Working For A Small Web Agency
Normally in the first rank of internships, interns are tasked with the workload that seems tedious to the normal employees. This would include paperwork and other administrative like tasks. On the other hand, from the get-go, I was tasked with learning the foundations of computer science, thus establishing the sort of skills I needed to grow during the internship. I understood that because I had been hired for a relatively small team and during uncertain times, there was no time to lose. Not even a month in, I found myself comfortable with video conferencing and already collaborating on a new project, Simple.Help.
Simple.Help
The main project I had the pleasure of working on was the application for Simple.Help, a company aiming to motivate people to help someone 5 days a week for 5 minutes a day. Personally, I have never built an app or even a website. So the thought of producing a web app was intimidating. However, after going through two weeks worth of research into what is possible with low-code apps and thoroughly going through what our app needed to feature, it was hard to feel any fear of what I was doing. Additionally, it was impossible to feel un-included in the main production. Although we did hit roadblocks, I felt because of the solid foundation of research and design we built, I was able to quickly adapt and become flexible around such roadblocks and overcome obstacles that would have torn the project apart if there hadn’t been such planning. Looking back, I am more than satisfied with the effort of design preparation I had put into this project and glad of the adaptability I have developed from this experience.
Working Remote
Another unique element of working for Zimri was the fact that everyone was 101% remote. Although a majority of the industries today have moved to operating online, there was no transition for Zimri as we have always gone about it this way. Thus, communicating through tools like Zoom. Google Meet, and especially Slack did not feel foreign or indifferent. If anything, this made my skills in web communication and conferencing feel more comfortable which will be important for the following months as everyone will be expected to have fluency in this type of communication. A negative I found while working solely remotely was producing self motivation. In a traditional work setting, seeing coworkers surrounding you while collaborating on the same project is motivating in itself, so finding the same drive over a call or through instant messaging was at first a hurdle. Soon it will become easily integrated into my day, motivating myself will become a valuable asset for when I'm working alone on projects in the future, especially from home.
Was it worth it?
I can confidently say that this internship experience was 100% worth the time and energy. I have met expectations for myself and beyond. I expected to solely learn about backend development; however, my eyes were opened to a world of Computer Science components that go into any web related company. Learning about the optimization of search engine results was a big deal for me, as I did not know that it was even a practice, as well as other elements that I felt blind to until now. Furthermore, outside of the Computer Science realm I developed online communication skills that I can’t pay for or go to school for, all real experiences with real people. Nonetheless I am more than happy with my time at Zimri and I look forward to putting the skills they have put in my pocket to use.
