This is the second installment of our Intern Diaries series, wherein each week our lovely interns try to give you the inside scoop on what being a programming intern at a high-tech startup is really like. Click here to read Part 1. 

Hello everyone! I’ve been interning at SoftArtisans for seven weeks now both in technical services and now in development. Here is what I have to say (in brief) thus far:

If you’ve read anything in this blog, you’ll correctly ascertain that SoftArtisans is a tight-knit community of very smart and friendly people. They have many interests and are all really good at what they do. The company still retains a startup atmosphere with weekly company lunches, soccer games (which I haven’t really participated in… I’m pretty terrible at soccer), and an overall casual atmosphere.

But I think it would be more interesting to talk about the things you wouldn’t know unless you worked here. Firstly, there is a very strong emphasis on learning especially as an intern. You are encouraged to ask questions and to truly understand the product and technology that you are working with, which is absolutely fantastic. Secondly, interning at SoftArtisans means that you are a contributing member of a team. Your practical knowledge is developed and valued in the group. Thirdly, working is very self-directed. This means that if there is a point where you don’t have something to do, you are encouraged to choose a task and tackle it! Finally, you get to listen to music as you work and can have lunch on the Charles River. Yay!

This whole internship has been a learning experience so it is very hard to think of the single coolest thing I have learned in the last seven weeks. So I guess I will tell you the top three coolest things:

Continue reading The Intern Diaries: Ingrid →

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This is the second installment of our Intern Diaries series, wherein each week our lovely interns try to give you the inside scoop on what being a programming intern at a high-tech startup is really like. Click here to read Part 1. 

Here I am, a few weeks into the coolest summer of my life. Usually I take classes, “work” by the pool, and travel. At SoftArtisans, I’ve been a bit more productive.  I’ve seen the usefulness of git and scrum, spent hours figuring out the few characters that determine a spreadsheet’s fate on an ipad, learned more than I’d ever thought I’d know about Excel spreadsheets, and even had a bit of fun. Without a doubt, the best part here has been seeing my work go straight into OfficeWriter. At Olin, nine out of ten times, my finished projects end up on a shelf or in some folder as a keepsake. Maybe I’ll break it out to show someone, but I rarely use them after they’re done. Here, I did work that was released a few weeks later. What I did as an intern could be used by people right now. It is quite the feeling.

So far, the most interesting thing I have learned has not been in the software, or even on the computer. I had never heard of scrum outside of the rugby field. Once I did hear about it, it still didn’t make sense to me. Why would you plan everything only two weeks in advance? How could a team function without a project manager? Why would you spend precious time every day telling people what you had done the day before?

So before I continue, the quick scrum explanation: work is divided into segments called sprints, which last a few weeks. Before each sprint, all the work that needs to be done over the next few sprints is broken up into smaller tasks and assigned a point value based on how long it will probably take and prioritized based on how important it is to the product. On the first day of the sprint, the team chooses what tasks they could definitely get done that sprint. Each day, there is a quick meeting where everyone simply and quickly explains what they worked on the day before and the challenges they faced. Finally, at the end of the sprint you have a meeting where you look back over the sprint and discuss what worked well, what didn’t, and what needs to change. Continue reading The Intern Diaries: Shane →

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