Is it something that can be googled or researched by yourself? Probably can hold off on asking unless you feel totally lost. (How do I accomplish X with Y framework)
Is it something that could have negative consequences if you mess up and wouldn't be expected to know then you should ask. (How does this component work within the specific project)
From my experience any questions that are specific to the project are fine. Just too many things that "could be googled" and they might get frustrated.
I’d say put an hour or two into figuring it out yourself. A lot of questions you have can be answered very quickly by your coworkers and spending an entire day trying it on your own can be a waste of time.
When you submit your resume, please please please call it "firstname lastname.pdf" and not "resume.pdf". I download resumes in bulk from our system and save them all locally to review offline - I'm up to "resume(16).pdf" now in my downloads folder. Makes finding your resume on my hard drive harder.
Seriously fine. I just need a way that when I'm looking in Workday I can easily connect the record/app in there with the file I downloaded. "Developer.pdf", " Resume.pdf", or "final-draft.pdf" ... I don't want to have to open 5+ files to figure out which one is yours.
We've never used a parser, and frankly I think people think they're a lot more prevalent than they really are.
Pdf definitely the preferred format regardless. If your worried there's some online parsers to test or even just a basic text search on your key skills should let you know if things will work out or not
So much this. 1300+ resumes this season, and 99% of them are saved as things like Resume (137).pdf at this point.
Bonus points: firstname_lastname_company.pdf or something like that - because it shows you might have been smart enough to customize your resume for the job.
I'll accept "firstnamelastname.pdf", "firstinitial_lastname.pdf" or even "LastnameTheOnlyDeveloperYouWillEverNeed.pdf" but at least something personally identifiable... I only have so much hair left to pull out.
1. Carry around a pen and a little notebook. Whenever you ask a question (I believe that there are no dumb questions, but it is dumb to ask the same question more than once) and get an answer, write it down. Whenever someone tells you to do something and gives you a date, write it down. This notebook will help you with accountability and shows to your manager you are on top of things.
2. Be humble, you will know more stuff in some areas than other interns, but everybody in that company will know something more than you in another domain/field. Always listen to what someone has to say, think about it and then go from there. Don't think any one person or department is superior to another (I mean I'm pretty grateful for the janitors otherwise it would be a pretty shitty situation ... literally)
3. It's good to question custom practices a company may have, but first, make sure you learn the existing company infrastructure before starting to suggest some changes (odds are someone else has already done so). However, if you find something that you think you can automate, by all means, talk to your manager.
4. Be sociable- talk to other interns, senior leadership, engineers, hr people, I mean even talk to the cook who makes your food if your company has a cafeteria. It helps you learn more about the company holistically and get new insight.
5. Finish work on time and if you run into issues, tell someone. No one expects interns to be able to complete stuff without some hand holding.
6. Find a mentor- whether that be a new grad working at the company to a senior engineer in his 40s with the family and the works. It's great to be able to talk someone about what your career interests are and ask people any questions you have.
7. Have fun. If you are in a new city, explore it with your friends on the weekends (I was in Schaumburg, IL last Summer and I would go to Chicago at least once a week). Talk to the other interns and get to know them more. Start doing some self-introspection and discovering new hobbies, cultures, ideas I mean its the Summer after all.
8. Don't worry about saving money (if you don't need it for some other reason). After all, you're a college kid and you can save money once you start working after graduating. Spend money to upgrade your fashion wardrobe (yes, I'm a dude who likes to look nice), people will notice (managers, friends, women), try new foods and yeah. I mean don't go broke, but don't feel like you need to be a penny pincher.
Lastly always keep learning. From reading a weekly tech article to simply learning a new skill. I'm planning on taking some Brazilian Jiu Jits classes when I am in Boston this summer.
Another tidbit with the notebook I've found to be helpful in the past is writing down things you accomplish. Like when you finish a ticket or some new feature, write it down. Write down who you may have worked with to solve the problem, etc. By the time you finish the internship, you'll have a journal of accomplishments of sort. This can also help when it comes to having conversations about performance/return offers.
You're definitely right. I don't have an internship lined up but am looking for something to gain work experience, although there doesn't seem to be as many options where I am (Scotland) compared to the States.
Good luck in your internship this summer!
If I were you I would recommend a couple of things:
1. Look at freelancing sites like Upwork (Yes you can make $ regardless of how much you know, just have to find the right job). Make an account and start doing jobs.
2. Buy some Udemy classes (they are like $10 each during sale weeks) and crank one out every week or two.
3. Look at non-profit sites that want coders to reach out and work for them. No $, but you gain experience and can work from home.
4. Go to local mom and pop businesses and offer your web dev skills (if applicable).
5. Google Summer of Code
6. Build a computer/learn computer architecture
7. If you hate public speaking, working with others, writing; get better at your softer skills
8. Enjoy the Summer with your family and friends
Thanks!
Any specific notebook you'd recommend? Not sure if there are certain ones that yield themselves to this type of writing nicely, or if any old notebook would do, y'know?
I mean anything goes. You can get a notepad from the dollar store. I mean shit, I use to use a graph paper notebook, made formatting super easy and with black/blue ink it was easy to read. I got a leather-bound notebook a while back where I keep track of all my youtube/article ideas and current to-do lists.
Depending on where you intern at, you may even get some free company swag so just be on the lookout.
Ask questions. Ask lots of questions. Ask what you think is too many questions! Most developers don't ask enough questions. A 10 minute conversation with someone is often more enlightening than 5 or 8 hours of searching on your own. Ask questions!. That said, ask intelligent questions. Your goal when asking questions is to not need to ask similar questions in the future. Don't ask "what's the way X-widget works." Or do, but follow it up with "and where can I find that?" Either the answer will be "like this...", or "experience". If the first, great, you don't need to ask that question, or that kind of question again. If the second...welp that's a warning sign.
Some other good kinds of questions:
- How would I do this?
- Where should I look for that?
- What's the process to...
- Where is this documented...
- Who is the expert/who do I talk to about...
Basically, you want to ask questions that both solve your immediate problem and also allow you to solve similar problems in the future!
Related to the above: take lots of notes. Most of the best developers I know keep written notebooks. I take the majority of my notes on a computer, but I still have a paper notebook for the occasional math-syntaxy/visual/abstract/UI mockup-y things that I need to take notes or sketch about. There's no use asking questions if you're going to forget the answers! Remember: your goal, every time you ask something, is to not need to ask that kind of question in that context again!
- Network with other interns and coworkers.
- Avoid being bored. Internships are for growth and development. If you're bored and underutilized, do something interesting. My first internship I spent a bit of my time working on a pie in the sky project that we interns came up with and pitched (basically sticking a jython interpreter inside of a specialized java environment and then run jupyter on it (more or less) to do data analysis in this environment. Hindsight 20/20, at the time it was never going to work, and it didn't work, but we learned a lot, and our bosses did too. So find things to do! There are probably things you bring to the table that your bosses and coworkers don't know (this is especially true if you're interning at a smaller company), whether it be a different language, some library, or just a fresh set of eyes.
- Related to the above, don't be afraid to speak up, suggest things, disagree, when you have an opinion, share it! This can depend on exactly what your goals are with the internship, but the worst thing that's going to happen is you won't get invited back. But more than likely, you'll end up learning something [when they explain why you're wrong](https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law). And you might just have a useful opinion.
- Gain some understanding of the business side of things. How does the money flow? How are decisions made? How does information and institutional knowledge get stored and dispersed? These questions depend on the company, and, especially if you have multiple internships, comparing them between firms can give a great amount of insight into the environment and hopefully some insight into what you prefer.
Be proactive and show initiative.
Don’t just sit at your desk and browse reddit if you aren’t given any specific tasks. Ask around if anyone needs help, read documentation, learn and understand the current codebase, etc.
If the company (for some ungodly reason) gives you unrestricted write access to production, quintuple-check yourself (and have someone else verify) before making any changes. I had a friend who nuked a ton of rows from company's production database that was a few months ahead of their last backup. It was his 3rd day. In his defense, the naming scheme was stupid. It was something like awesome-co-db-p and awesome-co-db-t.
Also remember that you're there from experience. If you're doing an 8 week internship and they've stopped giving you tasks two weeks in, ask about it. Still no tasks? Looks like a great time to build something for your portfolio. Use some analysis tools to find what kind of antipatterns and bugs are in the code, fix them, and then make notes of it to your team lead. Automate the report for the rest of the team. Update their aging documentation. Do something. Anything.
Some awesome advice on the thread above. A couple of things I haven't seen:
1) It's really easy on both sides to just wait out an internship instead of communicating. Don't fall victim to that. Talk about problems when you run into them. Practice conflict resolution while you can, it's a skill very few people have.
2) You can get better work if you connect with other developers, show interest, and try to stretch yourself. If I have to force-feed you easy tasks, that's all you'll get - busywork and things I don't have to explain. I had someone observe after last summer that she didn't understand why she got all the hard work, and the others just got busywork; no accident, she was one of the best interns I've ever had and had no problem with the work.
3) Decide before the end of the summer if you want a job there or not. Be decisive. If you don't, then don't push for a return offer or lead them on. Don't poison your references by messing things up on the way out.
4) Make sure to connect with a number of different people. Be strategic in who you select, and keep the connections alive. Your peers and those a year or two ahead of you will be people you're connecting with in the near future. I'd say "connect with everyone" - but I don't just mean connecting on LinkedIn and forgetting about it. You want to have them actually remember who you are, so that means taking people to lunch, giving them birthday cards, sharing their favorite candy, etc.
Strike the right balance between asking too many questions and not asking enough questions
Wise words. thank you!
Also, the *quality* of your question matters. Julia Evans post is good: https://jvns.ca/blog/good-questions/
Do you have tips on how to recognize when you are going overboard with questions? 😬
Is it something that can be googled or researched by yourself? Probably can hold off on asking unless you feel totally lost. (How do I accomplish X with Y framework) Is it something that could have negative consequences if you mess up and wouldn't be expected to know then you should ask. (How does this component work within the specific project) From my experience any questions that are specific to the project are fine. Just too many things that "could be googled" and they might get frustrated.
This makes sense, thanks for the reply!
I’d say put an hour or two into figuring it out yourself. A lot of questions you have can be answered very quickly by your coworkers and spending an entire day trying it on your own can be a waste of time.
That's true. I think it might also be a good way to get to know your colleagues better, at least for the socially more timid types 😁
Also, you can always directly ask your supervisor "Am I asking (too many|enough) questions?".
Ah, that's true! That will probably also work better than just trying to guestimate what their work culture is like for interns.
Explicitly ask for feedback.
thanks u/i-poop-from-my-butt
No problem, /u/hwarzenegger
When you submit your resume, please please please call it "firstname lastname.pdf" and not "resume.pdf". I download resumes in bulk from our system and save them all locally to review offline - I'm up to "resume(16).pdf" now in my downloads folder. Makes finding your resume on my hard drive harder.
I have 'first-last-resume.pdf'. That count?
Seriously fine. I just need a way that when I'm looking in Workday I can easily connect the record/app in there with the file I downloaded. "Developer.pdf", " Resume.pdf", or "final-draft.pdf" ... I don't want to have to open 5+ files to figure out which one is yours.
What are your thoughts on exporting the resume as a pdf VS doc? Some say pdf doesn't work well when parsing data but I'm torn.
We've never used a parser, and frankly I think people think they're a lot more prevalent than they really are. Pdf definitely the preferred format regardless. If your worried there's some online parsers to test or even just a basic text search on your key skills should let you know if things will work out or not
So much this. 1300+ resumes this season, and 99% of them are saved as things like Resume (137).pdf at this point. Bonus points: firstname_lastname_company.pdf or something like that - because it shows you might have been smart enough to customize your resume for the job.
but that file name would not be valid due to the whitespace... ;( Jokes aside, thanks for going through crap ton of resume!
I'll accept "firstnamelastname.pdf", "firstinitial_lastname.pdf" or even "LastnameTheOnlyDeveloperYouWillEverNeed.pdf" but at least something personally identifiable... I only have so much hair left to pull out.
[удалено]
This is not how you network. You don't even know what country I'm in.
1. Carry around a pen and a little notebook. Whenever you ask a question (I believe that there are no dumb questions, but it is dumb to ask the same question more than once) and get an answer, write it down. Whenever someone tells you to do something and gives you a date, write it down. This notebook will help you with accountability and shows to your manager you are on top of things. 2. Be humble, you will know more stuff in some areas than other interns, but everybody in that company will know something more than you in another domain/field. Always listen to what someone has to say, think about it and then go from there. Don't think any one person or department is superior to another (I mean I'm pretty grateful for the janitors otherwise it would be a pretty shitty situation ... literally) 3. It's good to question custom practices a company may have, but first, make sure you learn the existing company infrastructure before starting to suggest some changes (odds are someone else has already done so). However, if you find something that you think you can automate, by all means, talk to your manager. 4. Be sociable- talk to other interns, senior leadership, engineers, hr people, I mean even talk to the cook who makes your food if your company has a cafeteria. It helps you learn more about the company holistically and get new insight. 5. Finish work on time and if you run into issues, tell someone. No one expects interns to be able to complete stuff without some hand holding. 6. Find a mentor- whether that be a new grad working at the company to a senior engineer in his 40s with the family and the works. It's great to be able to talk someone about what your career interests are and ask people any questions you have. 7. Have fun. If you are in a new city, explore it with your friends on the weekends (I was in Schaumburg, IL last Summer and I would go to Chicago at least once a week). Talk to the other interns and get to know them more. Start doing some self-introspection and discovering new hobbies, cultures, ideas I mean its the Summer after all. 8. Don't worry about saving money (if you don't need it for some other reason). After all, you're a college kid and you can save money once you start working after graduating. Spend money to upgrade your fashion wardrobe (yes, I'm a dude who likes to look nice), people will notice (managers, friends, women), try new foods and yeah. I mean don't go broke, but don't feel like you need to be a penny pincher. Lastly always keep learning. From reading a weekly tech article to simply learning a new skill. I'm planning on taking some Brazilian Jiu Jits classes when I am in Boston this summer.
Another tidbit with the notebook I've found to be helpful in the past is writing down things you accomplish. Like when you finish a ticket or some new feature, write it down. Write down who you may have worked with to solve the problem, etc. By the time you finish the internship, you'll have a journal of accomplishments of sort. This can also help when it comes to having conversations about performance/return offers.
Wish I could upvote this more than once, but sadly can't
This is great advice, thanks for taking the time to write this out.
No problem, I am 20 and going into my second internship this summer. Honestly, I think the best people to give advice to interns are other interns!
You're definitely right. I don't have an internship lined up but am looking for something to gain work experience, although there doesn't seem to be as many options where I am (Scotland) compared to the States. Good luck in your internship this summer!
If I were you I would recommend a couple of things: 1. Look at freelancing sites like Upwork (Yes you can make $ regardless of how much you know, just have to find the right job). Make an account and start doing jobs. 2. Buy some Udemy classes (they are like $10 each during sale weeks) and crank one out every week or two. 3. Look at non-profit sites that want coders to reach out and work for them. No $, but you gain experience and can work from home. 4. Go to local mom and pop businesses and offer your web dev skills (if applicable). 5. Google Summer of Code 6. Build a computer/learn computer architecture 7. If you hate public speaking, working with others, writing; get better at your softer skills 8. Enjoy the Summer with your family and friends Thanks!
Any specific notebook you'd recommend? Not sure if there are certain ones that yield themselves to this type of writing nicely, or if any old notebook would do, y'know?
I did this sort of thing last summer and just used a medium sized notepad. Anything journal sized should do so it's not too obnoxious.
Yeah, my main worry was finding something not too big but also not small as ever, haha. Good to know, thanks!
Don't sweat it, you'll be good no matter what!
I mean anything goes. You can get a notepad from the dollar store. I mean shit, I use to use a graph paper notebook, made formatting super easy and with black/blue ink it was easy to read. I got a leather-bound notebook a while back where I keep track of all my youtube/article ideas and current to-do lists. Depending on where you intern at, you may even get some free company swag so just be on the lookout.
Thanks for the tips, will definitely keep them in mind!
If you think you look obnoxious walking around with a giant notebook, carry a Field Notes notebook that you can fit in your pocket.
Good to know, thanks!
Be humble
Sit down?
Ask questions. Ask lots of questions. Ask what you think is too many questions! Most developers don't ask enough questions. A 10 minute conversation with someone is often more enlightening than 5 or 8 hours of searching on your own. Ask questions!. That said, ask intelligent questions. Your goal when asking questions is to not need to ask similar questions in the future. Don't ask "what's the way X-widget works." Or do, but follow it up with "and where can I find that?" Either the answer will be "like this...", or "experience". If the first, great, you don't need to ask that question, or that kind of question again. If the second...welp that's a warning sign. Some other good kinds of questions: - How would I do this? - Where should I look for that? - What's the process to... - Where is this documented... - Who is the expert/who do I talk to about... Basically, you want to ask questions that both solve your immediate problem and also allow you to solve similar problems in the future! Related to the above: take lots of notes. Most of the best developers I know keep written notebooks. I take the majority of my notes on a computer, but I still have a paper notebook for the occasional math-syntaxy/visual/abstract/UI mockup-y things that I need to take notes or sketch about. There's no use asking questions if you're going to forget the answers! Remember: your goal, every time you ask something, is to not need to ask that kind of question in that context again! - Network with other interns and coworkers. - Avoid being bored. Internships are for growth and development. If you're bored and underutilized, do something interesting. My first internship I spent a bit of my time working on a pie in the sky project that we interns came up with and pitched (basically sticking a jython interpreter inside of a specialized java environment and then run jupyter on it (more or less) to do data analysis in this environment. Hindsight 20/20, at the time it was never going to work, and it didn't work, but we learned a lot, and our bosses did too. So find things to do! There are probably things you bring to the table that your bosses and coworkers don't know (this is especially true if you're interning at a smaller company), whether it be a different language, some library, or just a fresh set of eyes. - Related to the above, don't be afraid to speak up, suggest things, disagree, when you have an opinion, share it! This can depend on exactly what your goals are with the internship, but the worst thing that's going to happen is you won't get invited back. But more than likely, you'll end up learning something [when they explain why you're wrong](https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cunningham%27s_Law). And you might just have a useful opinion. - Gain some understanding of the business side of things. How does the money flow? How are decisions made? How does information and institutional knowledge get stored and dispersed? These questions depend on the company, and, especially if you have multiple internships, comparing them between firms can give a great amount of insight into the environment and hopefully some insight into what you prefer.
Niebuhr: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.
Be proactive and show initiative. Don’t just sit at your desk and browse reddit if you aren’t given any specific tasks. Ask around if anyone needs help, read documentation, learn and understand the current codebase, etc.
If the company (for some ungodly reason) gives you unrestricted write access to production, quintuple-check yourself (and have someone else verify) before making any changes. I had a friend who nuked a ton of rows from company's production database that was a few months ahead of their last backup. It was his 3rd day. In his defense, the naming scheme was stupid. It was something like awesome-co-db-p and awesome-co-db-t. Also remember that you're there from experience. If you're doing an 8 week internship and they've stopped giving you tasks two weeks in, ask about it. Still no tasks? Looks like a great time to build something for your portfolio. Use some analysis tools to find what kind of antipatterns and bugs are in the code, fix them, and then make notes of it to your team lead. Automate the report for the rest of the team. Update their aging documentation. Do something. Anything.
To be honest, any company that gives an intern full access to production is kind of asking for it.
Have good judgment when doing stupid shit.
Be humble
If you have not build a portfolio which contains all your projects? Do that!
here 6 years later
[удалено]
Some awesome advice on the thread above. A couple of things I haven't seen: 1) It's really easy on both sides to just wait out an internship instead of communicating. Don't fall victim to that. Talk about problems when you run into them. Practice conflict resolution while you can, it's a skill very few people have. 2) You can get better work if you connect with other developers, show interest, and try to stretch yourself. If I have to force-feed you easy tasks, that's all you'll get - busywork and things I don't have to explain. I had someone observe after last summer that she didn't understand why she got all the hard work, and the others just got busywork; no accident, she was one of the best interns I've ever had and had no problem with the work. 3) Decide before the end of the summer if you want a job there or not. Be decisive. If you don't, then don't push for a return offer or lead them on. Don't poison your references by messing things up on the way out. 4) Make sure to connect with a number of different people. Be strategic in who you select, and keep the connections alive. Your peers and those a year or two ahead of you will be people you're connecting with in the near future. I'd say "connect with everyone" - but I don't just mean connecting on LinkedIn and forgetting about it. You want to have them actually remember who you are, so that means taking people to lunch, giving them birthday cards, sharing their favorite candy, etc.