Yafim Vainilovich talks life as a Pierce County IT intern
Meet Yafim Vainilovich. Vainilovich completed his associate degree in computer science at nearby Highline College before transferring to Green River College to pursue his bachelor’s degree in software development. This summer, he joined Pierce County IT’s software development team as an intern working on core libraries and internal web updates. Below, Vainilovich talks about on his internship experience and offers a word of advice for college students who are looking for their first tech internship.
What led you to Green River’s software development program?
YAFIM: I heard good things from people that took the program prior to me. Also the cost of classes was a big deal for me as well.
Can you tell us a little bit about your internship experience?
YAFIM: Pierce County IT has a lot of projects. Every time I was given a task, it was always something new, and it was really fun to work on something different every day and to learn a lot of new skills. Recently, I’ve been assigned a project to work on by myself. In this project, I am using an AngularJS frontend and Grails backend to build an OfferUp-like application for Pierce County employees.
What is a memorable experience from your internship experience that stands out?
YAFIM: The most memorable experience for me was getting past a problem that I was stuck on for over two days. Something just clicked in my head. That experience was really good. Debugging a structure for couple of days taught me a lot.
What tip do you have for college students who are looking for their first tech internship?
YAFIM: I probably applied for over 50 internships and only got an interview for Pierce County and that was the internship that I got. I would recommend to not give up and to apply as much as possible, even when you get rejection emails on a daily basis.
Learn more about Pierce County career opportunities at: https://www.co.pierce.wa.us/1125/Jobs
Learn more about Green River College’s Bachelor of Applied Science in Software Development at: www.greenriver.edu/software
