Internship worries!!

kavo87

Hey guys!

Just start 3rd year cs in nci part-time. As with most courses in 3rd year you've to do workplacement. As I'm part-time I have a full-time job so gonna have to take leave from
from work to complete this.

This is where my worries start to set in. Not only am I worried financial but also the fact been completely honest I don't feel I have the required skills to hold down an internship. My coding skills are basic we use java, I had just enough knowledge to get me this far. I'm a family man so I've a partner child and a house to run so through my own fault bad time management I haven't practiced enough on coding and working on some side projects which is why my coding I consider poor.

I've to sort out an internship by next month, when I look at the required skills I just don't feel I qualify for any. Yes I want to improve my skills and the internship is perfect for this but I don't want to make a fool out of myself.

Any advice is welcome I know I've to improve my java and other languages like css javascript but can I improve to were I'm at a stage I'll be seen as good enough in a such short space of time. Workplacement starts in January.

Thanks for taking time to read this. Hopefully I make sense.

Kavo87

CrookedJack

Hey Kavo,

I understand your stress, i was in pretty much exactly yht e same boat last year. I studied in NCI, and went into the internship interview feeling like a complete imposter. I certainly was not the best coder, and like you i wasn't able to devote all my free time to improving this. I ended up only doing one interview for an internship which i thought went really badly, it was much more technical that i was expecting and i muffed a few simple answers. But... they took me, said i was hands down the best candidate. I was just expecting WAY too much from myself.

Again, when i started the internship i was panicking. I had the same doubts, that i didn't know enough, that i wouldn't be able to cope with what was thrown at me. And again i was wrong. I coped, and more than coped. It was really tough, sometimes nearly too much, but i learned more in my time there than i did in the previous two years studying. And i learned something else - almost EVERYONE working in IT secretly worries they don't know enough and everyone is better, mostly because no one is expert in all areas. It was a very positive experience.

My internship was supposed to be six months but they asked me to stay on for ten. then the following spring they offered me a developers position, before i even sat my exams.

You see like you I'm a mature student and had spent more than a decade rising in my previous career, and i was judging myself by that standard. You may be doing the same.

Trust me, you have skills which are much harder to learn, most grads spend the first couple of years learning to function as actual adult members of the workforce, let alone interns.

Feel free to PM if you have any more specific worries or questions, but trust me - you'll be fine!

Elessar

Hey OP,

I'm second year part time in the same course. What we've been told is that for the part time students, when we get to third year, we can opt for an extra module instead of work experience as we work full time already. I'd approach the year head and ask about this. Might be a better option financially.

I would be in a similar boat to you and although I work in IT, it's in support and I want to move into development. I would be delighted to do a third year placement as a developer, for the experience, but I'm not sure I can justify leaving my current role, especially considering I need to pay the full course fees each year!

I guess it's a toss up for you whether you do the placement (and potentially not get paid) or do the extra module and stay where you are. Definitely check with the college because I'm 95% sure they offer this option to part-timers.

Buford T Justice

I know the feeling OP, I'm on an internship at the minute and I'm worried that I won't be able to hack what lies ahead of me. That's the point tho, you're supposed to be learning in an internship.

moycullen14

kavo87 wrote: »

Hey guys!

Just start 3rd year cs in nci part-time. As with most courses in 3rd year you've to do workplacement. As I'm part-time I have a full-time job so gonna have to take leave from
from work to complete this.

This is where my worries start to set in. Not only am I worried financial but also the fact been completely honest I don't feel I have the required skills to hold down an internship. My coding skills are basic we use java, I had just enough knowledge to get me this far. I'm a family man so I've a partner child and a house to run so through my own fault bad time management I haven't practiced enough on coding and working on some side projects which is why my coding I consider poor.

I've to sort out an internship by next month, when I look at the required skills I just don't feel I qualify for any. Yes I want to improve my skills and the internship is perfect for this but I don't want to make a fool out of myself.

Any advice is welcome I know I've to improve my java and other languages like css javascript but can I improve to were I'm at a stage I'll be seen as good enough in a such short space of time. Workplacement starts in January.

Thanks for taking time to read this. Hopefully I make sense.

Kavo87

Don't worry. Really most places have very little expectation of interns/graduates. You are there to learn and (most) people know/understand this.

What people do expect is a good attitude, willingness to learn and generally being pleasant. Don't, whatever you do, bull*** people. Screwing up is fine - people do it everyday - what really matters is how you react when things go wrong.

Synode

As someone said above, go for exemption from the work experience module if you can't justify leaving your current employment.

NCI will exempt you if you can prove you've turned a computer on in some job - It's not strict at all

Aswerty

I'd be vary wary of not doing an internship. One way or another if you end up in the industry you're going to end up having to prove yourself. Kicking the can down the road is just going to hurt you in the long run. If the worst outcome is you look like a fool it seems a fairly risk free endeavour.

An internship should also set a bar in terms of what is required of you as a professional developer. When you return to your studies you'll have a much better idea of where you need to be and what you need to know. At least that was the case when I did my internship.

The only reason to get an exemption is if you can't make ends meet.

ChRoMe

CrookedJack wrote: »

And i learned something else - almost EVERYONE working in IT secretly worries they don't know enough and everyone is better, mostly because no one is expert in all areas. It was a very positive experience.

Its a recognised condition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome

kavo87

Thanks guys for all the comments. I really do want to do it I suppose it comes down to what savings I have if I can afford to take time off.

I do realise it's a great experience I'm prob putting myself off with a serious lack of confidence in myself. I would consider myself a quick learn when needed and it's gonna give me a great insight into working in IT.

I'll have to have some serious talking with my partner and also with nci over it all.

Any recommendations on finding internships? I know the college has given a few place like Sap and Amazon and the other big tech companies. I'm thinking I might be better of in something smaller like a startup.

CrookedJack

Actually I'd suggest you may get on better with one of the larger places, they will have established internship programmes, will be able to support you better and will also be very clear and realistic about what they expect from you. this is not always the case in a startup. also the larger companies are more likely to pay you, and more likely to value your other experience I believe.

ChRoMe

CrookedJack wrote: »

Actually I'd suggest you may get on better with one of the larger places, they will have established internship programmes, will be able to support you better and will also be very clear and realistic about what they expect from you. this is not always the case in a startup. also the larger companies are more likely to pay you, and more likely to value your other experience I believe.

Agreed.

kavo87

Yeah I've have a few other people tell me that your better of in the bigger companies for those reasons. I've started to look into it. Just waiting on the college to get to me as they haven't been very clear about the whole thing to part time students.

Digital Society

Major case of imposter syndrome going on here.

Also 1 in 10 people in my full time Course even get Coding experience during flexible semester.

Country is completely screwed up right now.

However, Unfortunately employers wont care when the time comes for a full time job. Make sure you at least get a few projects done between now and graduation for your portfolio.