MUM Student Intern Wins Amazon Award
MUM Student Intern Wins Amazon Award
In professional sports, top performing first-year athletes receive a lot of public attention. In the IT industry, Amazon has a top “rookie” performer in Amarbayar (Amar) Amarsanaa.
In his first year working for Amazon Fulfillment Technologies DevOps (Development Operations) team, Amar was named “Associate of the Month” in recognition of his contribution to, and impact on one of the Software Development Engineer (SDE) teams he was supporting when he reduced their operating issues by 86%. He also was promoted to DevOps IV!
According to Amar, “Operational excellence is something my employer takes seriously, as we (Amazon) continue to strive to be the earth’s most customer-centric company. We don’t stop at just innovating, building and launching — but we also make sure our services are optimized, efficient, reliable, available and accurate. In executing these plans, we identify manual, repetitive work and take the initiative to automate it to save our and others’ time.”
Recently, Amar teamed up with another engineer on his team to automate the process of data consolidation, which had been done manually by engineers. This automated process is now used by engineers, SDE teams and managers to drive their teams’ service operational excellence. The automation saves 2-3 hours per engineer, per week, and it is widely used by 12+ teams, and counting. During the October 2016 organization meeting, including teams from the US, Canada and India, Amazon leadership recognized their effort, and awarded Amar and his colleague the honorable, “Operational Excellence” award. Quite an honor for a “rookie!”
International Educational Background
Amar has always enjoyed traveling. He left his native Mongolia at 14 to attend an English-speaking high school in Poland, and later enrolled in a U.S. university where he graduated on the Dean’s List with a bachelor’s degree in computer science. The university President named him Outstanding Student of the Year. During this time he also excelled in playing piano and guitar.
After college, Amar was named Employee of the Year at a software company in North Dakota, and won a photography award. As the following photos illustrate, Amar is a talented and accomplished photographer with a sense of humor!
Later, while studying in a graduate computer networking program in Korea, he learned about the MUM Master’s in Computer Science. Amar was attracted by the curriculum, healthful diet and quality living conditions at MUM.
Academics at MUM
Amar applied to our Computer Professionals (ComPro) Program and began classes at MUM in June 2014, where he also became a resident advisor, and Computer Science representative to the MUM student association.
According to Amar, “The quality of the education offered in the ComPro program is outstanding. Not only do the faculty have remarkable industry backgrounds, but they are always up-to-date on the newest technologies, so that students can be assured they are learning the best from the best.
In addition, team projects bring up a great opportunity for students to collaborate, solve real-world problems, present their solutions to meet extremely high requirements imposed by the professors — and at the end of the day, we come out with solid project experience, which helps in finding internships.”
Life on the MUM Campus
“Academically, the ComPro program sets high standards for its students. To support total student development, MUM provides a very comfortable and healthful living environment, so that students can take on the challenges of academic life when they are at their best. People talk about work-life balance, and I feel that the balance of academic work and life at MUM was perfect… this is what I enjoyed the most about living at MUM.”
Benefits of learning the Transcendental Meditation® Technique
“Another reason I chose MUM was the opportunity of doing the Transcendental Meditation technique (TM). TM is one of the fundamentals on which the university was built. It is a simple mental technique that relieves stress, improves thinking and creativity, and increases your energy level. I have a high respect for it. The biggest benefit of TM for me is that it helps me relax, and then have sharper focus on complex issues, resulting in comprehensive and satisfying solutions without stress,” says Amar.
Internship at Amazon & Life in the Seattle Area
After completing eight months of on-campus courses in Fairfield, Iowa, Amar was hired in 2015 to do his Curricular Practical Training (CPT) internship as a DevOps Engineer with Amazon Fulfillment Technologies in Seattle, Washington. He enjoys living in the Pacific Northwest, where he pursues his passion for natural outdoor environments, working out, photography, music, and social involvement in worthy causes.
Advice for Other Software Engineers
Amar enjoyed his time on our campus: “There are so many advantages at MUM. I feel extremely lucky and privileged to have had the opportunity to be a part of it: Low upfront cost, outstanding academic program, remarkable faculty and staff, opportunity to work with skilled professionals from other countries, a dedicated career strategies class (resume reviews, interview preps, mock-up interviews, job searching techniques), internal job fair network, organic meals, comfortable living environment, sports facilities, events, activities and clubs. And most notably, 99% placement rate for internships!”
“Therefore, I would definitely advise students and working professionals from around the world to take advantage of this great opportunity. Check out the admissions requirements, make sure you meet or exceed the requirements, and apply!
Be prepared to get challenged and be prepared to embrace all the positive outcomes you will get from the ComPro program. Also, for success at MUM and in the US, you need very good English skills!”
Future Plans
“I plan to continue developing myself personally and professionally. In addition to growing at Amazon, I hope to impact the world using technology to solve day-to-day problems that people face, and possibly starting a company with friends and/or business partners.”
“I will also continue participating in the same non-profit areas that I am part of today, to help the next generations of Mongolians achieve their personal and professional goals through coaching and mentoring. ”
Additional Appreciation
“I will be graduating this December. It has been a dynamic and rewarding ride since I became a ComPro student. One of my favorite courses was Advanced Software Development with Dr. Guthrie, because it has helped tremendously in my professional work.”
“I will be forever thankful for everyone I have met during my student life at MUM. I have made some wonderful, life-long friends in the beautiful natural MUM environment, and hope to participate in the commencement next spring to reconnect with my fellow ComPro students, faculty and friends. I will continue upholding the name of MUM and will always be a proud ComPro alumnus!”
Amar would like to thank his parents for their tireless and continuous support in every moment of his life, and for raising him to be who he is today. “Thanks mum and thanks dad!”
Note: Amar works at Amazon and the postings on this page are his own and don’t necessarily represent Amazon’s position.
