So, after 2 years of searching, I got an internship. I’m still in my second week. It’s a company that creates school management systems and provides daily support to schools (would that be considered a consultancy/software house?). The stack is Angular on the web, MySQL, PHP on the backend, and Delphi (yes, that’s exactly what you read, LOL) on the desktop. I had to take a logic test during the interview, and the owner said I was the only one who could complete it. Despite that, I made it clear that I had no experience with any of these technologies, but I was obviously willing to learn. Since my resume was entirely focused on web development, he told me to start learning Angular first, because the guy who handled the web part (he was already senior) left the company for a better opportunity.
The company only has 3 people: 1 programmer (the owner himself) and 2 others in marketing/sales. They have been on the market for 20 years.
As I mentioned, there’s no Git; he uses something called TortoiseSVN. Nothing was said about separate branches, so I’m working directly on the main branch, and every day I’m terrified of messing something up in the system. There’s also no use of tools like Trello/Jira; tasks are assigned verbally, and since he’s the only programmer who handles customer issues and calls, he’s often very busy. I’m not sure if this was expected, or if I was hoping he would “hold my hand” more, but sometimes I get lost on how to proceed with my tasks. Sometimes I can’t get an answer to a question right away, so I have to wait until he’s free, but when he is, he gives me his full attention.
There’s no such thing as an “ideal” code review. He just takes a quick glance at the screen I worked on and tells me to commit. The indentation of some files differs from others; no code formatter/standardization is used.
Oh, and on my first day, everyone left the office early and left me alone (with the key to lock up). I don’t mind, but giving that kind of responsibility to someone on their first day felt a bit odd.
Despite all this, everyone there, especially the owner, is very friendly, and they’ve made me feel quite comfortable during these first few weeks.
Do you think I’ve gotten myself into trouble, or am I imagining problems where there aren’t any?
