Making the Most of Your Internship
As summer begins, so do internships. I’ve had the amazing opportunity to intern as a Software Engineer for Hy-Vee. Last summer, I was assigned to work on the Aisles Online team. Their job is to maintain, innovate, and solve the toughest problems relating to our e-commerce grocery shopping platform.
Through interning at Hy-Vee I’ve learned new things, grown, met some bright people, and got to develop innovative features that are used in production. Interning, I got to pair-program with seasoned software engineers. Day-to-day tasks included feature work, bug fixes, and spikes.
My experience at Hy-Vee has been incredible — which is why I’ve chosen Hy-Vee as the place to start my full-time Software Engineering career! Reflecting on my experience, I’d like to share a few tips to make the most out of your internship this summer.
Breathe
When receiving the call that I was accepted as a Software Engineer Intern for the summer, I was excited. But with that excitement also came fear. While I had worked on some projects in my free time and had a bit of prior programming experience, this was a software engineer role. I was unfamiliar with the tech stack. I felt unqualified.
The saying confidence is key is true. People around you will pick up on the confidence shown or lack thereof. Don’t let imposter syndrome get to you; the employer picked you because of your knowledge in the field and teachability.
This does not mean to pretend to know but rather, it’s being confident in what you don’t know. As an intern, you aren’t supposed to know everything. This is why you are the intern. To learn. The whole point of a good internship is to provide you with an environment to learn (and fail), then put what you learn into practice, by adding value to your employer. So, take a step back and breathe.
Know When to Ask Questions…
…and ask them
As I said earlier, be confident in what you don’t know. When you don’t know something, ask! A great question to start off asking introspectively and then to your supervisor is: “What does a successful internship look like?.” This is great for getting definitive goals to have over the summer and immediately shows your desire to succeed. As you begin working on the job and realize you’re in need of help, there’s a line between asking a question the second you get stuck and spending the whole day trying to write a unit test for a React component snapshot (I totally haven’t done this BTW).
Knowing when to ask a question is a skill. A skill that takes time to master. The most important thing you can do is be cognizant of what you don’t understand. Research problems and then reach out to your coworkers. Make sure to retain whatever they tell you. If that means taking notes, then take notes. Whatever question you ask, make an effort to remember the answer.
Perspective Matters
This is valid in two cases.
Trying new things
When I first started at Hy-Vee, it felt like there was so much being thrown at me. Trying to continue my learning of Node and React; figuring out how to test-drive code; navigating around big codebases that I’ve never seen before… I felt overwhelmed. There was so much going on. But that’s okay. The important part was saying yes to projects even when I didn’t even know where to begin. You will learn. Because as said earlier, you don’t have to know everything.
Make the most of a bad internship
While a Hy-Vee Software Engineering internship entails working directly with experienced engineers to work on features that will be seen in production, not all internships are like this. Some internships involve putting a bunch of interns together to work on a proof of concept which never sees the light of day and provides no dev experience true to what “real life” is. This is obviously not ideal. If you’re in this situation, no matter what, try your best and put effort into the project assigned. I’d strongly advise asking your manager if you could shadow some developers along the way to see what that looks like.
No matter what, a positive perspective matters because even if you realize while on your internship that the job isn’t what you were expecting and is not a good fit, it is in your best interest to stick with it and learn what you can. Finding out what you don’t like is as important as finding out what you do like.
Build Relationships
The most important aspect of interning is the people you meet. If you are spending 40 hours a week with these people, you should at least get to know them. Relationships are crucial, even if you don’t see a future where you work. It’s surprising how small the world seems and you never know when you’ll cross paths with someone in your career.
Get Feedback
Asking for feedback and implementing it is a great way to improve yourself and show initiative. At Hy-Vee, all code goes through review from the team before continuing through CI. I get immediate feedback on my work. This being said, there was more to my internship than the code being pushed up. I remember in the second month of my internship, I reached out to the tech lead of our team for feedback on how I manage work. When starting out, I wasn’t used to all the autonomy the job had. After getting feedback on going the right direction it improved the confidence in my work and with that confidence came quality.
Some internships are set up as one large project that is presented at the end to leadership. While I don’t think this is the best setup for an internship, it doesn’t mean you can’t make the most of it. Even if you’re a bit siloed from employees, still reach out for feedback. Talk to your boss, project lead, or a mentor. Asking for feedback allows you to provide the best work possible and also shows your initiative.
Conclusion
I attribute internships to the majority of my professional and technical growth. Articles and sage advice are great but in the end, there is no better way to learn than on the job. With that being said, I hope everyone has a fantastic internship experience this summer!
If you are looking for an internship working directly with experienced engineers, on a new tech stack, where you are adding value to the team this summer or even a full-time career check out our R & D Careers Page.
