Blog Post 10

Entry #10

Prompt: Write a final reflection of the entire internship experience.

Date(s): 07/26 - 07/27

Activities: Learning and coding in Python

Technical Information: Anaconda distribution of Python

Reflection:

Overall, the internship was a great experience. Learning through the AOIT classes taught me a lot, but typing standard programs from a textbook can only teach you so much. Learning a brand new programming language while figuring out how to approach a relatively complicated problem gave me a deeper understanding of the language in a short amount of time, unlike a programming course. The internship was essentially a crash course in Python while exposing me to real world business scenarios.

Apart from the learning, the internship was also a fun experience. Talking to my supervisor during our lunches together about everything ranging from quantum computers to his time in college is something I will always remember. Though I am unsure specifically what I want to do in the future, this internship has bolstered my interest in Computer Science and its applications in the world. I now know that participating in internships can be very rewarding, and I plan to intern again in college.

Blog Post 9

Entry #9

Prompt: What major problems or frustrations have you experienced or observed in your work? How did you handle it?

Date(s): 07/24 - 07/25

Activities: Learning and coding in Python

Technical Information: Anaconda distribution of Python

Reflection:

There were times when I was stuck in my programs, which can be attributed to my inexperience in python. At times like this, it helped to take a break and just look up the documentation and observe simple implementations of the code and tweak them to see how it affects the results, and then later revisit my assignment. When this didn’t work, I asked my supervisor for help and he would show me some examples of how to do it but allowed me to try it myself without giving me the answer directly.

Blog Post 8

Entry #8

Prompt: What have you learned about yourself and what you want in a career?

Date(s): 07/20 - 07/23

Activities: Learning and coding in Python

Technical Information: Anaconda distribution of Python

Reflection:

As I mentioned earlier, I have always been interested in Computer Science, but I wasn’t too sure about what it is I truly wanted to do in the future. This internship experience reinforced that interest and now I’m more certain about my career path. However, I am also interested in science, so for my career I will likely implement computers into a science field, or explore machine learning or Artificial Intelligence. Computers are a part of every field nowadays, so finding a job should not be an issue no matter where I go, and I know I’ll enjoy what I’m doing.

Blog Post 7

Entry #7

Prompt: How has this experience affected or changed your career/college plans?

Date(s): 07/18 - 07/19

Activities: Learning and coding in Python

Technical Information: Anaconda distribution of Python

Reflection:

I always had a keen interest in computers, but I was worried a job in the IT field would be boring and tiresome. However, this internship showed me that even in the IT field there are topics that are very interesting to me like machine learning and automation. I want to explore more of this in college, and also explore Artificial Intelligence. This is why I selected to work towards a bachelor's degree in Computer Science in many of the colleges I applied to, and I look forward to doing more internships while I’m in college to gain a greater exposure in the field.

Blog Post 6

Entry #6

Prompt: How have your duties changed since you first started? Have you been given more responsibility?

Date(s): 07/16 - 07/17

Activities: Learning and coding in Python

Technical Information: Anaconda distribution of Python

Reflection:

At the start of the internship, I was just responsible for simple tasks and getting familiar with the python language. I wrote code for simple programs and researched the documentation. Once I was familiar with the language, we started to work on the main objective, and I was given a larger amount of work to accomplish independently. However my supervisor was very helpful whenever I needed assistance on the program, and pointed me in the right direction so I can continue working on it.

Blog Post 5

Entry #5

Prompt: What do you feel is your main contribution to your internship? What have you done at your internship that makes you proud? Why?

Date(s): 07/12 - 07/13

Activities: Learning and coding in Python

Technical Information: Anaconda distribution of Python

Reflection:

My main contribution in the internship was writing the program that analyzes the customer support complaints and categorizes them for how likely a customer is describing a certain problem. Prior to the internship, I hadn’t given much thought to real world business problems. Introducing the problem and implementing the solution was an invaluable learning experience for me. My assignment tied in to the company’s goal to automate everything, as manually reading and addressing every complaint would be time consuming and inefficient. This program would allow the company to quickly respond to their customers with helpful links and tips to FAQs or quick solutions to known issues.

Blog Post 4

Entry #4

Prompt: How is the internship meeting or not meeting your expectations/objectives and why? Do you have control of this? Explain.

Date(s): 07/10 - 07/11

Activities: Learning and coding in Python

Technical Information: Anaconda distribution of Python

Reflection:

The internship exceeded my expectations in how much I learnt during the process, as I learnt and got comfortable with a new programming language in a matter of weeks. I had control over how much I learnt, as I was often allowed to explore the language on my own and I spent a lot of time reading the documentation and doing simple tasks to become better at coding in python.

One thing I wish I had more exposure to and control over was how many people I worked with, as I only worked with my supervisor during the internship. I would have liked to talk to and collaborate with multiple coworkers and had a greater exposure to a corporate environment.