A Day in the Life of a Frontend Developer Intern at IBM
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work as a Frontend Developer Intern at IBM? TechTogether Miami Director Danay Fernandez not only shares an inside scoop of what a Frontend Developer Intern does at IBM day-to-day but how she landed the gig as well! If you’re interested in roles like this, please make sure to sign up for TechTogether’s bi-weekly newsletter, where we share internship and full-time opportunities! Click here to sign-up.
How Did I Get a Frontend Developer Intern Role at IBM?
Recruiting season was here (Fall 2020) so I applied to over 80 internship roles. After receiving several rejection emails, I was starting to feel imposter syndrome when I received an email from IBM to complete the Frontend Coding Assessment.
The hiring process was very quick after that! Once I successfully completed the assessment, I heard from an IBM recruiter in the next couple of weeks to schedule an introductory call (or recruiter screening). After that call, the recruiter helped me schedule an interview with the team that wanted to hire me. I had a one hour interview that was a combination of behavioral and technical questions. After the interview, I received an offer within 2 days! And so the wait until summer began.
A Day in My Life as a Frontend Developer Intern at IBM
After an entire year in my room because of the pandemic, I decided I didn’t want to spend the summer in my room too, so I got a place with some friends in Dallas, TX even though my internship was remote.
Morning
I would normally wake up between 7 and 7:30am. After eating breakfast, I would call or text some family members to let them know I was ok (coming from a Hispanic family this is something you have to do or you would have abuelita calling you in the middle of the work day). I would start my work day at 8am or 8:30am. My team has 9am meetings so I always wanted to start work before then. During the first couple of weeks, after the team meeting, I would either work on some required training or on setting up my development environment. Once I was all done with the training and my environment was up and running, I started getting tickets to work on (exciting but also scary!), so I would focus on tickets after the team meetings. Tickets in this context has nothing to do with movie tickets; it means that you get assigned a task you have to work on such as fixing a bug or implementing a new feature.
Lunchtime
Somehow, being in Texas, away from home, allowed me to set more clear boundaries for lunchtime. My office was my room and I decided I wouldn’t eat in my room. At around 12, I would lock my computer and walk to the kitchen to prepare something to eat. Since I can only cook things the air-fryer can, my top choices of food are chicken and fish.
After Lunch
This is when most of the intern activities took place. I am sure all of this year’s interns can agree that the Talent Acquisition Team made a wonderful job at putting together the intern activities. I had such a blast! I also joined the Hispanic and LGBTQ+ Business Resource Groups (BRGs), and in the afternoon I would attend the activities they hosted. In between all the fun and learning from the activities, I would continue working on my code until 5 or 5:30pm came around.
Conclusion
Some of the perks of working at IBM this past summer were:
- My team — one of the most supportive teams I have ever worked with!
- Intern activities — thank you Talent Acquisition Team from putting together such an eventful summer for the interns
- BRGs — met wonderful people in these events
- Training and career development — IBM provides many training resources you can take advantage of even as an intern
Feel free to connect on LinkedIn if you would like to talk more about my experience or if you have any career related questions.
Disclaimer: All opinions are my own and I am not speaking on behalf of IBM.
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