What I’ve Learnt From Our Intern

Often people think internships are a one-way learning opportunity: only the intern is learning new skills and getting hands-on experience.

Incorrect. Internships are learning experiences for everyone in the business. Having someone come in with newly acquired knowledge, fresh eyes and new perspectives is refreshing and incredibly valuable to have.

It’s been a fantastic experience for me, and hopefully, Kieran got as much out of this as I did!

Here’s what I learned:

• Although Kieran is just starting out in the industry, he’s motivated and excited to learn — everything is exciting and new again!

• Having the right attitude and intelligence is more important than knowing everything. Tools and technologies change, plus half the battle with development isn’t the tools, it’s figuring out how the existing code base works and what your changes are likely to break.

• Knowing how to do something is a very different skill to articulating it and explaining it to someone else. It takes practice (and patience!). It was great for the rest of the team too, in that it gave them some exposure to exactly what goes into developing software. There is a lot of things that one takes for granted after you’ve been doing it for a number of years.

• When you’re stuck on a really curly problem, the act of explaining it to somebody else can often be enough to trigger a lightbulb moment. Collaborative learning, it’s powerful.

It’s been a great opportunity having Kieran in our office using the skills that he’s learned from his studies and seeing him get better and better each day.

If you’re reading this as a current student, Kieran has put together a “How To Survive And Succeed At A Coding Bootcamp” guide with actionable tips and relatable insights to help you on your journey.

For those who would like to host an intern at their business, get in contact with Coder Academy, as they have new cohorts graduating all the time.