Before I started working as an intern frontend developer at Nichelabs I was under the misconception that studying for a degree and working simultaneously is almost impossible. Therefore I feel like I unconsciously postponed applying for an internship. Although at the beginning of my final year I had no other choice but to apply for an internship. Since in order to graduate I was required to have a minimum work experience of 6 months and, thus began my internship experience at Nichelabs.
My First Impression of Nichelabs
After applying to many organisations for an internship opportunity I was finally offered the opportunity to work at Nichelabs. I was initially skeptical that Nichelabs’ culture might be too good to be true as this wasn’t like any ordinary workplace that I have heard of. But after I started working, the reality exceeded my expectations, developers had their own freedom to work in an environment that never proved to be boring. This culture and this freedom in my opinion made the team even more productive and moreover the team appreciated the work they did.
What I learned & How I learned it
Heading into my internship I was not sure what to expect but I was sure that I would make the most out of this experience and acquire as much knowledge as possible. On the very first day of my internship I was introduced to the team and my supervisors that I was going to work with, I was dumbfounded at the amount of experience and achievements that they had gained in such a short period of time. I made sure that I learn from every opportunity that I was granted with and was not hesitant to refer to my supervisors whenever I had any doubts. This constant exchange between me and my supervisors in my opinion helped me gain a lot of knowledge about various subject matter.
Most of my friends that had previously worked as interns for tech companies told me that for the most part of their internships the responsibilities they had were pretty minor and heading into my internship as well I thought that the same would be for me as well. I could not have been more wrong about this matter, the responsibilities that I were entrusted with were nothing like I expected in the best possible manner. I had the opportunity to directly work with clients which in my opinion does not come easy for an intern if at all it does.
Although I learned a lot about various technologies and important aspects of version control in my opinion the most valuable lesson I learned from my supervisors was the importance of planning. I always thought that if I had a basic idea of what work I was going to do throughout the day that would suffice. But once I was assigned with heavier tasks with higher complexity I had to learn to break the task down so that I know exactly what to do and at what point it should be done. Thereafter planning became routine for me before every task, which made my developer life that much more easier.
A Quick Thank You
I do not think it is possible to fit my entire internship experience into this blog as the amount of experience that I gained was invaluable to me. Moreover I gained so much exposure while working as an intern at Nichelabs that I became comfortable attempting any development task that I was assigned. I cannot thank my superiors enough for granting me with this opportunity and moreover placing their trust in me to deliver which in turn made me push myself to be my best version possible.
Finally I would like to leave you with this quote, “Interns are like not-cut diamonds; They have flaws, some of them are totally worthless, but once you cut them well, they can become something great one day, And that’s what I’m doing, I’m cutting diamonds…” – Barney Baszuro. And I whole heartedly believe that Nichelabs’ is cutting diamonds as well.
