Initial Thoughts
This past summer, I was lucky enough to be able to intern at AppDynamics (remotely of course). This was my first ever internship and it was really cool. Before the internship I was very nervous because I was not so sure what I was going to be doing. Luckily I was joining with other people I have met before. Before our first day of internship I met everyone at AppDynamics in a webex call. My initial thoughts before beginning this internship was lots of joy and excitement because these opportunities are rare and even more so in a time like this where people are losing their jobs, so I am very lucky and happy I was able to be a part of this. I also had to keep in mind that I would have to find a work life balance to handle the work not only because I was also taking online classes but also because of the many anxieties that this year has brought. In the end I think I was able to balance school, work and my personal life well and I’m glad I wasn’t discouraged to take this internship.
First Week
The first week was very interesting and not at all what I expected. We started out by setting up our accounts and security things, getting to know more about the company and going over what we were going to be doing as interns. We were a group of seven interns, all with different backgrounds and skills. I was very nervous in the beginning because as with any first work experience you feel a pressure to know how to do everything. Of course this is not true at all, but this was made very clear as I went on in the internship.
What I Did/Learned/Takeaways
During the internship, we got to work on a really cool project for a company. This was super exciting because we were given the opportunity to create something for someone to be able to use and help solve a problem that they had. My role in this project was to work on the frontend, which is something I don’t really ever work on so this was definitely a learning experience. Once we got to working on the project, we had biweekly meetings with the company to talk about progress and next steps. Our first meeting was very cool and we got to see in real time what being a sales engineer looks like. During our first meeting I was very nervous, but as I presented what I had worked on, it was very natural and I felt confident talking about my work. Once we finished presenting, the company told us that they really liked our ideas and what we had so far. They were very engaging and it was nice to see that they liked what we had been working on and what we were creating.
Through this internship, I have learned a lot of things both technical and interpersonal. I got to learn a lot about other careers in tech such as devops, sales engineer (which I never heard of before but is big at AppDynamics) and others. I got to learn about working and communicating with a team, which I had previously done in only small work environments (ie school, small projects) and not in working in a company. I got experience working on a project on Github in a collaborative environment which I had previously only had little experience with. This internship felt like a good experience to finally put my skills to the test from all the personal projects I’ve done as well as what I learned from school. It was also very encouraging and reassured me that I am capable of doing more and working and being in these environments.
Thanks
This was my first ever internship experience and it was truly great. I loved working with my team, everyone was super nice and supportive both the interns and the AppDynamics team. I want to give a huge thanks to everyone at AppDynamics for making this a great experience. I would like to thank Richard Paul, Paul Savietz, Micheal Sickles, Brian Handley who worked with us everyday and helped us throughout the whole internship. I would also like to thank my mentor Cameron Smith for mentoring me for over a year now and always showing dedication and meeting with me, helping me through my journey in tech and overall making me feel more than prepared. Lastly I would like to thank Leo Sosa and DevMisson for making this opportunity possible and providing me and the community with many opportunities that otherwise would not be available.