High Tech Internship Pays Off for Mongolian Student
Enkhbold Dashdondog dreamed of finding an IT job in the United States. A unique partnership between GGU and Silicon Valley helped him thrive.
In Mongolia, Enkhbold Dashdondog’s IT career took him into the rapid-paced banking, financial, retail, and energy worlds. He loved his life in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital city, where he lived with his family. But when his career hit a plateau, he yearned to expand his knowledge, gain new skills, and grow professionally. He took a bold risk when he applied to Golden Gate University’s MS in Information Technology Management—a graduate program on the other side of the world.
Enkh couldn’t support his entire family in the expensive Bay Area, so he settled in Folsom, California with his two daughters, while his wife stayed behind in Ulaanbaatar with his son where costs are lower. This tumultuous transition was hard on his daughters, enrolled in middle and high schools in Folsom where it was difficult for them to communicate with new classmates. Enkh commuted from Folsom to GGU for his ITM classes.
“The first people I met at GGU were the staff at the Hub. They helped me with everything from navigating the school to assisting me with my visa documents. Supportive professors worked with me one-on-one, lending me books from their shelves to help me learn more about technologies and sharing their experiences,” said Enkh.
Silicon Valley Partnership
During his final year in the ITM program, Enkh landed a life-changing internship opportunity with MetricStream, a Palo Alto software company in the Governance, Risk Management, and Compliance arena that had formed a partnership with GGU.
MetricStream’s initiatives focus on edge computing, which moves computation away from large data centers toward decentralized locations, allowing companies to save money by processing data locally while improving efficiency and speed. It’s part of a bold effort to create next-generation, high performance solutions that ensure data security and privacy for businesses.
A conversation MetricStream Chief Innovation Officer Vidya Phalke had with GGU led to a partnership with GGU and its students.
“I said, can you use our data analytics and IT Management students, and we ended up in the edge computing business,” recalled Judith Lee, professor in the School of Business.
Edge Computing Opportunity
At MetricStream, Enk joined a team responsible for building a novel edge computing environment at the company’s headquarters. The project’s main objective is to run business analytics applications to test out emerging technology solutions that put MetricStream’s clients ahead of the curve.
“Our team is building the edge computing hardware environment and the software stack, which includes the zero touch and self-managed containerized applications, container engine, operating system, and database,” Enkh explained. “Containerization, a major software development trend, involves bundling applications with related configuration files, libraries, and dependencies. At MetricStream I gained hands-on experience with containerization, something new I didn’t have the opportunity to do in the past.”
Cross-Program Collaboration
A unique feature of the internship is the collaboration it fosters across GGU programs. Enkh collaborated with four other GGU students in IT Management, Business Analytics, and Doctor of Business Administration programs.
“It’s a great experience with teamwork, technical skills, management, and overall collaboration with multifunctional experts,” said Ila, another ITM student interning with MetricStream.
In November, Enkh realized his ambition: a full-time job in his field. He was thrilled to accept a backend development position with Retailpro, a software company in Folsom.
“The MetricStream project was a great opportunity to learn the business culture of a U.S. company and gain experience using new and exciting technologies.”
“Prior to coming to GGU, I only had IT experience in Mongolia. The MetricStream project was a great opportunity to learn the business culture of a U.S. company and gain experience using new and exciting technologies,” said Enkh.
But Enkh’s proudest accomplishment is reuniting his family. Thanks to his new position, Enkh is going to bring his wife and son to Folsom to live with him and his two daughters, who have now adjusted to a new life in a foreign country.
“As an international student I was competing against candidates with local experience. MetricStream helped me bridge that gap.”
