This past summer I worked as a software development intern for Bank of America. I was responsible for building four full stack web applications. Furthermore, I created machine learning models to automate and simplify business processes.
Bank of America has 207,000 employees and last year brought in a technology intern class of over 400. This comes with a lot of benefits and drawbacks. Namely, the bank has a sizable budget that it uses to invest in talent and resources that help the bottom line. Unfortunately, this also comes with the fact that you as as developer are just 1 in 207,000. You may get to know half of the floor you work on but the chance you know 1% of the company is tiny. The experience of being a small fish in a big pond led to my personal discovery that I want to work in a smaller company where I have the freedom to innovate quickly.
In addition to discovering that I enjoy the freedom afforded by a smaller company I also realized how much I enjoy leading a team. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to lead a 3 fellow development interns this summer as we worked on web apps in languages and frameworks we had never worked with before. I realized that while delivering on your own is nice because you only have to rely on your own knowledge, it is far more rewarding to create solutions as a team because the impact that they can have is much greater.
No specific event stands out in my mind when it comes to how my viewpoint changed. It was more the culmination of my experiences this summer. For example, frequently when I needed resources or access it would take days and sometime a week before the requests were granted. This had a significant effect on productivity as it became difficult to move forward with my projects without anyone to answer the questions. Furthermore, when I would ask a question I would be bounced around between different people before I got the answer I was looking for. In a smaller company, I would be more likely to already know the person who has the answer to my question.
In terms of learning how much I enjoyed leading a team that was also a viewpoint that I developed throughout the summer. It began in the first meeting that I had with my bosses. The three of us (interns) all sat around, nervous, and unsure of what to say. I elected to speak up and from there my role was solidified. I took the lead whenever we talked about our production progress and where to focus our development efforts and from there grew into my role as a leader. Towards the middle of the summer, we began presenting our projects to senior leadership. We had to speak in front of roughly 75 people and my other teammates struggled when they had to present especially in front of such a large group. As a result, I was forced to take over the presentations for my team and grew further into my role.
Fortunately, my leadership and coworkers were very supportive in helping us interns grow as both people and employees. My presentation and problem skills evolved this summer by being placed into uncomfortable situations with high expectations and short deadlines. When your internship is ending in 3 days and you keep find bugs in your production code it really sets the tone for how you need to perform. It establishes a work ethic that I can take back with me to my coursework and to any future endeavors.
In my major, Computer Science, experience is valued significantly more than coursework. Programming is a skill that is refined over time through a lot of practice and can be difficult to teach in a course alone. Furthermore, the internship provided me with valuable experience both as a developer and as business associate. I can carry this experience forward to help me accomplish my personal career goal of running my own company. I now understand how to take a technical challenge and turn it into a revenue producing business and that knowledge will be invaluable as I move forward.
