My Internship Experience: A Trip To Self Realisation

The worth of undergoing an undergraduate internship cannot be over emphasised as it has widened my field of view, intensified my connections, and changed my mindset. A mindset most graduates struggle to transform into.

As a year 4 student in my University, it is compulsory to undergo 24 weeks of internship in any desired organisation, as far as it is pertaining to one’s course of study.

I heard about How Do You Tech from a friend, they needed a female intern for their pilot village hub, I applied for the position nevertheless on their career website.

I got a mail from them requesting for an interview and got so nervous to be honest. Also because it was a virtual interview done via Skype. The interview went smooth, my interviewer smiled a lot, and those moments I knew this was a plus despite the poor internet connection from my end.

One of the things that saved me though was the fact that I actually prepared for the interview. I went through the company’s website and did a lot of research on them, keeping all the necessary information in mind.

To cut that story short, I resumed the following week after the interview with the thought of learning and working with a lot of codes, codes & codes. But no, about 80% of that thought was shattered on my very first day. I realised even though coding was going to be a thing, it was not the main deal or focus of attention.

Soft skills as Mary likes to call them were the focus of attention, especially communication skills. I reported to Mary throughout my internship.

One thing that will always stay with me is how my communication skill really improved within just a few weeks. I have a wide teeth gap and I have always thought it was the main reason behind me not flowing with talking especially at public places, but I was wrong.

With some motivation from Mary, I found myself speaking more fluently and conveniently. She knows how to put one on the spotlight, scratch that, she will put you on the spotlight very often, never judging your performance while at it.

Many of the tasks given to me mainly had to do with communication and a lot reasoning, being proactive. Another thing I have improved on is my searching skills, in no time I became an HdyTech Ninja, haha, so you must know that speed and stealth when it comes to searching the web for useful and relevant answers has become my thing.

Generally, I got exposed to a lot of problems I could solve using tech and a lot I could achieve with it. Networking with different people was also a plus for me as I got to attend a WordCamp, a hackathon, a JavaScript Virtual Meetup, and got introduced to WordPress.

You can’t work with Mary and not be introduced to WordPress, especially since she believes everyone should share their personal stories on their blog for others to learn something from. I created one here and its still a work in progress.

After just about two months, I became the community manager at Uwani Hub and started teaching newbies and amateurs who are beginners to computer technologies. I even also tutored a few people on building functional websites and blogs using WordPress.

I taught HTML and CSS a little during the summer camp. This part was the most interesting for me as I was challenged and I realised the more I teach, the more I understood it better.

This has been my main driving force to keep coding and pushing myself further, nobody wants to be mute when a student asks a question right?

Beyond the experience of learning; I got  a straight view at what working as an adult looks like, and I have realised that having a clear thought process is important.

I am more aware of myself and my surroundings, I use my strengths and weaknesses to build myself beyond what we learn in academia to add value to every situation I find myself in.

So here is my word of advise to my fellow Nigerian youths: There are really a lot of opportunities on the internet, the web does not begin and end with social media, empower yourself with relevant information on the web. Some months ago I knew nothing about programming language, but now I do, and I’m looking forward to learning more and solving problems with that knowledge.

8 thoughts on “My Internship Experience: A Trip To Self Realisation”

  1. Thank you, Adedotun, your post really moved me.

    There are really a lot of opportunities on the internet, the web does not begin and end with social media

    This message can never be spread loud enough! 👏👏👏

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