Jama recently welcomed a few new members to the team including Jason, an intern in the development and support team.  Jason isn’t your average intern, he came to Jama with years of real-world experience from Autodesk, a degree in computer science and the desire to make a career change to help us shape the Jama internship program into something more meaningful than the average internship. I asked Jason to provide his perspective on his first week.

When looking for an Engineering internship, I had a couple of simple objectives.  I wanted to learn as much as possible every day and I wanted an environment where I could make tangible contributions that make an impact.  While those requests seemed modest enough, I knew that all too often internships didn’t provide either.   I had heard way too many stories about internships where the interns repeat the same tasks every day, never getting a feel for how the company operates outside of the intern’s niche role and responsibilities.  Or worse yet, the internship is full of minor odd jobs such that when the internship is over, the intern can’t point to any one major accomplishment for which they will be remembered.

Heading into my internship at Jama, though, I knew this one was going to be different.  In my role, I was going to be involved in multiple aspects of the company and I was going to have the opportunity to make a significant contribution with everything that I did.  My first week did not disappoint.  The good people at Jama made it clear that the work I would be doing would be a valuable experience for me and an important contribution to the company.  They also made the point that they would provide the flexibility to let me blaze my own career trail and find the areas where I could contribute most.  You would expect little redeeming work to come out of a first week.  But, in my first week, I dabbled in a little of everything, from testing the Contour requirements management product, to learning the software development environment and exploring the product architecture, to responding to customer support requests, and even sharing ideas about marketing and customer outreach.

While getting a well rounded experience and making valuable contributions are my biggest goals, there is more to like about Jama.  Like the office environment, where there is clearly an open, positive atmosphere.  There isn’t a hint of company politics to be found and everyone seems to have a customer focus and a passion for product innovation and designing Contour to be a great app.  And, of course, the downtown location and the food cart access it provides.  At my last job, I ate lunch from the same chain restaurants every day.  Now, I have a world to choose from…literally.  While the internship may not send me around the world, I’ve already experienced Thailand, Vietnam, Poland and Slovenia through the infamous Portland food cart cuisine.

Jama is growing fast and is hiring additional interns and full-time employees, visit our Careers page to see current job openings.  Join us.  Let’s build great products.