Q&A with Krzysiek on his internship at Kiwee

The second post featuring our 2018 Interns - this time Krzysiek, who reflects on his work at Kiwee as a Full Stack Developer Intern. Based on successful results of his work, Krzysiek is now full-time at Kiwee as a Junior Full Stack Developer.

If you're wondering how is it to have a developer internship in a tech company while you're still studying - read on! 🙂

1. Quick intro?

Hi, my name is Krzysiek. I’m 21 and I’m studying Computer Science at Wroclaw University of Science & Technology.

2. Why did you choose Kiwee for your internship?

I was at a career fair at my University when I saw Kiwee’s stand. They really stood out from other companies. I was a little bit disappointed when I saw that they are writing mostly in PHP and Javascript as I didn’t really have any experience working with those technologies. Then I spoke to Karolina from Kiwee, and she convinced me that I should give it a try and solve the technical task that was the first step of the recruitment process. After a quick research on Kiwee’s website, I knew that this is the place where I would love to have my internship 🙂

3. What was your work scope and set of tasks?

My first “real” task was to create an email footer in HTML based on the delivered design. Though it was a relatively small and easy task, it was very nice to know that I’m working on something that will be really used by the team. For few weeks we were working on accessibility for Kiwee’s website. The last month we spent on developing an internal application using Vue.js and Node.js together with GraphQL for an API. We were working on this project together with Serge, Kiwee’s second intern this summer, and I really liked the fact that we had a lot of freedom from the beginning, we were able to choose and propose the technologies that we would like to use and learn, we were discussing the architecture and tasks.

 

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A post shared by kiwee (@kiwee.team) on Aug 24, 2018 at 3:12am PDT

4. What’s one thing you did not expect to see in Kiwee that positively surprised you?

I definitely didn’t expect to be that much engaged in company’s life in general. We were attending various meetings, from daily scrums through planning meetings to very intense and interesting brainstorming sessions for a new project. As interns, we always had the same right to propose our ideas as any other member of a team. Another thing that I didn’t expect to be that cool was the mentorship program. Every time when I was struggling with something for too long, Konrad (my mentor:)) was eager to help me and was always very patient. The idea of monthly goals that I choose myself and then realise under the guidance of my mentor was also great.

5. What was the biggest challenge you had to tackle during the internship?

The biggest challenge was to understand that some tasks can take more than they are estimated for. I remember how much stressed I was when working few days in a row on one task and I could barely see the progress. Even though many people were telling me that it may happen, for me personally it was hard to cope with. But after a discussion with my mentor I realized that it just happens sometimes, and we can’t predict everything when estimating the tasks.

6. What are the biggest learnings you have after this experience?

I really appreciate the knowledge I gained during the internship at Kiwee. During the development of an internal app I was able to learn a lot of new and trending technologies. But apart from the technology stuff, the most important for me was that I learned how to work in a team and how the whole development process looks like. At the university we never really have the possibility to work in a team, which I think is one of the most essential skills to have for a developer.

 

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A post shared by kiwee (@kiwee.team) on Sep 20, 2018 at 3:47am PDT

7. A LOL moment you will never forget?

There were many of them for sure but one day was exceptionally abundant in funny moments and it was the photosession day. First, we had a ‘live’ stand for the reflector, then one of us dressed as a stalker. Later we were trying to take a photo on which everybody jumps at the same time, but somehow we didn’t notice that we switched to Polish. After counting down in Polish everyone jumped… well, almost everyone. Enzo, our developer from Italy, just stayed on the ground and he was very surprised by what just happened.

8. What would you say to future Kiwee’s interns?

Don’t be afraid to try! Even if you don’t have experience specifically in the technologies that are used at Kiwee, it’s worth applying 🙂 The atmosphere at Kiwee is just amazing, and it’s a perfect opportunity to gain your first experience being in the web development world.

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