Internship in Software Development
Lucas Pedretti: We continue with our series of associate interviews. This time, we would like to introduce our colleague Michael Sivo.
LP: Tell us about you.
My name is Michael Sivo. I am 22 Years old. I am French and I am studying general Engineering at École D’ingénieurs Généralistes (ECAM) Strasbourg. I love new technologies, innovation in general, cars and video games. Before joining Qymatix, I had been working on web development using JavaScript and Python.
LP: Why did you chose general Engineering?
During my high school time, I was not sure about the kind of career path I wanted to follow. I think I was average in almost every subject. However, I soon find out that and I enjoyed a lot programming. It was easy for me to understand how the programming language works while attending C programming courses at the school.
I believe that nowadays every technological and commercial field need IT support and programming skills. Therefore, I thought that learning those skills would give me the freedom to choose the field I would like to work in. That is the reason why I made an IT specialization in ECAM and was looking to gain relevant experience in software development through an internship.
LP: What kind of internships were you looking for?
In ECAM, we have a mandatory six months internship at the end of our program. For my last internship, I was looking for a real-world hands-on experience in software development. Furthermore, I was looking for an internship that offered me the chance to take on lots of responsibilities. I wanted to be quickly involved in the development cycle of the team, in order to discover and learn all its aspects. I was lucky that Qymatix gave me the freedom and space to choose how and where to help. In addition, I wanted to work for an integral solution, a vertical solution. Qymatix develops powerful technology for data analysis as Software-as-a-Service. I had the chance to be involved in several of the programming platforms they use. Of course, I was first focused on programming, because I needed a good experience in one technology, but I also wanted to participate in the need analysis, architecture, test, and release.
LP: What did you like about working for Qymatix.
The experience I had at Qymatix was unique. I was eager to take on responsibility and they trusted me from the beginning, despite the fact that I never used the language and technology were are using for their solution. I had a lot of fun on collaborating and I learned how to develop a feature from the idea to the final release. Qymatix is a young, dynamic and experienced team, with a clear ambition, where every idea to improve is welcome.
If I had to select one thing in particular, what I liked the most was the team. They are all super-busy following a crazy passion for sales analytics and still each team member was available when needed them. In addition, there was social life: we participate in many events and we had our – now famous – ping-pong championship.
LP: We understand that you had two internship with Qymatix. What was the difference?
The first and the second internship were completely different. I would say the first one was meant to discover how the start-up works, the second was a real development mission. I was responsible for the new content creation of our online solution. I had the feeling that the team trusted me because they had a good feedback of my first internship.
LP: What would you recommend to young students like you?
I advise students to have a start-up experience, it is different from a big company and the amount of potential learning is huge. Sometimes startups do not have the resources of big corporations. Do not worry; there are several ways for students to get subsidies. I love Karlsruhe, but you need to plan moving there in advance because it is quite hard to find a room.
LP: What are your next steps?
I have landed a job in a segment of my interest. I am thankful that Qymatix gave me a great opportunity to learn and to polish my programming skills.
LP: Thanks Michael.
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