On the half of their internship, we had Q&A session with our young and positive interns. We've got some interesting feedback on our questions and it's our pleasure to share it with you. You can find out more about them and get an insight into what are they working and their experience in HASELT until now.
Previously, when we introduced our interns to you, we had only one question, to describe HASELT in one word. Now, through these questions, you can see why actually they choose that word and much much more.
Firstly, we wanted to know why did they choose that one word to describe HASELT and here are their answers:
Ivona's answer was: "Because HASELT 'challenges' me every day to become better and better in the things I do". Mihajlo said that he chose 'genuine' as a word because for him, it is everything he hoped it would be, and more. Emrah chose the word 'positive' because as he said, "That is how I see the people and the working atmosphere and the collaboration with the people that I had a chance to meet". Frosina said, "To be 'daring' is to be bold, adventurous, willing to undertake or seeking out new things and opportunities, accepting challenges to produce something fresh and up to date, also to be fearless in venturing into new and unknown activities. So all of these things that I can classify as daring are actually the main things that come to my mind when I think of HASELT". Konstantin chose the word 'addictive', and this is why: "Because HASELT is like a river of knowledge. The moment you jump into that river, the flow (current) just keeps you going. You start learning one thing, and suddenly you discover five others you wish to learn. And each of those five things will lead you to another five. And those five you've found at the beginning may end up as ten, or more. And at the moment you think you've learned everything you can about something - you find more. You love swimming in that endless river". Petar's word was 'teamwork' because the first thing he noticed in HASELT was sharing knowledge between colleagues.
We asked them how was the communication between them as a team. This is how the interns described that:
Frosina replied that everyone in the team participates actively and positively in every new challenge, and together as a team, they combine their individual knowledge and creativity and thus can see things that maybe as individuals they won't be able. Ivona said that through the past few weeks they became more like friends than colleagues. They always have time to listen and help each other with any kind of problems and share their knowledge while working on the project. "Well one of the first things that Bojan pointed the significance of was one of the principles of Domain Driven Design called ubiquitous language, so having that in mind whenever we would try to communicate we would try to do so using that language and expand it if needed. So as time passes, the project evolves and language evolves and its use becomes second nature. Using this principle made our communication clearer and more concise" - Mihajlo said.
We were also interested to hear how they will describe the communication with the rest of HASELT team.
Ivona said, "I really like the spirit of the HASELT team, everyone I met is very friendly, helpful and open for discussions". For Mihajlo it's like we have been his friends for much longer than one month. Emrah's response was: "Very engaging and teachable for me and my professional career, definitely learned a lot from talking and working with them". Frosina said that for her HASELT team is like a family and you can't feel different than being a part of it. Konstantin described the communication with HASELT team as extremely friendly and helpful as possible. Petar said, "Great, everybody of the HASELT team is friendly, willing to help and pass their knowledge".
They are facing different challenges every day. This is what they said about the most challenging things they have done until now:
Ivona explained that the most challenging thing she has done until now is creating a solution for a software project from scratch, using advanced technologies and architectures that were totally new to her. For Mihajlo making sure the principles of good software engineering and the selected tools and technologies work in harmony was the biggest challenge. Emrah's most challenging thing was playing football against Hajan. :) Frosina said that for her learning the principles of Domain-Driven Design and the latest technologies and combining them to solve the problems in the process of software development were challenging. Konstantin stated that he as a QA had to make team direction choices at the very moment on his own responsibility. "I think my intuition did a pretty good job there :)", he continues. Petar's answer was: "Putting together all patterns and principles used in the company for building software".
All of our interns are IT enthusiasts, but it's much different when you work on a real project. For us, it was really important to know if this internship stimulated their interest in the field or not. Here are their answers:
Mihajlo's response was: "It has, during our many talks with Bojan and Hajan they have opened my mind to a whole new dimension of thinking about software engineering, the available tools, selecting the right tools and all the little nuances that go into the process". For Ivona this internship even more stimulated her interest she already had in the IT field, she added: "It gives me the opportunity to work on a real software project, improve my knowledge in the field and experience the working environment in a quality software company". Petar said yes, he explained it's because he has learned many interesting things about building software from experts in the industry that are working in HASELT. Frosina's answer was: "Yes it has, because it has increased my encouragement, pressure and will to improve myself and learn more and more things".
On the question about their favorite part of the Internship Program, we've got these answers:
Ivona said: "I can't choose just one favorite part of the Internship program, so I'll just name few favorite things. I really like the whole flow of the work we have, the training sessions, the conversations with our mentors and the experience they share with us, my team, our lovely office, and colleagues". Mihajlo's favorite part were the talks with Bojan and Hajan. "At one moment we can be discussing the birth of the universe and the next we would be talking about DOTA. xD", he added. Emrah's reason was that he learns new things every day. For Frosina favorite part of the internship was having the opportunity to work directly with experts from the industry and also the unique opportunity to practice and have fun. Konstantin said: "Testing. Irritating devs was kinda my favorite part :)". And for Petar,** **learning new things through training sessions and direct communication with all HASELT team members were his favorite parts.
And what about their favorite part of being in HASELT? Even though they are very different, the answers they gave are pretty similar:
Frosina replied: "Learning new things, meeting new people that are experts in the IT industry and being able to learn from them in a really relaxed but high professional atmosphere". "Every new day is my favorite part of being in HASELT :)" - Ivona. For Mihajlo and Konstantin it's the people. Petar said that working in a relaxed, but still professional environment was his favorite part. Emrah stated that for him favorite part of being in HASELT was spending time with positive people.
We ask them about the overall atmosphere in HASELT and how they feel in our offices. They all agreed that in HASELT is productive, professional and relaxed, which helps them to be more comfortable while working. :)
The last question was "If you are writing a story about how did you spend this summer, the first sentence would be:". These are their answers :)
Ivona: "This summer I had a lifetime experience as an intern in a software company, that helped me discover new horizons in the field of information technologies." Emrah: "I sacrificed summer spent on the beach for my professional advancing and intellectual growth...no regrets, the best choice was done." Frosina: "I really don't know how long this story will be (maybe the best thing is to be a book), because I have a lot of things in my mind that I want to write in order to cover all things that happened this summer."
We do our best to ensure that our interns get not only the best possible work experience in their chosen fields, but also these two months to provide them unforgettable memories in HASELT. According to their answers, so far, we are on a really good way, definitely! :)
Until our next blog post, follow us on our social media profiles for new updates and news.
