Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Sam. I just recently graduated from the University of Georgia with my Bachelors of Science in Computer Systems Engineering.

I am a Entry-Level Software Developer learning the in and outs of the Tech industry, constantly learning from those far more seasoned than me of how to go about finding a job or more internships, fighting against the stigmas and gatekeeping at all corners, all during the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

I hope this blog can help resonate with anyone who has yet to get the momentum going in their job search in landing an internship or getting an idea of what to keep in mind while applying for a job. I am on the same boat as you, navigating to find the ideal company and role that can foster growth and creativity. It's a process, especially with the current COVID-19 pandemic, but we will be alright.

How It Started

For full transparency: This was my first and only internship I successfully started, worked, and finished in. I know, I graduated and I should have a list full of internships right?

Wrong.

I had to battle a lot of personal illnesses in addition to losing loved ones over the course of my undergraduate studies. It humbled me in many ways I never expected. I was juggling a lot on my mind and also working on prioritizing my mental and emotional health, which became apparent and even more of a solid part of me during my college years. And also? I got unlucky. Very unlucky. Many times I managed to snag an offer, but somehow, someway,

It always fell through. It was disheartening I'll admit. I felt the universe was against me. I felt my impostor syndrome get the best of me. However, I was determined that I will have something before I graduate.

So I applied. Got on LinkedIn, AngelList, you name it. I was on all of them to try and find something. Then I got hit with GPA requirements. I held a steady 2.73 GPA. I am very proud of this GPA too because it could've been worst despite all I was enduring, but it wasn't and for that, I am grateful. However, this made the process even more hard because to an outside view, I was labeled lazy, poor work ethic, incapable of holding a position.

So I struggled.

This lead to a lot of frustration. I talked to friends about this and I was telling them:

Maybe it was a mistake for me ever thinking I could be a successful Black woman in STEM.

My friends saw me write down my journey in college throughout the years and sympathized with my pain, especially being so close to the finish line. The pandemic also did not make things better, as we were in the starting point of locking down and being stuck inside our homes for months to come back in 2020. It was a turbulent time.

Then a friend, who I will refer to as S. messaged me and said

Hey! I know you were looking for online jobs. My husband is an engineer with a company called ExoAnalytic Solutions. He said they sometimes take paid interns who are still in school..... I don’t know if this is helpful, or even what you want to do, but if you look at the company & think it’s something you want to pursue, he would love to look at your resume.

At first, I was unsure of whether or not I could take this job. My impostor syndrome kicked in, screaming at me that I could disappoint and I could not do it. I was alone in my college apartment, in my room as it was pouring rain outside, literally debating on can I get through the process and hope this goes somewhere. So I took a deep breath, pulled up my resume, emailed my resume to my friend's husband's work email.

And waited.

All while my impostor syndrome yelled at me saying, "You made a huge mistake, you're only going to embarrass yourself."

Even as I sat through the interview, chatting it up with the team I'd work with and why I wish to work with them, while I did the technical assessments, I was frightened every step of the way because I lacked confidence in myself.

Yet in the end, I got the offer letter to be an intern for the duration of the summer, in the midst of a pandemic, and was being paid too while working in the comfort of my room.

I went to sleep that night crying, not out of sadness, but for hearing the barriers set in front of me, cracking away slowly.

I did what my mind felt like I couldn't do. All those rejections from past internships, lead me to this one yes that came from just reaching out to a friend.

The power of networking.

What I learned from the Internship

It was quite an adjustment, waking up every day during the weekday knowing I had a company to report to, meetings to hop onto and contribute, discussions with team member on the project I was tasked to do. I was nervous at first and I was open about it. I am grateful for the fact the company was kind and understanding, knowing that first week nerves happen to everyone and it only shows I cared.

One thing that I learned that may seem silly to others, but it definitely helped me: Google Calendar.

Now, prior to this I actually didn't like Google calendar much nor did I feel the need to use it. I usually had a planner where I wrote stuff down and check things off. However, I started getting tired having to always buy the latest agenda as the years changed and especially how I went into 2020 feeling the need to be productive and bought myself an agenda of where I would go out and do, and it goes without saying how that turned out for me and for many others.

My team loved using Google Calendar to plan weekly meetings where we review each other's code and where we are in our development progress, asking questions and helping one another get through a code block. Over time, organizing my time and planning meetings became a regular thing for me because it helped me micromanage all that I had to do. I usually tend to get stressed out when so much is on my plate and feeling as though there is no end to it. Yet, when I put it on Google calendar with deadlines of what needs to be accomplished, I found myself realizing it isn't as bad as my mind made it out to be! Thus, this made tackling my assignments easier.

Sometimes, taking what conceptually seems like a hard task and converting it into small chunks, does more good than harm and can help in the diagnosing of where one can be stuck at. For example, at one part of the project I was working on, I was stumped in how to proceed because it involved utilizing the company's internal libraries which I wasn't too familiar of all the in and outs.

The first hurdle I had to come to realization with and understand is the biggest thing ever that was not something common for me to know:

It is okay to not know everything in development and it is okay to ask for help. The reasons as to why this was hard on me was because of the college mindset I was so used to. In assignments for coding, the help we got were very limited office hours with professors in a classroom size of 120+, TAs that were students themselves occupied with their own coursework and couldn't always answer everything, in addition to lack of tutoring available for said courses, especially in the higher-leveling. For my assignments, we weren't allowed to use resources such as Stack Overflow or get inspiration from a code to tweak it. We had to use our book, our PowerPoint slide lectures that were vague, and our not-always-available professor. It was hard to realize how the setting is different and I am not in a classroom, I am in a professional virtual work environment. I always reached out to team members, apologizing for being a bother in asking them for help and they always kept saying to me:

You should not apologize when your role is to learn at the stage you are now. Whether an intern or entry-level, you are a learner first before a doer. You are working by actively learning. It is okay.

I appreciated the reassurance. Sometimes, it's something that can be easily forgotten how we are only human, and we need support in many ways no matter how new or how experienced we are. And there's that old saying that goes, two heads are better than ones. Or in my internship experience, it was roughly 10 heads :-) .

Another thing I learned while doing this internship was, take a leap of faith and try something you never have done before, you might end up liking it! When I started this internship, all I knew was Java, C, and C++ which is what majority of my class assignments were done in. However, I felt as though I wanted to program in a different language, but I was not made aware of other languages besides these three. Thanks to this internship, I got introduced to Python. I fell in love with coding in it, even though I was starting from scratch during the internship as it looked closer to the human language and it was easier for me to tell the program what I want for it to do. Even to this day, I am still learning about all that Python has to offer, because it allowed me to create something out of nothing that ended up being of great benefit to ExoAnalytic. Of course, I was nervous and I was always sending messages or requesting meeting times with my team members more comfortable with Python, but they encouraged me to reach out and said it is totally fine to ask for help because that is what should be done for one starting out in their journey. For that, I am grateful.

The biggest thing that was a hurdle for me to pass through was the brown bag presentation I had to do of my project. I thought it would be me just presenting to the office I was based under for my internship, but no:

I had to present to over one hundred members in the entire company from various states, included the founder/CEO himself. My impostor syndrome was the loudest it could ever have been as I thought about how I will present my project and show a live demonstration, how I worked on my PowerPoint slides and practiced how I would time spending on each slide and handling any questions sent my way. Even though it was virtual, I still felt as though I was on stage in front of an audience at a theatre.

However, I did not want to let the efforts of my friend and her husband and my Software team who cared to be a support, go to waste. I went into that presentation with a shaky voice and a loud impostor syndrome in my mind telling me I can't do it,

But I pushed forward. And I got a standing(virtual) ovation with the CEO himself absolutely loving what I created and was invested into how genuine and sincere I was about being nervous, but appreciated the opportunity of being around them.

And with that, my internship experience was over. The days following after, I said my goodbyes on calls and I sent heartfelt thanks to the team and my supervisor, because they helped me accomplish my goal of having an internship while I was in college, during unprecedented times and I appreciated their flexibility and willingness to invest in me and pay me as I learned.

What happened after the internship

This was the letter that came into my inbox few days after the internship was over, to my utmost surprise:

Needless to say, I shed a few tears at the validation I needed, especially as a Black woman in STEM. This letter I printed out and kept in a folder of future accomplishments to look back as I grow in my journey of what I am capable of when I push myself to it. This validation from a company gave me the fire within me to fight for what I know is best for me, what I want others to experience the same thing in their journey, and what needs to be changed in the Tech industry.

It may not seem much to others who may have more experience and opportunities to work at places to me, but as an entry-level developer, this internship opened my eyes in knowing that I want to be the best Software Developer I can be, to step out of my comfort bubble and network with people because opportunities lie in people and not on just job listings, that can only get you so far.

As I navigate post-grad life and in search for a full-time job in places I am determined to go to as I juggled the pros and cons of locations, I keep into my heart what I found in this internship and apply it to my current journey. I faced a lot of rejections as of lately, some companies giving me the workaround and stringing me along for as long as 4 months, only to end in rejection. Many technical assessments did not resonate with me as they did me a disservice of my capabilities. Many abstract problems and algorithm questions that turned the gears into my brain on overdrive and made me feel inadequate,

Only gave me the insight that perhaps that company is incompatible with me. And that's okay.

However, just as it took that one yes for me to make an impact on my life,

I know my yes is waiting for me out there in a company that will take me in to invest in me and allow me to flourish with them and help the company grow. I may be slow at times in learning, but once I understand something, I'll pick up the pace and give my all.

This is my trek into tech. It can only go up from here.

I hope this story can help resonate with any fellow job seekers out there or any company out there looking to make a difference in the process of onboarding entry-level developers.

We are here, ready to be taken up and invested in if given the chance. We just need that "yes" to do so.