Second in our STEM Success Stories blog series: Laura, a 2nd year student in Computer Science and Social Secretary of Watt Women in STEM Society, gives us the details of her summer internship experience.
Can you tell us a little bit about the company you interned with?
The company I worked for is called Schwarzmüller and does everything from designing and developing to building different trucks. They offer various models, for example, platform vehicles, low-loader vehicles, walking-floor vehicles, refrigerated vehicles, … While the main company is located in Hanzing, Austria, they have branches in the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary and Germany.
For the duration of my summer job I worked in the IT sector and was concerned with data management and making necessary data easily accessible for employees who need it.
How did you find out about the internship? How complicated was the application process?
Since the company is close to my home in Austria, I’ve always known that they offer summer jobs to students. I sent in my CV and got invited for an interview during the university Christmas break. At the interview, they asked me questions about my course, especially what we were studying in the different courses and what programming languages I was able to use confidently. They were also very interested in my preferences, what I would like to do and what I would like to take away from the job. A couple of days afterwards I got the confirmation that I got the job!
What did you learn? What projects were you involved with?
For the first week, my task was to set up a moodle eLearning webpage for new employees starting their job at the company. It should include all important information, from meal plans to their work shifts. While this task didn’t really improve any of my coding skills, I got to know the company quite well (from all the research I had to do) which definitely helped later on.
Once I had finished the webpage, I got to attend a meeting and help with solving the problem stated in that meeting. Finally, I got to code! I had never used Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) before, but I got the hang of it pretty quickly thanks to a co-worker who would take the time to explain and answer my questions. In the end of the last 3 weeks I had – with help – produced a little program that the company started using.
Hardest challenge?
The hardest challenge was getting myself out there and finding my space in the tight-knit IT team. I didn’t notice I was the only woman in the office until I asked someone to show me the bathroom and found out the nearest one was on another floor (they did have men’s toilets right next to the office).
During those four weeks I definitely learned to stand up for myself and to stop worrying about asking “dumb” questions. I wouldn’t have gotten as much out of it if I had kept quiet. I don’t know if this is something people experience their summer jobs as well, but sometimes employers/co-workers seem to forget to give you tasks and things to do. Don’t hold back and ask what you can do, how you can help – it will pay off! In the end, I felt a lot more comfortable and more like a part of the group than in the beginning.
How will you utilise this experience for future study/jobs?
I often find myself wondering how I would use the things that I’m studying and learning in work life later – this experience gave me a lot of insight on that aspect. My main goal right now is to try out as many different things as possible so I can have a better idea of what I want to do after graduation. It was my first time working with databases and I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. It made me consider this field of Computer Science more for when I get to choosing courses in 4th year.