My First Internship at Checkr
How it all started
Last January I graduated from the Flatiron School, a full stack web developer bootcamp program, which was a radical change from my former role as an interpreter/translator in Russia. Like many of my fellow graduates at the time, I was terrified and awed by the very thought of having to interview in such a highly competitive environment as the Bay Area.
The job search proved to be a tough nut to crack. However, after three months of searching, applying, and writing hundreds of cover letters, I interviewed with Checkr, a San Francisco based startup, whose mission is to modernize the background screening process and make it more fair. Their mission resonated with me, and I felt the fact that they cared about people and the community really set them apart in the tech world. I enjoyed meeting with their team and shortly after, I was invited to participate in the summer internship program and got the proverbial “foot in the door.”
Cool things I did and learned
One of the most exciting things about interning at a tech company, especially a startup, is that you get a chance to write actual code and be a part of the day-to-day operations like any of the full-time Software Engineers on the team. Immediately after I started, I was assigned some ramp-up tasks for my first week, including fixing bugs in production and adding small features. I was also able to work on increasing the test coverage for the codebase, which gave me a good chance to familiarize myself with Checkr’s technical stack, internal procedures, and the product itself.
Two weeks into the internship, I shifted my focus to planning the main project, which was a new version of the Checkr API Client Gem, a Ruby library that’s used both internally and externally. We had a couple of planning and design sessions and worked to define milestones and key results for each step of the project.
The hands-on project presented a lot of challenges, along with opportunities to learn new concepts, including meta programming — which gave me a deeper understanding of how Ruby works.
During the project, I was given a lot of support from my team. I got to pair program with all the engineers on my team, which was a good learning experience and a nice way to connect and get feedback on the project. I also got a lot of help and support from my manager and my mentor, who met with me on a regular basis to check in on the progress and make sure I was making the most of my time as an intern at Checkr. To make sure we had a little bit of fun amidst all the hard work, Checkr organized events for us, including bowling and going to an escape room.
The internship concluded with the final presentation of our projects, which was a good way to share all the new things we learned and built with the product and engineering department.
Overall, it was a great summer full of discoveries, learning, connecting with new people, and playing ping pong. A big shout-out to the other interns for being a part of this adventure!
