impactful project. I have learned about the Robot Framework, GraphQL, and Pytest, and how to wield these for efficient testing. More generally, I gained a deeper insight into the best practices for writing professional code and digging through a large codebase. This project has emphasized the importance of testing and a test-first mindset when writing or building software; I will definitely prioritize this mindset in my schoolwork and future projects (like in my Computer Security class in the fall :D).”

Krish Gurnani
Rising Senior, North Carolina State University

“I have been working at Balbix for two weeks now, and I am responsible for building and organizing virtual machines with different operating systems. The process of learning how each of these systems worked and being able to configure them accordingly was a great learning opportunity. Now that I have an understanding of the different operating systems, I want to deepen my knowledge by automating them. This internship has given me a chance to work in a professional cybersecurity environment, surrounded by some very smart folks, getting hands-on experience to complement  what I have learned in class and through online tutorials.”

Juan Soberanes
Senior, Western Governors University

“I am doing my bachelors in cyber security. I am also self-taught, due to the nature of my online curriculum. I think Balbix is a wonderful platform to understand an organization’s cybersecurity posture. While I am very familiar with lots of networking analysis tools and protocols, I am looking forward to learning their practical implementation. I hope to understand the Balbix platform and the impact it makes on the enterprise cybersecurity posture through this internship.”