What I Learned From My Internship At EL Passion
Over the summer I got the opportunity to join a Ruby on Rails Workshop. I’m still studying computer science, so it seemed like a great chance to learn more about web development.
Before the workshop I was interested in many programming languages. After this event I realized I want to spend more time learning Ruby.
Ruby On Rails Workshop
Some of my friends shared the EL Passion RoR Workshop page, so I signed up. After a couple of days I received an invitation to the Codility test. The test was more about logical thinking and math than programming. I was happy to be in this little group of 12 workshop attendants.
The workshop was held over the weekend. After a short Ruby and Rails introduction, the mentors showed us how to create a web app like Stackoverflow (we named it ‘Segfault’). We learned a lot about Ruby on Rails in two days (or as much as you can learn in 48h). Most valuable to me were the methods of application testing and data representation.
My Ruby On Rails Internship Project
After the workshop, EL Passion offered me a two-month paid internship! I’ve passed all valuations along with three other guys that made the workshop: Robert, Paweł and Michał.
My first day was jam-packed with activities to get me started. We met the rest of the team and started working on our project — an internal scheduler created from scratch, named EL Scheduling. The four of us (interns) had a joint desk which made it easier to communicate and get to know each other.
Currently, the project consists a variety of technologies including: Ruby on Rails, Bootstrap, OAuth 2.0, CoffeeScript, Pry, RSpec and a lot more. We had a few problems, but fortunately we could always ask for help from our mentors. We used Scrum to improve our working process and code reviews.
After two months of hard work, the whole company is using our app and we are proud of it. We the interns did it! A working app that’s being used company wide. I couldn’t ask for more.
A Field Trip To The Lake
Work/Play balance at EL Passion is something you will see on a daily basis. There is a table tennis board, Xbox and many other gadgets to keep you entertained during slack time.
In late August, the whole team went for team building activities to the Mazury. The first day I was a part of an orientation run. The second day we built a raft from scratch (just like our internship app) and raced with it on the lake. It turned out my team involved great engineers but also great athletes. We won the race!
It’s All About Team Work
I think I couldn’t have asked for a better working environment. It was really motivating work with experienced and friendly developers, which made my internship more enjoyable.
Throughout the weeks at EL Passion I learned about the company culture. Scrum meetings, sprints, company standups every Thursday, hackathons. I liked how every person could potentially influence the company future. By adding a ticket on the company board, every idea was discussed and voted on.
Although I tried to be in office as early as possible, we had a flexible working time which removed all the stress of going to ‘work’. Of course, we could also work remotely and sometimes we did. But coming to office was the best part of my day, as I got access to the best developers in Poland.
All In All, A Great Experience
I learned a lot about web development and created a working app that people use. This was my first internship and I enjoyed every bit of it. I hope it’s just the beginning of my adventure with EL Passion. Although I have to finish my studies, I know if I plan smart, I can get that college degree and work at EL Passion.
I also hope that one day (after many years of coding and testing), I will share my experience the same way our mentors did with us.
Thanks to Paweł Michna, Michał Warda and Robert M. who contributed to this article. Special thanks to our workshop and internship mentors Karol, Kacper, Konrad, Gracjan, Patryk, Bartek and Grzegorz.
