Internships at CodeCoda as a Career Changer
We at CodeCoda, deeply involved with the Community of Developers and Technical Universities, care for the next generation of Software Engineers and UI/UX Designers. In regular intervals, we take on interns for long-term training, which last from 2 weeks up to 6 months.
...then I was introduced to VueJs which was quiet alien to me having only dealt with C and JAVA. Non the less by the end of the second week I started getting the hang of it. I’m glad I got to learn a new and very popular technology, which will come in handy at some point in the future. I was really surprised by the fact that everyone at CodeCoda was extremely helpful, ready to drop what they were doing in a heartbeat and go on explaining something for 30 minutes. And it wasn’t just Yanko - our tutor - who did an amazing job, but also the rest of the team…
We believe that by educating students and interns and allowing them to gain valuable practical experience, we give back to the community which sustains technology companies like ours.
The CodeCoda Academy is built around a single skeleton; to provide as much as possible expert insights and practice in advanced technologies. Experience has shown us that in an average group of 10 interns there is no single subject to satisfy all of them, as thus we must take an individual approach and work independently with each one of our interns. The differentiation in desired skills by each intern is the challenge which we needed to overcome. Applying a trial-and-error approach we figured out how to create the most engaging plan for each of the students, carry them along and challenge them to trigger their full potential.
I didn’t really know what I wanted to do in the future after university. The internship at Code Coda really helped me clear my mind and realize what I liked and what I didn’t like doing. I was a bit confused (a lot!) about whether I wanted to learn design (which sounded as the better alternative to me) or learn coding and start developing software. Now, that I have practiced doing UI design, I know, that I want to continue developing in that area, but I also want to start learning some coding as well. I learned how to do basic homepages, login and register screens and even a game page. There is so much more to learn, and this internship really inspired me to keep going!
Even though by terminology there is a difference between Internship and Apprenticeship, we try to combine both, giving value to the Interns by having them master a certain technology or topic, but be broad enough to give them enough insights into similar professions or at least the closely related ones.
CodeCoda is built by its core on the principles of Lifelong Learning, regular advancements in personal as well as hard and soft skills and learning challenges. This very core principles allows our staff and our interns to learn cutting edge technologies, which are heavily sought after in the industry.
The stories I am sharing give a clear picture about the benefits of internships. On one hand they allow the “undecided” to get a clear(er) picture of their future field of work and on the other hand connects us with potential candidates. Our interns tend to stay in contact even years after their official “graduation” from the CodeCoda Academy, either by offering their services or just stopping by for a chat and to share their experiences in life!
I took part in the 2018 Summer Academy program which lasted 3 months. One of its main goals was to get the me out of my comfort zone. The tasks given by the mentors were almost always related to something which I had never ever done before or something which I was not good enough at.
Before starting the internship, I was entirely devoted to only one technology, but after a few months I was involved in couple of different technologies. The tech stack which the internship program covered was both backend and frontend development. Another benefit of it is that the company has mentors capable of teaching trainees’ different technologies- from web and mobile development to AI and machine learning with different programming languages.
My most favorite task was the one which my mentor told me to rewrite my whole application in a technology which I had never used. I was building my application for 2 months and I somehow managed to rewrite it using ReactJS in only 6 days. Overall, I really liked the time spent at CodeCoda and also was impressed how informal environment may boost both motivation and productivity. Right now, I am software developer at CodeCoda, and I continue to use the knowledge which I received and continue growing day over day.
Some Tips for Students
Internships will give you
- Valuable Work Experience - Proactivity and dedication are career assets, which will bring valuable on-the-job experience to yourself and potential employers.
- Development of Skills - Internships allow you to develop commercial awareness. In the corporate world it is not all about hard skills, but also the soft skills such like communications and working in a team. Also, you will learn to solve real life problems, which are likely to be much different than the theoretical knowledge you acquired at University.
- Contacts & Job Prospects - Life is not only about skills, but also industry contacts. We, and any other company offering internships want to keep in touch, in case there are any opportunities. The easiest way to build up contacts is to get yourself a LinkedIn profile. If you don’t know what LinkedIn is, it’s basically a professional equivalent of Facebook, with less Instagram’s of food and more job opportunities. LinkedIn is a must for all soon-to-be graduates as it will allow you to keep in contact with people you worked for and build new relationships while you go.
With this blog post I wish to say a big “thank you” to the entire team at CodeCoda who cares so lovingly for our regular interns and allows CodeCoda to grow as a company by knowledge and by reputation.
Our personal philosophy and company culture placed somewhere between openness, helpfulness and the agility we need to compete in a global environment are what make CodeCoda a great place to work. We have been training over 500 Students over the past couple of years.
Drop us a line if you want to learn more about our internships or the CodeCoda Academy! If you are a student, 3rd or 4th year and you want to be an Intern at CodeCoda, you can apply voluntarily by sending an email to: edu@codecoda.com
