Intern Spotlight: Marko Vojvodic

Maggie Gibson
August 28, 2015
#Company

We had the chance to sit down with Marko Vojvodic who is working on integrating MongoDB with Apache Spark.

Where are you from, where do you go to school and what year are you?

My hometown is San Jose, California. I am going to be a senior at University of California, Los Angeles this coming school year.

What activities are you involved with at school?

I am an active member in UCLA ACM, TBP, and Electronic Dance Music Club (EDMC).

What department are you working in this year? Can you describe your project?

I work as part of the Developer Experience team, which includes our drivers and documentation. I am working on a connector that integrates MongoDB with Apache Spark, a cluster computing system for large-scale data analytics.

Why did you choose to intern at MongoDB?

MongoDB is doing awesome things in the database industry. From my interview experience, it also seemed like a great place to work - and it is. I also have always been curious what it’s like living in New York City.

Best thing about the MongoDB office?

The webscale cloud animals.

Favorite intern event?

That’s a tough one. I’d say Scott’s Pizza Tour or trapezing on the Hudson.

What does a typical day look like for you?

I leave for work with my roommate at 8:40 and arrive at 9. I usually eat Mini-Wheats for breakfast with either black tea or coffee. I usually have some meetings around 9:30. After meetings I work until lunch. Lunch is either brought from home (if I was ambitious in the morning), Seamless, or from a restaurant nearby. Then, I play a couple games of ping-pong with other interns. After that, I work until 5:30 or 6, play a couples more games of ping-pong, and head home.

What is your favorite seamless order?

Virgil’s BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich.

What do you love most about MongoDB?

Everyone is genuine and helpful. The projects are challenging and highly valued by the company. I am always learning from my own experiences and from others, and it’s really great being able to do so while building a desired product for the company.

What is the most challenging aspect of your job?

Working with multiple distributed systems is definitely challenging. It’s also interesting learning about the interoperability between Java and Scala.

What is the one thing you couldn’t live without?

Super Smash Bros Melee.

Favorite (secret) spot in NYC?

Great Hill in Central Park. It’s always serene and shady, even on the weekends.

If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I would love to visit Tokyo, Japan.

Favorite App?

Soundcloud (which is powered by MongoDB). You never know what will end up on your stream and I’ve found tons of cool music that way.

Favorite TV show to binge watch?

Archer.

Interested in a career at MongoDB? Check out our careers page or email campus@mongodb.com. MongoDB Careers

About the Author - Maggie Maggie Gibson is a rising senior at Trinity College and the Corporate Communications Intern at MongoDB this summer.

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Intern Spotlight: Maria van Keulen

This year, MongoDB welcomed 34 university students to our intern program in Engineering and Marketing. In this series, we'll introduce you to some of the talented students who are helping us transform development and operations for how we run applications today. We had the chance to sit down with Maria Van Keulen , a returning intern who is working with the CAP Team on Performance Tooling .

August 25, 2015

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Using MongoDB Skill Scanner to Build Better Training Programs

Technology leaders know that transformation is about more than just adopting modern technologies like MongoDB. The entire organization has to rally behind change — which is no easy task. The skills that modern development teams need are evolving faster than ever, and hiring to fill skills gaps can be too time-consuming and expensive of a process for many organizations. So it’s imperative that we plan for how we want to bring our people with us on our modernization journey, and proactively upskill them on the technologies we’re betting on. Because what happens if you choose MongoDB, but your developers don’t know how to use it? CIOs know that training programs are easier said than done. EY reported that 30% of CIOs acknowledge that their training programs are ineffective, and that they’re struggling to retain talent because of it. These leaders come to us to help them build and execute their MongoDB training programs , and seek advice on two extremely common yet critical challenges: How do we get away from the less effective one-size-fits-all approach? How do we measure the ROI of our training program and connect it to business impact? How we use MongoDB Skill Scanner to overcome training challenges Our Professional Services team uses a tool called MongoDB Skill Scanner to address both of these challenges. This tool helps us provide these three benefits to our customers looking to build a training program: Improve MongoDB proficiency: Teams can use Skill Scanner to quickly and easily assess the MongoDB skill gaps of their team members and gain a comprehensive understanding of their team’s MongoDB skills baseline. Increased productivity and accuracy: When team members have a comprehensive understanding of MongoDB, they are able to work more quickly and accurately on projects, leading to increased productivity and a higher quality of work. Save time and money with targeted Training: Using Skill Scanner, customers can avoid wasting time and money on trial-and-error learning. Instead, they can focus on improving their skills in a more targeted and efficient way with right-sized training plans. By leveraging this data, our customers’ engineers can engage in the right training at the right time, targeted for their job role and specific skill shortages. When a training program is built this way, engineers maximize their knowledge retention and minimize time away from their projects. Skill Scanner includes three role-based assessments, one for developers, database administrators, and DevOps respectively. Through a series of multiple choice questions, Skill Scanner provides customers with a clear understanding of their level of expertise across a set of technical skills that are critical for success in their role. After submitting the assessment, engineers will get results in each skill area outlining if they are beginner, intermediate, or advanced. Why data-driven training programs matter We’ve learned that it’s not enough to just tell teams to go watch training videos or webinars on their own, or to place everyone in the same one-size-fits-all program. Skills gaps vary from team to team, and individual to individual. The one-size-fits-all approach of some programs may not address individual learners' needs, wasting time and making it difficult for them to acquire new skills. By using Skill Scanner, we’re able to interpret this data to help determine which training courses your team should take. But we don’t only capture this data before doing training; we use Skill Scanner again after training programs are completed to see where immediate improvements have been made. This helps technology leaders prove the impact and ROI of their training, and gives them the confidence that their teams are ready to be successful with MongoDB. Developing a Precision Learning Program To go even further, our team can work with you to build a Precision Learning Program, where we use Skill Scanner data to build learning schedules that are unique to each individual. These schedules include a variety of short, blended, learning events such as classes, technical workshops, self-paced exercises, and project coaching. We’ve seen PLP lead to higher knowledge retention and of course, measurable project results. A customer who recently concluded their PLP saw a 43% increase in knowledge retention. Getting started building a personalized training program Skill gaps aren’t a novel problem IT leaders are facing. But with new digital courses, training, and technologies, the resources to close these gaps are at your fingertips. Skill Scanner and Precision Learning Program have been specifically designed to empower teams by offering targeted training that enhances their understanding of MongoDB. These short training events are carefully crafted to close skill gaps without compromising developer productivity. We’ve seen a variety of customers use this tool to help train their team’s individual needs, from needing to upskill new hires on their teams, projects with new MongoDB products, migrating to MongoDB Atlas, and more. It also saves your business the hours developers would've wasted searching for answers (and developers don’t want to spend their time that way, either). “We need help getting from point A to point B and feel MongoDB is uniquely positioned to help” — CTO at large insurance firm If you're interested in trying out MongoDB Skill Scanner or want to explore the MongoDB Precision Learning Program further, you can reach out to your account representative or contact us directly .

June 7, 2023