How a Star Wars Application Teaches an Intern a New Skill Set
Instead of including her in the regular projects of the company, a start-up shakes things up a little and lets Beatriz work on her own project, with interesting results.
As an intern, gaining knowledge on a specific field is essential – and sometimes non-rewarding: You earn less than other employees, get tasks that have nothing to do with what you want to learn, and you won’t have a lot of responsibility. However, done right, an internship can be rewarding, and you will come out with a new skill set that might be useful in your professional career later on.
But how can a company optimally support an intern?
The tech start-up Earlybyte, for instance, allows its interns to work on their own projects. Acting as mentors, employees give their advice when asked. This model of internship can be useful for future coders who want to gain more experience and work with experts while still being in a learning environment. Essentially, it is learning by doing, especially as mistakes won’t hurt the progress of the company’s projects. In addition, the intern in question may be more motivated as they get the chance to realize what they envision.
Granted: the intern in question will not participate in any profitable project. However, giving young people the opportunity to learn and grow with an idea they came up with by themselves might lead to future projects as well as a new employee that has shown their skills and creativity. Additionally, coming up with an idea and realizing what they envision motivates them to do well. This might further improve their learning experience.
“Doing a project that I like pushes and motivates me to learn everything I need for the application.” — Beatriz
The Perks of Working on Your Own Project
Being the third intern at Earlybyte, Beatriz confirms this wholeheartedly: “Doing a project that I like pushes and motivates me to learn everything I need for the application.” In her two months at Earlybyte, the Electrical Engineering student works on a Star Wars Application, thereby combining her passion with her interests. The application itself will have different features such as a community page for fans with an implemented quiz, a character wiki, and suggestions in which order to watch the films.
This means that she will have to work on the backend as well as the fronted, gaining experience in both fields along the way. Here, the employees of Earlybyte enter the picture: Functioning as advisers, Beatriz can ask for help when needed. This means that she has access to experts whose experience might come in handy: “For the first time I am working with Python, which is helping me a lot. I could learn it by myself but with the help of experts it is easier and also more precise.”
Beatriz is planning on expanding the application in the future: “I have a few ideas that I want to realize. Right now, I am learning the basics but as soon as I get to the harder stuff, I will definitely implement it in my project.”
“They still want me to learn. Even though I am not part of the company’s projects, I get the chance to be in their meetings and learn more about how Earlybyte is running things.” — Beatriz
Insight into the Company
One might think: But isn’t an internship supposed to give insight into a company’s processes? The answer is: yes. Working on a project by themselves won’t provide the intern with knowledge of the company or working experience, which is why inclusion is important.
Again taking the case of Beatriz as an example, Earlybyte invites her to meetings as an observer. “They still want me to learn. Even though I am not part of the company’s projects, I get the chance to be in their meetings and learn more about how Earlybyte is running things.” Although not working on any profitable, she still gets valuable insight into Earlybyte’s processes. She is part of the company, having the chance to ask questions and gaining more knowledge along the way.
Through that, Beatriz can optimize her learning experience while still working on her skills as a web developer: “I learn a lot that I can use in my future. If I want to do something for myself or I can build a webpage and do that for me, that is really cool!”
Not Suited for Everyone
The range of experience interns have in the field of their internship varies drastically. While some of them are already trained through their studies, others might only have had an introductory course and want more experience. The latter is what the explained type of internship is aiming for. Interns with more knowledge might want to be an active part of a company’s project. Additionally, pursuing an own project might be suited for shorter internships such as Beatriz’, which is only about two months instead of six or twelve.
“I learn a lot that I can use in my future. If I want to do something for myself or I can build a webpage and do that for me, that is really cool!” — Beatriz
Furthermore, this type of internship requires the intern to work disciplined and independent, as they are responsible for their own success and learning progress. This means that they need to plan out everything by themselves and work on the project with little supervision, teaching them useful skills for every working environment. However, web development and coding-related projects may be suitable for this kind of internship, though other fields of work such as Accounting, Business Management, and Finance might not be.
Working with Universities
Finding interns that want to experience such a learning environment requires the knowledge of where to search. Asking Beatriz how she heard of Earlybyte, she says that she had seen the start-up on a list of companies that offer an internship. As she needed one to pass her introductory course, she asked the company’s former intern with whom she is befriended. After hearing his opinion and what he had learned from his time there, she decided to send the start-up her application.
“I didn’t know what to expect”, she says in an interview, “but I didn’t have to think long after the CEO gave me the task of choosing a project for myself.” The idea of the Star Wars application was mapped out shortly after and when she started her internship, she already had a plan. Moreover, she likes working in a “cool and young environment.” It encourages her to ask questions without worrying about the others judging her.
In conclusion, by giving interns the chance of realizing a project of their choosing and helping them by mentoring, Earlybyte shows that the learning experience can be optimized when both parties agree to it. This serves two different purposes instead of only one: The interns gain relevant working experience by observing important meetings as well as completing something they came up with by themselves. In the end, supporting young students with giving insight into your own field may not always be as profitable as one wishes, but it is an investment into the future of a person that might want to work with the same company later on.
If you want to know more about Earlybyte and what it is about, follow them on Instagram or LinkedIn for getting even more insight into the start-up.
