At Mavenlink, engineering interns are superpower-enabled to make a real impact on both the product and the company culture
Mavenlink’s software enables clients across a plethora of professional services to have “super powers” to tackle their tasks and transform the world. As a company, Mavenlink is focused on empowering our own stakeholders with an ability to succeed above and beyond what they had previously imagined possible. Mavenlink’s summer software engineering internship program is the perfect illustration of this principle.
This summer, the R&D team had the pleasure of onboarding two rising seniors: Jeffron Addy who attends University of Rochester, and Julius Boateng, who attends University of Notre Dame. Both hail from the Bronx, NYC, and had originally planned to come out to the west coast to work in Mavenlink’s San Francisco office. Unfortunately, the emergence of a global pandemic made those plans impossible, but all hope was not lost–both Jeffron and Julius joined our remote workforce in late May from their homes in the Bronx.
The new interns were first placed on engineering teams alongside established developers who were there to show them the ropes and get them up to speed on working within Mavenlink’s complex code base. After a few weeks spent getting their hands dirty and working on existing tracks with their respective teams, the interns were brought together for a special project on a brand new, temporary team.
Under the supervision of software engineer and team lead Adé Farquhar and product manager Megan Bresnahan, our young aspiring developers were given the opportunity to leave a permanent mark on Mavenlink’s software, by developing a new and often requested feature for the app: an expense approval queue. Alongside product designer Nick Cottrell and quality assurance analyst Betty Fan, the new team was christened Coastbusters — a name which reflected the team’s determination to not allow the fact they were operating on opposite ends of the country, three time zones apart, to get in the way of completing their goal of implementing this new feature.
“Jeffron brought a nice sense of calm to the team. He has a diligent approach to work, and is willing to try new things that are outside his realm of experience. In addition to being razor sharp when he’s examining code, Jeffron has such a great attitude. By introducing fun as a team value, he made a huge impact on how we approached our work.” — Adé Farquhar (Team Lead, Coastbusters)
During their time at Mavenlink, both Julius and Jeffron made instant connections with their teams, and the scope of their influence extended well beyond the limits of the code base. Both made huge impacts on the culture. Julius was renowned for kicking off the trend of using intro music to ease into meetings, while Jeffron’s fondness for cool athletic shoes sparked countless conversations amongst like-minded colleagues. While they may have lacked professional experience, they both possessed intellectual curiosity and were willing to raise questions about existing processes that also led to practical re-examinations of the how and the why behind some established practices. Sometimes having a fresh pair of eyes on a project can inspire positive changes, thus breaking the easy pattern of developers doing something in a way simply because “that is how we do it here.”
The Coastbusters team was a smash hit, and Julius and Jeffron successfully completed the bulk of the programming for the expense approval queue feature. As the summer waned and both young men began to prepare to return to school, we sat down to chat with them both as they reflected upon their experiences working at Mavenlink. Jeffron and Julius will be sorely missed by their R&D colleagues. Product manager Megan Bresnahan summed it up best when she told me, “It’s been such a great experience to work with this team. I encourage anyone interested to get involved with next year’s intern programs to experience similar joy and fulfillment.”
We hope both interns can return to Mavenlink as full-fledged developers after they complete their senior years, but we know these two with so much talent, energy, and passion for learning guiding them both, we know they will each have incredibly bright futures no matter where their career paths take them.
Peter: Jeffron and Julius, thanks for joining me this morning. I’m excited to talk to you today. Why don’t you start by introducing yourselves?
Jeffron: I’m currently in the Bronx right now. I go to the University of Rochester. I’m a rising senior and I’m studying computer science. There’s an interesting story about how I got into Computer Science. It started from me liking to build things — I used to build toy ramps for my finger skateboards when I was younger, and I eventually built a computer, and I was like, “All right, I can build stuff on my computer as well.” So I thought to myself, “Let me check out programming.” And that’s how I got to CS.
Peter: I love it! Julius, go ahead and introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about where you’re from.
Julius: I’m from the Bronx, New York. I go to the University of Notre Dame. And like Jeffron, also a rising senior. My introduction to CS, also slightly different. Originally when I applied to Notre Dame, I applied as an English major. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, and then over the summer, I took a program called Upperline Code and we just learned some basic HTML, Ruby, CSS.
Well, I promptly forgot all of the technical stuff that I learned [laughs]. But through that program, I kind of realized that even though programming was difficult and challenging at times, I found it pretty rewarding. I genuinely liked it, and so I just told Notre Dame I wanted to switch my major to computer science. And that’s that.
Peter: Tell me a little bit about how each of you found out about Mavenlink and the internship program and what made you decide to apply.
Jeffron: Julius and I are part of a program together called The Opportunity Network, and they send us different internships and opportunities to apply to. So I kind of applied to Mavenlink on a whim. I read up on what you guys do — I thought, “Huh, this is different. A full stack internship opportunity for business management software?” I didn’t know if I would like it or not, but I was like, “Let me just apply and see if I like it. It’s something different.” And I do not regret the choice at all.
“Julius is always asking questions about the why of things. He maintains this positive attitude even when things get stressful or tough — being willing to take on challenges with a level headed approach is going to take him places at whichever company he chooses to work.” — Adé Farquhar (Team Lead, Coastbusters)
Julius: It was the same as Jeffron. OppNet sent us the opportunity, you know, “Oh, apply to this company called Mavenlink.” So I went and did some research on the company, looked at Glassdoor, looked at the website, read more about the pair programming culture and things like that. That’s kind of what really attracted me to apply as well.
Knowing it was going to be a software engineering slash developer internship, I really wanted to get that tech experience, so that drove me to apply, along with the things I read about the culture and things like that.
It’s pretty funny, because neither Jeffron or I knew the other had applied. After we got word that we were accepted to this internship, one of the staff members at OppNet was like, “Oh yeah, there’s another CS student that’s also going to be doing the same internship.” And I automatically knew — and so did Jeffron — that it was each other.
Peter: Wow, how cool is that?! Okay, why don’t we talk a little bit about your first experiences coming onboard? You each were assigned to a team of experienced engineers. You’re brand new interns coming into the mix with an established team. It’s a pair programming culture. It’s probably different from anything you’ve done before. What were those experiences like when you first joined Mavenlink?
Julius: All right. I guess this is even before my first day — I think it was Friday before my official start. Ryan [Julius’s coach] and I and we were setting up a laptop. At first, I wasn’t that nervous coming into the internship, but then when we started downloading Big Maven and stuff like that, and it was taking two hours. I’m starting to see all of the different repositories and stuff that, then I started getting super nervous — I’ve never worked on a code base that was so big! So as we were going through that process, I was getting more and more nervous thinking, “Oh my God. This is going to be pretty intense.” Stuff like that.
“Julius brought positive energy and enthusiasm to the team right from the start. He is not only courageous and flexible, but he also possesses a willingness to dig into the heart of a problem in order to really understand it. I also appreciated that he consistently raised thought-provoking questions that allowed us to really unpack the task at hand, which undoubtedly contributed to a better product as a result.” — Ellyx Jolley (Team Lead, M-Who)
But then when I was assigned to the M-Who team, they walked me through all of the stuff I needed to do. They helped me, I guess, download additional stuff that I didn’t know I needed to use, and got me up to speed. So that was pretty nice. It was a pretty general introduction into programming and stuff like that. The people on M-Who were really nice and guided me through a lot of stuff, especially when we were pairing. Before I began, I didn’t really have that much knowledge of the code base. So they showed me around with the different stuff, all the different commands we’re supposed to run, and things like that. It was pretty great.
Peter: Nice! Jeffron, how about you? You were on Rogue Squadron, right?
Jeffron: Yeah, I got off to a really good start. Usually when I start opportunities I have some type of nervousness, but it’s usually calm nervousness. For some reason though — maybe because it was all virtual — I was super nervous! Even introducing myself, I was like, “Oh no.” [laughs] And then we started setting up the computer and I was like, “Oh wow. That there is a huge code base.”
So the first week it was a lot of adjusting, especially since it was virtual and I was working on an interesting schedule being on the east coast, so I had to adjust to that as well. But it was cool. Everyone on Rogue Squadron was really patient and cool, and they were really excited to have me there, so they were guiding me through everything we had to do. I reached one point where I really didn’t know how to do a lot, so they literally had to tell me each character to type in. I was just like, “Aw, man.” The pairing had me super tired each time, but it was all a part of adjusting to it. But it ended up being pretty cool, and it was interesting.
Peter: So, what kind of features were working on with your respective teams?
Jeffron: I kind of came onto Rogue Squadron midway through some big projects, but we were working on stuff related to primary organizations when I first came in, which I was completely lost about, because I barely had context. I didn’t know how to code and the code base as well, but I kind of saw what was going on. And then later on in those first couple of weeks, we started working on some performance stories because of an enterprise client commitment they were working on, so that was cool too. So it was like jumping around on stuff.
Peter: And how about you Julius? With M-Who, what did you work on?
Julius: With M-Who, a lot of the focus was permissions. So RBAC — role based access groups — and things like that. We were trying to transition, I guess, how permissions are currently set up at Mavenlink. M-Who has been building this brand new system. Primarily, most of M-Who’s stuff revolves around permissions, even though there were some stories that weren’t directly tied to it, but the general thing was permissions.
Peter: So you both got some time building experience on those respective teams, and then the two of you were brought together with a really cool team called Coastbusters to work on an important feature. What’s the story there?
Jeffron: Oh, for me it was interesting to hop onto a new team because I was already getting very comfortable with Rogue! So the day I had to leave I was like, “Aw, man, I just got cool with everyone.” [laughter] But the new team, Coastbusters, is super awesome.
I still wasn’t fully comfortable in the code base when we started coding together. And the first couple of days — I think it was the first day or two — we did some exploring into what we would be working on before the actual inception, so that was interesting. And I was just like, “Wow.” I didn’t know how difficult or how easy it would be, so that was cool. But overall I was pretty excited to start on a new team, work with Julius and Adé and everyone else. It was pretty cool.
Julius: I guess, similar to Jeffron, I really liked M-Who a lot, so I was kind of also sad moving onto a different team. But it was also a new opportunity and a chance to get to work with Jeffron, Adé and Megan and stuff like that on a project. So I liked the Coastbusters team a lot and it was just a different experience than M-Who. The reason being that we were able to be there since the inception and just work on stuff from the beginning.
Julius: Our inception was on Wednesday, and so the first two days we were just exploring and that kind of made me realize how important inceptions were and how important actually having stories were to programming. That made me appreciate that process a lot more. And then also just programming was kind of different, because it was me and Jeffron mostly coding and with Adé being the observer and kind of guiding us what to do. But it’s kind of different, where in M-Who or Rogue you have more established software engineers right next to you, right there, and if you’re confused you could just basically ask, and they’d probably know what to do. Whereas here on Coastbusters, it’s a whole bunch of exploring and figuring it out and a lot of talking and figuring it out.
“Jeffron has a passion for building things that is immediately apparent when working with him. He continually pushes the team to find the best solution and work as efficiently as possible. He is incredibly perceptive in his understanding of the user experience, and he has a high emotional intelligence which helped us build strong relationships in a short amount of time.” — Megan Bresnahan (Product Manager, Coastbusters)
Peter: Well, you must have done a good job figuring it out, because your feature is being released! How does it feel that something that you touched and really helped build from scratch is going to impact the lives of users?
Jeffron: For me that feels super awesome, because usually when I think of stuff in tech, it’s usually a super small cog in a whole machine, so your code doesn’t really have too much of an impact. But knowing that something that we actually did and put a lot of effort into is going to be used to make people’s lives a lot easier, makes me feel really good.
I’m really impressed how far we were able to get, because me, for example, I wasn’t really that comfortable with React. I learned that two days before we implemented it, so it was cool to be able to pick up stuff pretty quickly and get used to all this stuff we were working on and get stuff done.
Peter: That’s so impressive. Super cool. Can I ask, what surprised you about your experience with Mavenlink? Was there anything that happened that you just didn’t expect, or that just kind of opened your eyes to something new?
Julius: I guess one thing that kind of stood out was people are super nice. I don’t know, I kind of felt like it was overly nice. I remember the first couple of days I was like, “Wow. Why are people just so, so nice to me?” And things like that. That was kind of one surprise! [laughter]
It was one thing that I wasn’t expecting as much, but also just like, I guess the teams also guiding us through the process. It wasn’t like we just came on and we were just put in a corner and then like, “Just figure it out.” They were really helpful in just teaching us what to do and things like that. I really appreciated that because I didn’t know how much guidance I would get, and so it’s been really helpful coming into a team and having people that could answer questions if you’re confused.
Jeffron: Before we started, they told us we would be working with teams on their stuff, but it was still super surprising that they trusted us to jump in and work with people, pair with someone who has been working here for a while and actually be able to implement stuff. I feel like that was really cool because it helped me learn a lot of stuff faster. Like Julius was saying, it’s not like they just put us in a corner and they’re like, “All right, do this and figure it out. Ask for help if you need it.” Someone was there to actually guide us through the way and share a lot of knowledge.
Peter: Do you have a favorite, either memory or moment or just aspect of the culture or just something that you’re going to take away from the experience that you just really enjoy?
Jeffron: This is kind of technical. I don’t know how implementable it would be at other companies, but the aspect of pairing is really cool, and I realize that it’s a very mutually beneficial thing. Because me, for example, I came in and I was mostly learning, but I was also having some ideas that someone who I’m pairing with might not have thought of. So there’s the aspect of both teaching and learning on both sides, which is cool.
Julius: Yeah. I guess for me it’s also stand-ups and also, at the end of the day, discussions as well where we discussed like, “What did you do?” And things like that. That’s been pretty nice, because the frequent contact brings you closer to your team members. And that we’re all on Zoom, so we also get to learn more about each other.
“Jeffron was someone that everyone asked to pair with because he offered so much encouragement and acceptance for others. Jeffron communicated openly, was willing to be vulnerable as needed, and provided excellent and honest feedback throughout the process. He was skilled at really pushing our team to find the best solution and work as efficiently as possible.” — Brent Sondgeroth, Rogue Squadron Team Lead
It’s also nice, because you get to hear about what other people are working on, even if you weren’t pairing with them. I kind of took away from that, it’s really valuable to communicate with team members and kind of just know what’s going on. Like if someone is stuck, you could potentially offer an idea that they didn’t think of. Similar in line with what Jeffron said.
Peter: That’s awesome.
Julius: I also have one more thing. I’ve also really loved how we’re able to play intro music in the beginning of the meeting. I think that’s pretty awesome and pretty fun, especially because usually there’s a lot of meetings and people usually filter in at the beginning of meetings. It’s pretty fun that the guests can play videos or play music whilst we wait for people to come.
Peter: I agree. And Julius, you actually inaugurated that tradition here and I really appreciate that. That’s something that definitely spilled outside R&D and spread around the whole organization, which is super cool!
Jeffron: I was going to say the culture in general, especially the culture within R&D. So for example, having an R&D forum where all the teams are pretty much connected but separate, so you can see what other people are doing. I know all the technical things that are happening within the company, which is really cool. And people, everyone seems really cool.
Peter: There was a lot of great energy and positive chatter around both of you, and people were just really impressed by your contributions. It makes us all really sad to see you both leave, but the internship does have to end. What are your plans for the fall?
Julius: At the University of Notre Dame, we’re going back on campus. There’s on campus, but it’s a mixture of also online and virtual class as well. But I’m actually going to be going back to school, so that’s kind of pretty interesting. I’m pretty happy about that. They’re trying their best to do preventative measures and things like that.
“Julius brought so much positive energy to every team he worked with at Mavenlink! He enthusiastically digs into the “why” of things, and is always willing to take on new challenges. Early on he blew us all away with his masterful facilitation of a large meeting on the topic of Diversity & Inclusion, and I’ve been continually impressed with his courage and open-mindedness ever since.” — Megan Bresnahan (Product Manager, Coastbusters)
Our semester got cut short, so I was back home in New York and then throughout this whole summer I’ve still been in New York and it’s pretty nice to just go into a different environment. So I guess plans over the summer, it’s essentially kind of the same as always. Just focus on my classes, things like that, but also get to enjoy senior year, because this is my last year of college before I transition into the working world.
I’m hoping to be a software engineer slash developer when I graduate, so this has been a really good experience because I get to have a little taste of what it means to be a software developer. And I like it, so now I know that for full time I would also want to be a developer slash engineer.
Peter: And Jeffron, how about you? Are you going back to campus? What’s the situation for your fall?
Jeffron: So my school is going along the same lines as what Notre Dame is doing. I’ll actually be going to campus as well. And a big plus one to everything Julius was saying. I feel like I kind of need that change in environment, especially because I was expecting to go to San Francisco this summer and I’ve been home for so many months. Not saying that I don’t love home, but it’s just like you need to get out of the home.
My senior year, I’m going to focus on academics definitely, but I’m going to take advantage of having a space where I can be with my friends, because this is the last year. My friends are all scattered around the country, so it would be, maybe not the last opportunity for us to all chill together, but the easiest opportunity I could say. So I will take advantage of that and still try to polish up my development skills.
Julius: Jeffron and I were actually going to be roommates in San Fran, so that was just one tidbit, yeah. We were going to be roommates. We kind of planned on it and then also with another person in our program. So it would be the three of us in San Fran, but like, “Oh, well.” It’s fine.
Peter: I guess my last question for each of you is where would you like to see yourself — I know the world is really unpredictable — but let’s say five years? If everything’s going according to plan, where would you guys both like to be?
Jeffron: I feel like my path can end up many different ways. But straight out of college, I plan to go into the industry, so being a software developer. I kind of want to go back to school to get my MBA after a couple of years of work experience, so I might be down that path. I might still be working or I might start a business or something. Who knows? Life is interesting.
Julius: Yeah. I guess five years down the line, I think I’ll still probably be a software developer, just learning lots of stuff and gaining experience. But then, I don’t know, also gaining just general business skills as well. And also trying to gain skills on just how to create a company, develop a company, build a company and stuff like that. Probably the same thing as I’m doing now, just trying to interact with lots of people, gain a lot of experience and just keep on learning.
Peter: Well, if either of you start a company — jointly or separately — please don’t lose my number. I’ll come work for you! [laughter] Do either of you have any final thoughts?
Jeffron: I’d just like to say, overall, I’m really grateful for this experience, because I know a lot of people who had internships that got canceled. I know a lot of people who are doing internships now and they’re not doing as much as I’m doing, so I’m really grateful for that. And all the experiences and people that I’ve met, Mavenlink is really dope. It’s kind of exceeded my expectations a little bit, so I’d say that this summer was pretty great.
Julius: For me, it’s on track with what Jeffron said. I really enjoy the culture and the people here. And it’s not like I’m being swayed by amenities like lunch in an office or ping pong, because we’re not in office, but I genuinely like the company and I like the people here and also the things that we do, so yeah.
Peter: I’m really glad to hear that you both had a really great experience. I’d love it if you came back to Mavenlink. And if you find different paths for your future, I know you both will be super successful. Thank you both for your time today on this interview.
Jeffron: Thank you.
Julius: Thanks, Peter!
