Great, humane working environment with engaged mentors and helpful support staff. The student assistant position I took is structured so that I get to spend about six weeks in each department of CISL (Computer Information Systems Library) which has afforded me the opportunity to get a broader view of operations and learn new skill sets which are all very applicable to my interests as an Information Science major
What I wish was different
I wish the rotation schedules were slightly different or flexible. On my first rotation I was staring to make real progress had produced a modest but challenging contribution and was starting to understand the system but could not implement any of my ideas. That said, it is a trade off either way and being able to get acquainted with various parts of this department has been a very rewarding experience
Advice
Make sure to have a communication strategy with your mentor (by email, regular appointments , as needed etc) because they have a large workload and will always make time for mentees but we want to use that time as productively as possible. Ask lots of questions, I have some IT/CS experience but almost everything, except command line linux was new to me. They understand that academic work takes priority just make sure you give as much notice as possible, the mentors and staff will work with you. It's a great environment where you will do interesting work (if you challenge yourself) and learn skills which, though specific to high performance computing , data archives, networking, security and others, will be almosy universally applicable in the IT/Data Science/CS fields and beyond
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Internship in Software Engineering
May - August 2019 • Boulder, CO
What I liked
Everything, the location, my mentor, my experience
What I wish was different
I had been there longer
Advice
if you can get in somewhere, and fully apply yourself to the good of the company, you will succeed
