This post isn't to sound like I'm bragging nor it's meant to sound like I'm romanticizing my job. It's just my personal takeaway after 2 months undergoing the internship. I know my past few posts has just been all about my internship lol but bear with me. 

My first month went by pretty fast, maybe bcos it was WFH since the beginning of my time here. But everyone in my team is very welcoming and helpful. It was easy to connect with them so I never felt like I was struggling alone. The work style of my team also really suit my personal work style - fast response, frequent update and easy to ask questions with little to no misunderstanding. I just really like how everyone is always quick on their feet. I always hated when people don't take their work seriously (*cough* uni assignment group *cough*) and I'm glad everyone is so professional with their work here.

Despite being in a developer team, my company (KPMG), isn't a full-fledge software house. We are just a small software team and I can tell my seniors are also learning as they go through each project. To me, I really like that. I like how I don't have to be perfect and that we are all in the same boat despite our experiences. It helps to know that they can understand me if I'm stuck anywhere with my task considering I'm new to both the project and the programming language.

Another thing I'm grateful to my team is how they give me a lot of flexibility with my work. They seem to always understand me being a little slow bcos I'm still inexperience and they never push me too hard to complete my work. Of course, I also try my best to get it done ASAP so that I can do other work but it's the fact that I don't feel pressured, which makes it more enjoyable. There isn't too much of unrealistic expectation which is also good. The most they expect is for us to get the job done within the time given and that honestly goes without saying lol.

I'm also pretty blessed to start off with the tasks that I'm most familiar with. This is pure coincidence that I am assigned to do front-end and ended up continuing doing so for awhile. Then after that only am I assigned to the more complicated back-end. But even so, everything happen in small steps and I can really feel things are naturally making more sense as I go. It makes things less overwhelming and more interesting the more I do it.

But one thing about this job that may make or break it for some people is the little guidance you are expected to receive. I guess coding a project in a team forces you to not only understand other people's code but also requires you to straight away implement what you've learn without much time to go in-depth. Your knowledge is bound to be in small patches and you should be okay with not knowing everything. If you dwell too long on fully understanding one thing, you'll end up delaying the team and nobody wants that.

The key to cope with this kind of work environment is to jot down all terms and hints the seniors throw at you. You are kinda expected to understand the complicated terms they are using but there is no wrong with not knowing them too. I get that it gets reaaally overwhelming when you hear a bunch of new words and different complicated ways to solve something you thought was simple, but it helps if you take it all in first without questioning everything and slowly Google things one at a time. Don't stress yourself with all the new terms - worse come to worse, you'll just end up asking your senior again and again. But naturally, you'll come across the terms again and it'll make a lot more sense for you to figure it out that way.

The last reason why I enjoy it here is because of the never-ending task they have. This is one of the things that scares me initially. Like am I able to cope with working on multiple projects and all? But I guess they're manageable as long as you are discipline and work on your time management. It definitely isn't impossible. It just requires some sacrifices like having to study and make up to your time being slow at work, during non-work hours. As an intern, the worse thing that can happen to you is either not learning anything or not having anything to do. But out of  45 days at work, I don't have anything to do for only 4-5 days and the rest of the days, I'm literally grinding. I like that the culture is fast pace and it really sets the expectation high on my future career path.

Admittedly, this is the kind of environment that really suits me. It's weird to say but I really do feel like I belong working here. There are some imposter syndrome going on but I just consider it as a normal thing to feel and that everyone is bound to feel that at some point in their working life.

Last tip: Get involve in a local community of programmers! I learnt so much after joining a Telegram group consisting of programmers in the languages that I use. It's a good place to know the people in your industry.

Dropping by,