My One45 Software Internship Experience

Jason Smith
Sep 5, 2018 · 4 min read

Hey guys! My name is Jason, and I just finished my Software Development Co-op placement at One45 for one year and I thought I would share my awesome experience.

“Today, One45 is working at being a global force in medical education technology”

My first day on the job I walked into our old office located in the well known vintage neighbourhood of Vancouver called Gastown. I was really nervous at first, but I quickly came to realize that everyone in the office was super friendly and outgoing after introducing myself. Mike, who was my mentor during my time at One45 sat me down and helped me get set up with my MacBook Pro and dual screen monitors. After getting set up, he told me I would get to start working on development right off the bat. In my head I was thinking “holy sh*t I’m not ready for this!” but this was honestly the greatest learning experience ever!

Gastown Vancouver

Fast Forward

After four months of working here, we moved into our beautiful new office located in Waterfront, Downtown Vancouver. During this time we started to transition into another project on my team which focused on creating a handy tool for student reports, so it felt like a brand new internship itself!

Watching the FIFA World Cup in our new office

I originally applied to One45 because I wanted to learn about a market I am unfamiliar with (medical education management). I was surprised to see how interesting this field was. Not only was the business logistics intriguing, but the technology stack we used was actually quite fun to work with as well. I’ve never worked with PHP or the Symfony Framework before, but after the development experience I got from One45, I can confidently say that I have gained an optimal understanding of this technology stack.

Company Culture

There is nothing else that makes work better than the people you work with. One45 is unique, by that I mean that there is a niche set of companies out there that are able to put the words “fun” and “hard work” together into it’s working environment. I always imagined the software development working environment to enact the typical sit at your desk, do your work, eat your lunch and leave for 8 hours a day 5 days a week, but I was wrong. Everyone at One45 knows that if were going to spend half of our life working here, we’re going to make sure that we enjoy it! Speaking of that, you are also given the chance to work remotely if necessary, but there are some exceptions like working outdoors in another country, as you can see below.

Working remotely in Hawaii

From coffee walks, playing darts, beer Fridays and company outings, One45 has it all! Although we do spend a lot of time having fun at work, we all still live by the company value “Get er done”.

The Mentorship

Working through difficult problems was never an issue during my time here, any pondering questions I had would be answered in reasonable time if I were to post in our slack channel. Oftentimes I would ask my desk mates if it was a quick question, but of course you learn best by working through problems yourself first. After I gained enough experience, I was given the opportunity to mentor one of our co-op students and two senior developers myself!

Conclusion

One45 Software was my first internship, but hearing words from my fellow friends that have completed other internships, this place will offer a surreal experience unlike any other. My internship was only supposed to last 8 months but I decided to stay an extra 4 because I felt there was still so much to learn. All in all, if you’re looking for an internship that gives you endless learning opportunities, One45 will give you the opportunity to build your skillset in any area of expertise such as developing API’s and optimizing queries all the way to running meetings or company wide presentations.

One45 Company Lunch

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