Sydney Simmons-Nelson Year 1 Review
Tumblr may seem like a foreign topic to many, especially in the day-and-age of TikTok and Snapchat, but for Web Developer Intern Sydney, it’s what jump-started her passion for development.
Sydney Simmons-Nelson recently completed her first year as an intern at Little Taller. While COVID may have altered the internship’s original path, Sydney continued to persevere and grow a little taller. Continue reading her reflection to see how she overcame the unexpected obstacles of interning during a Pandemic.
Little Taller: What is your title and what is it you do every day?
Sydney: I’m a Web Developer Intern, so I mostly use HTML and CSS to build out client websites based on the designs our team mocks up, but I’ve also done training in PHP and JavaScript since I started my internship.
Little Taller: What type of websites do you mostly build out?
Sydney: I’ve mostly built out websites for Allbound, Avondale, SciTech, and CSO, so those were all your basic websites, but then I built out the GCU Canyon Ventures portal, which was pretty cool.
Little Taller: How do you explain your job to other people who don’t quite understand development?
Sydney: I usually tell them that a website is like a painting and the HTML is the canvas, like the bones or the structure of the website, and CSS is like adding the paint to the canvas to make it look pretty. So after explaining that, I tell them that I make the structure of a website and paint it. So that’s kind of how I break it down.
Little Taller: What’s your biggest takeaway from the past year with Little Taller?
Sydney: I’ve improved with deadlines compared to when I started. I’m a really bad procrastinator, so having deadlines has translated into my actual life. I’m getting more schoolwork and housework done rather than waiting until the last minute.
Little Taller: What are you studying in school currently?
Sydney: I’m studying Advertising and Graphic Design.
Little Taller: So how did you get into Web Development from that?
Sydney: I was required to take Web One with Kyle for school, so we had to build our website designs with HTML and CSS. It was pretty easy because I had some knowledge from when I used to, like, make my Tumblr blog in middle school. Originally, I was a Web Design major, but then I wasn’t sure if that was what I wanted to do. So, I switched my major to advertising since it seemed broader, and it included graphic design.
Little Taller: Can you talk more about the learning curve from what you experience at school versus what you experience at work?
Sydney: In school, I feel it’s more of, “here’s your project, let’s walk through each step,” while work is more, “here’s your project, this is the end goal.” It’s a lot less step-by-step walkthrough and more of “figure out as much as you can, if you get stuck, ask for help.” So the biggest learning curve is just knowing how to do the research and find the tools I need to make sure I get the answers that I need.
Little Taller: How are you balancing remote working in your everyday life?
Sydney: For me, remote working has been a lot easier because I can do school and work without feeling overwhelmed. It’s also helped me improve my time management, and I don’t have to worry about putting anyone at risk with the pandemic since it is all remote.
Little Taller: How do you feel like your life with Little Taller would be different if COVID did not happen?
Sydney: I probably would have been putting less time at work because I would have participated in more off-campus activities and just focused on school a lot more. COVID allowed me to grow a lot more at work, so now I work on bigger projects instead of fixing one or two things here and there. It’s given me the opportunity to see the projects from start to finish.
Little Taller: What are some of those fun projects you take on on the side?
Sydney: I do a lot of photography, and I run a Twitter account that raises money to help Harry Styles’ fans buy his stuff if they can’t afford it.
Little Taller: That’s cool. What is that project called?
Sydney: It’s called Funds for Harries. Every Thursday, I send out donation money to people based on a form they filled out, so they can buy new songs or albums from the artists they like to listen to.
Little Taller: That’s so cool. What is it you like most about working with Little Taller?
Sydney: I like the flexibility. I’m not set on working a “9-to-5” every day of the week yet, so the flexibility of creating my schedule is nice. The projects we do feel more like when you build and customize websites for fun in middle school, rather than “work.” I’ve been enjoying working and having a job that doesn’t feel like “work.”
Little Taller: Do your Little Taller projects ever feel like homework?
Sydney: No, not really. My school projects feel a lot more draining, and I feel unmotivated to complete them sometimes, but I enjoy the Little Taller projects. I guess the difference is in the work style that I’m doing since I enjoy development and building more than design and advertising.
Little Taller: Looking into year two, what are you looking forward to the most?
Sydney: I’m looking forward to learning other coding languages, like PHP. I worked with PHP a little bit on the New Business Development Portal, and I enjoyed getting to learn how the parts work and working with it hands-on. So yeah, I just want to continue to build my skills and knowledge while I can.
Little Taller: What other coding languages do you specifically want to learn?
Sydney: I want to get more into JavaScript and jQuery since they go hand-in-hand, and then I want to learn SaSS since some of our projects used SaSS, but I haven’t learned how to write or use it other than knowing how to go in and edit some of the style sheets.
Little Taller: What are some things that ensure you can do your job effectively?
Sydney: For me, I’ve always struggled to sit down and focus, so I will usually set a timer for myself and force myself to focus during that time. Once my timer is up, I’ll take a quick break and then sit back down with another time and really focus on the work. Since I started this, I can focus for longer periods and get more work done.
Little Taller: How do you feel like your work process has changed since you onboarded?
Sydney: When I onboarded, I was more focused on one little project at a time. So I would have one task to fix a footer or a Marketo template build. It was a lot of practice and less working with a client. Now, I have multiple tasks a day, and I’m responsible for figuring out how long I need to get everything done. My projects are more in-depth now, so that’s been a big change since I started.
Little Taller: Looking at this past year, what accomplishments are you most proud of?
Sydney: I think getting the GCU Canyon Ventures portal built out and functioning. It was cool to build something that people will interact with a lot more than they would with a normal website. I’m excited to see how it’s going to keep growing and being utilized.
Little Taller: How do you make a point to continue learning while being in this position?
Sydney: Whenever I run into something that I’m not sure how to do, I refer to different online tools and try to search for the best solution. If I find an answer that is new to me or I didn’t know before, I’ll copy the recommended code into a document. I’ll write out what I used it for and what I could use it for in the future, so if I have a project later down the line, I can say, “I’ve done this before. Here’s that piece of code.”
Little Taller: Have you shared that document with anyone?
Sydney: No, it’s kind of just a notes app that I keep track of instead of a structured document. So, I’ll put the code in, and then I’ll search in my notes to find it.
Little Taller: I can see us implementing that across all developers, so that’s cool that you’ve been doing that. What is one professional skill that you’re looking to develop?
Sydney: I feel like I keep going back to time management, but it’s always been a struggle to focus and not get so distracted with everything else around me. So, I guess time management and then my communication skills. I want to keep developing that so I’m more confident in my answer, and I don’t keep second-guessing myself, especially in a professional setting. I also want to adapt better to new projects. I feel like I’m reliant on having other people finish out the parts that I’m not able to do, so I want to learn more and be able to accomplish more in a project on my own than having it get passed on.
Little Taller: So, this one has nothing to do with a Little Taller, but if you can be an expert at anything, what would that be?
Sydney: Probably art history. I used to want to be an art historian because I enjoy art and history in general. So, being able to master everything about that would be awesome.
Little Taller: Do you think you would teach art history?
Sydney: No, I would probably lean towards being a museum. That way, I could use my knowledge to research and get new art pieces into the museum. I’m not the best at explaining things to other people, so I think that’s how I would like to use my knowledge.
Interning is a great way to “dip your feet” into new knowledge, and as a company, we continue to learn from our interns every day. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re going to go figure out a way to implement a few of Sydney’s productivity habits.
