Today I'm picking up where I left off and starting my first day as a full time Software Engineer at IBM so here are 5 things I learned in my 16 month internship (2020-21)👇
⭐️ Show Initiative
Volunteer to work on things and do your best to own entire projects. This means volunteering to plan, design, develop and ship. Obviously this requires a lot of trust from your team so do your best to earn this trust.
🎰 Take Risks
This goes hand in hand with showing initiative. Take risks and you will be rewarded. They don't have to be big risks, just being confident enough to volunteer your ideas in a call will reward you.
🧠 Learn as much as you can from your mentors, and even fellow interns
Observing how your mentors operate day-to-day will give you a blueprint of where you need to be at. This is the target you are aiming for and you should do everything you can to help the other interns in your cohort achieve this, and vice-versa.
🙋♂️ Ask Questions... But not too many
At the end of the day as an intern, you're there to learn and enjoy your experience. Asking questions from experienced engineers who have been there before is so valuable. But you also have to remember their time is valuable, so spend time really thinking about your question. "It's not working" won't get you anywhere.
🎉 Have fun with it
This is the most important one. I never expected to work from home all 16 months, so I definitely missed out on lots of office ping pong and lunches. But that doesn't stop you from sending memes over Slack. If an office get-together is planned, attend it!
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