What you learn in your academic courses is limited compared to internship programs. I experienced it when I completed my major in Computer Science and joined a firm for my software development internship.
My internship journey started around a year ago. After completing my academics, I looked for different opportunities. Since I was inexperienced and needed to gain more experience in the tech space, I wanted to gain some initial experience. Finally, I found an internship as a QA developer.
However, I wasn’t pleased with my job role. But during that time, I learned more about software development and wanted to be a developer.
Finally, I got the opportunity to join as a software developer with a reputed company, and my new learning experience began.
Now that I have completed my software development internship, I’ll share the lessons I learned throughout my internship journey.
1. Wait for the Right Software Development Internship
This is the first impactful lesson I learned. The software development internship you’re looking for may not be around the corner, and you may have to wait for the right opportunity. This waiting time may adversely affect your confidence. So, utilise this time to learn something new and upskill yourself. You may gain more knowledge in the software development space or take up lessons that can help you grow in your professional life.
The bottom line is, don’t stress. Study the tech job market and keep trying. I have seen people get internships at great places after a long wait. Many of my friends have joined as full-time software developers after internships in the same company.
2. Working With a Large Codebase
This is a specific project-related learning experience I had during my software development internship.
In college, the projects had a maximum of 20-25 files. These projects were built in a week and were easy to understand. However, do not expect the same during your internship program.
During my internship, I worked on projects that had hundreds of files saved in multiple folders. It took me a month (if not more) to understand the project. Further, debugging those files took hours. So, be mentally prepared to work on more extensive databases. Be patient and take your time to understand the code.
3. Learning to Use a Version Control System Properly
Your software developer internship will teach you how to properly use a version control system.
Initially, I started building small software. So, I had lesser files backed up to Google Drive. But as I switched to working on more prominent software, I learned about GitHub. GitHub makes software development more accessible and more organised. I stored my codes safely and used the application to modify the master branch only. The app syncs everything in just a few commands.
Now, I use GitHub every day. It is an excellent tool for collaborating with teams when writing codes, and it also helps track and manage changes, distributed development, pulls requests, and more.
4. Understanding the Importance of Test-Driven Development
The test-driven development approach is significant during software development internships. Here’s how I learned about its importance.
The project I was working on required a code for an additional feature. I wrote the code, tested it, and deployed it to production after seeing that it worked perfectly. After some time, I used a real-time error reporting tool that showed several errors with the newly deployed code.
I started working on the errors, and after some debugging, I saw that all the errors were connected to one method. Now, if the method used in the code had test cases written for it and if I had checked if the test cases performed successfully, I could avoid the error. This made me realise how vital test-driven development is.
5. Writing Code That’s Maintainable
A maintainable code requires coordination across the organisation as it relies on being able to search, reuse, and change other teams’ codes.
During my software development internship, I learned to write maintainable code, knowing that someone else would use and improve or change my code. If I hadn’t focused on creating maintainable codes, any code change would have broken the other parts. As a result, it would have taken several days to get the codes right.
So, ensure focus on code maintainability in your software development internship instead of code functionality only. Once you write maintainable codes, generating codes that multiple teams use will be much easier.
Parting Notes
Getting into a software development internship never means that you must be perfect in your work, and you are bound to make mistakes and learn a lot from internships. So, you must keep your notebook and pen ready to note down everything you know during your internship and get ready to dive into the actual work experience!
If you want a headstart ahead of your peers, CodeQuotient is happy to offer its three-month paid internship program, SuperCoders. It simultaneously provides project-based learning for developing your skills and portfolio, and we offer placement assistance and valuable resources.
Contact us to learn more.
