A Reflection on My Internship with Sheprd
Over the past summer I was fortunate enough to explore my career goals and gain diverse hands-on experience through an internship with Sheprd. Sheprd is a new ‘On-Demand School Bus’ that provides busy families safe, convenient, and high-quality student transportation in the current operating area of Newton, MA.
After an exciting interview process that included a design sprint challenge I was brought on-board to assist with business development, something I had experience with in the past and thought I’d like to continue in the future. Little did I know my time at Sheprd would be the jump-off point that shaped my future career goals. From walking in the door on my first day to my final farewell, the Sheprd team challenged me to pursue my career interests within the company while pushing me to broadening my skill set by taking on new challenges that the team felt would further my professional development.
At the time, I was a rising-senior studying Philosophy and Sustainable Energy with knowledge of human-centered design and a small background in coding. By the time I left I had become a confident and self-sufficient programmer with a newfound passion for full-stack development. I was also able to apply my knowledge of user-design to help Sheprd conduct research and improve the student experience.
Nick Jasset, Sheprd’s CEO, is deeply involved in the day-to-day operations and tech development, but also cares about the professional development of each team member. We went out to lunch on my first day to discuss Sheprd’s inception and his vision for the company’s future, however most of the conversation centered around my career goals and how my professional development aligned with opportunities at Sheprd. I did not entirely know what I wanted to do post-graduation, but the freedom Sheprd provided gave me the opportunity to try everything. I assisted with marketing, financials, operations, and web development, while learning about the disruptive mobility/transportation industry. It was when Nick said, “We will make sure you try everything you want and teach you anything you do not know how to do,” that I knew this summer internship would make a significant impactful on my career trajectory.
As days turned to weeks, I sat down with each of the business function managers and had similar discussion about not only what they did but also how I could contribute to the team during my internship. Each embraced my eagerness to learn and encouraged ongoing communication to make sure they provided the necessary support to help me through any assignments. Natalia, the graduate school intern, had similar experience with each of Sheprd’s managers. We were each treated like equal team members, our voices heard during team meeting and our input valued during decision making discussions.
Dan Mitchell, Sheprd’s Community Manager, invited both of us to assist in the “street team” marketing efforts at local Newton community events. Through these events we were able to develop a better understanding of the customers that depend on Sheprd’s service. Most parents we spoke with were eager to learn about our service because they experience the daily struggle of getting their kids where they need to go while at work or managing multiple kids’ schedules. It takes time to explain how Sheprd ensures student safety, but during each interaction I got better and better at highlighting the key points. This exposure was invaluable as I developed my own understanding of how marketing customer analysis affects the day-to-day decisions the company needs to make. Together, Natalia and I even had the opportunity to improve upon Sheprd’s marketing strategy and developed social media posts using brand guidelines throughout the summer.
The most eye-opening discovery related to my professional interests was when Nick asked me to assist with our email web designs and I began building marketing emails using HTML 5 and CSS. These assignments started as email templates, but quickly became much more complex, requiring the need to pull data from the database for each unique customer. By July, I was using JavaScript to assist with daily operation challenges making mutations in the live-database. Every day Nick would take time out to review my code, not just making corrections but providing me context in order to understand the logical approach to each assignment.
The joy and fulfillment I got during each of these coding projects clearly showed, and Nick invested more time and even paid for an online course so I could learn to develop in the most difficult programming language in Sheprd’s stack, React.js. Throughout the online course, Nick pushed me to take a higher-level approach to the algorithms I would use to improve our programs and by the end of the summer, Nick had made me into a confident and capable developer.
The experience and freedom Sheprd provided me during my internship shaped my future goals and placed me firmly on track to pursue my new career interest. The team culture at Sheprd fosters confidence and pride in each team member’s work, which made my time there incredibly valuable. Finally, I saw the direct impact that my work had on contributing to Sheprd customers’ daily lives, and I consider myself fortunate to have been involved with a company so driven to solve complex child transportation issues.
Sincerely,
Stephen Valdesuso
Are you interested in joining the Sheprd team with an academic or summer internship? Apply online here.
