{"id":23824,"date":"2017-02-14T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2017-02-14T17:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jamasoftware.com\/?p=23824"},"modified":"2023-01-12T16:54:32","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T00:54:32","slug":"6-things-you-need-to-do-at-the-start-of-your-software-internship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jamasoftware.com\/legacy\/blog\/2017\/02\/14\/6-things-you-need-to-do-at-the-start-of-your-software-internship\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Things You Need to Do at the Start of Your Software Internship"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Starting a new internship can be intimidating; new responsibilities, new people, new office, and perhaps the most daunting of all, a new codebase. With so many new things, it\u2019s easy to become overwhelmed and want to dive straight into the code. I\u2019ve had the opportunity to be in five software internships over the past few years through the Portland Cooperative Education Program<\/a> (PCEP) and as a result, have learned enough to compile a list of things to do at the start of an internship. I hope the following things help you start off on the right foot:<\/p>\n

1. Complete Onboarding<\/strong><\/p>\n

When it comes to onboarding, every company does it differently. If you are a part-time intern like I was most of the time, this is a good time to establish the hours you\u2019re going to be working with your team. Make sure to give yourself time to get from school to the office and vice versa. More importantly, make sure you\u2019re not too overloaded to do your schoolwork.<\/p>\n

2. Introduce Yourself<\/strong><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t learn the importance of making a proper introduction to my coworkers right away. I\u2019d spend hours on end banging my head against a wall (metaphorically) because I didn\u2019t want to ask for help from someone I didn\u2019t know. If I had introduced myself and gotten to know them earlier, I would\u2019ve felt a lot more comfortable asking for help. Feel free to invite people for coffee or lunch and take every opportunity you can to go with someone who invites you. You\u2019re being hired on as an intern to work with your team, not to be a lone wolf who tries to solve all their own problems.<\/p>\n

3. Settle into Your Environment<\/strong><\/p>\n

I had an internship where I did didn\u2019t get my computer until two weeks in and had to read out of a textbook. Hopefully this is a rare experience, but\u00a0if you don\u2019t have what you need don\u2019t be shy about asking for it and following up with IT.<\/p>\n

In my experience, setting up my dev environment has been tedious. Most companies do not have a well documented process, so this is where some assistance from a co-worker will be really helpful. Asking them for help shouldn\u2019t be a problem now because you\u2019ve already introduced yourself. Now is a good time to download any programs you use for productivity and configure your IDE to adhere to the code style of the team.<\/p>\n

4. Get the Lay of the Land<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once you\u2019re all set up, you can actually start learning. If you don\u2019t already know about git<\/a> (or any other Version Control Software), I highly recommend you to learn it. It\u2019s absolutely crucial to figure out how VCS is used before diving into the code.<\/p>\n

You should also get familiar with the programming language(s) that the application is using and the parts of code that your team works with. Watching a few videos and then doing an online tutorial or two helps me get comfortable with the code. Once you\u2019ve got a better grasp on the language, you should take a look at the structure of the code for the application. Some things to look out for are:<\/p>\n