From Intern to Intermediate

By: Ryan Ma, Associate Software Engineer

I’ve spent all of my professional career — and nearly a fifth of my actual life — at Veeva, first as an intern, then as an associate and now as a software engineer. Talking to other people in the industry, it feels rare to spend that much time at one single company, even more so under a single team. I guess I’m one of the edge cases, but fortunately, I’ve never really felt like one for the four years that I’ve been here.

Taking the first steps

I graduated from the University of Waterloo, and if there’s one thing I enjoyed more than the food, it was the co-op program. My program allowed me to intern at six different companies, and getting real work experience was without a doubt the most valuable thing I got out of my degree.

I started my journey at Veeva as the most junior position at any company — an intern — but the work I was doing definitely didn’t make it feel that way. Like any other internship, the first few weeks were the most challenging. The tech stack was familiar, but the business logic was incomprehensible to me at times. To me, what set the experience apart was the people I was working with. This wasn’t limited to my mentor, my manager, or even my team. It’s easy for people in this industry to have egos (and I’ve experienced some bad ones firsthand), but every person I interacted with during the four months of my internship was genuine and encouraging. I remember during the first month, I asked someone outside of my team a very straightforward question. He spent half a day not only answering my question but also looking at the problem from my point of view and stepping through some other questions I didn’t even realize I had yet. I later learned that he was very (very) high up in the ladder; that stood out to me because it reinforced the idea that everyone here really tries to help and make everyone around them better.

Returning as an associate software engineer

Near the end of my internship, I received a return offer to come back as a full-time associate once I graduated. To me, it was a no-brainer. I figured that being familiar with the development process would allow for an easier start. While this was true to an extent, there was a definite change in the work and responsibilities I received. Looking back at it, it helped me get where I’m at today but was definitely stressful in the moment.

I can’t say this is true for everyone and for every job, but for most new grads, feelings of stress when starting a new job are inevitable. Gaining new experiences and tackling challenges is great for technical growth, but can also be daunting when you’re working on things you’ve never seen before and you still have to hit deadlines. I remember that during my first two months as an associate, a change in one of the first projects I was working on brought down the entire server. What made the stress a lot more tolerable — and this wasn’t specific to just this case — was that instead of trying to play the blame game, everyone used it as a learning experience. Obviously, the fewer mistakes there are the better, but being in a place that prioritizes preventing mistakes moving forward rather than trying to figure out who’s at fault was not only great for personal growth but also helped to alleviate the stress a ton.

Growing within Veeva

One thing there is no shortage of at Veeva are opportunities to grow. The harder part when you’re first starting out is figuring out which area you want to grow in. As a software developer, there are23 usually two routes a career can lead to: a manager or an architect. I’ve definitely had no shortage of either opportunity. Throughout my years here, I’ve had experience designing projects, leading a team, and mentoring new associates. The most important part is figuring yourself out and seeking those opportunities; I had no idea I had any interest in the leadership side of being an engineer until I was asked to mentor a new intern. Since Veeva is still growing, it’s not difficult to acquire these experiences — even ones I never realized I wanted.

Why I’m still here

It’s sometimes easy to overlook when you’re not getting the opportunities that you want or when you’re unhappy due to the amount of stress you’re under. One thing that I think is always good to ask yourself is why you’re still working at your current job. For me, even throughout the transition from intern to associate to software engineer, that question has never been hard to answer throughout my four years at Veeva.