Five reasons why my summer internship at Slalom Build has made me a better engineer.

For many college students there are four seasons: fall, winter, spring, and internship! Two years ago, I was applying and interviewing for internships. Fast forward to today, and I am a full-time software engineer at Slalom Build, a Build as a Service firm that blends engineering, analytics, automation, and design to build modern software products for clients around the world. Between my days writing code for courses and building software for client projects, I was a software engineer intern at Slalom Build.

Here are five reasons why my summer internship at Slalom Build has made me a better engineer:

1. I got to build a real, challenging, and fun product.
   I didn’t run coffees (though I did drink a lot of coffee); rather, my team and I were placed on specially curated projects designed to expose us to Slalom Build’s Product Engineering Methodology in its entirety. During my internship, I built an Alexa skill and Facebook chatbot using AWS services like Lex, Lambda, and API Gateway. I had previously used Lambdas on personal projects, but they were mainly written in python. The project was slated to use Lambdas written in Node.js, so I spent the first few days ramping myself up on JavaScript. About halfway through the project, I began playing around with Terraform, and I quickly learned the importance of infrastructure as code. I learned how source control, infrastructure as code, and pipelines came together to build, test, and deploy code from my laptop to production.
2. I learned how to work in a cross-capability team to delivery successfully and consistently.
   Working in a cross-capability team is a critical skill I gained at Slalom Build. My internship team consisted of 3 software engineer interns, 1 quality engineer intern, and 1 solution owner intern. This structure closely followed that of a client project. We all got to flex our strengths and work cooperatively to deliver a product to project stakeholders. Near the end of our second sprint, we had several stories that were either ready for code review or in testing. To successfully close these stories out, the software engineer interns swarmed the pull requests and moved stories along to testing. Then, we helped the quality engineer intern during testing. We were able to get the stories completed in time for the solution owner to prepare the deck for the sprint demo and present to stakeholders. This helped demonstrate that the success or failure of the project is collectively owned and not dependent on any one person. I’m able to apply that experience to client projects now, so it was beneficial to get this experience earlier during my internship.
3. I learned how to build a product using agile methodologies.
   Iterative product development is a core principle of Agile, one that I learned during my first week of the internship. In school, I created programs, but I never had to really create a product. During the internship, I learned that creating a product involves asking the right questions, planning out what features need to be built, prioritizing which ones needs to be built first, estimating the scope of the work, actually building the feature, and testing it. That might sound like a lot, and that’s because it is. That’s why it’s called a sprint. I, and many other interns, had never worked in sprints before. In the beginning of the program, full time employees showed us how a sprint should be run. Then, slowly, the training wheels came off, and they started to take a backseat in meetings. By the third sprint, we were running the sprint ceremonies ourselves with minimal oversight. About halfway through the program, we were, essentially, self-sufficient!
4. I got to demonstrate my work to project stakeholders.
   At Slalom Build, I wasn’t tucked away and forgotten in some dusty corner. My team and I were front and center from the first day. I was introduced to project stakeholders and got to demonstrate the features I built at the end of every sprint. At the end of the internship program, I got to present at a special Town Hall event to everyone, from engineers to managing directors. The entire Build Center gathered in the common area to hear about what we had been doing for the past ten weeks. Everyone was engaged and excited to see the product we had built. These demos were a great opportunity to sharpen and display soft skills such as communication, presentation, and public speaking.
5. I got to work alongside some great people and have a good time.
   For the entire ten weeks I was an intern, I was surrounded by wonderful coworkers who were eager to help! I was assigned a new-hire buddy on my first day. New-hire buddies help interns with anything they need throughout the internship, from questions about code to knowing where the best coffee shop is. But new-hire buddies are not the only point of contact with the rest of the office. I would regularly socialize and get to know my full-time colleagues at Fridays at 4, a weekly event where everyone would stop working at 4 on Friday to have drinks, eat, and play games. Additionally, I received a people manager as an intern. My people manager was always available to chat, gave corrective criticism, and created a supportive environment for my professional and personal growth at Slalom Build. After leaving the internship, my people manager was the one extending me a full-time offer and whose team I would eventually join, so it was great to have to rapport built up during the internship.

Since the internship closely reflects client projects, rolling from an intern to a full-time employee was an extremely easy transition for me. Slalom Build’s internship program was really a great place to start my career. Joining Slalom Build was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, and one that I’m still seeing the benefits of to this day.