My first professional experience as a coding noob

How to have a great time as a beginner and not get fired

After having a few tough months during the pandemic, I decided to switch things up and try something new (I was in my 4th semester of studying business at the time).

I had built a website with WordPress and my first custom PHP plugins that had a few hundred users but still I had no academic background in computer science, that you would typically need to get an internship as a developer here in Germany.

My father was a CS professor and one of his recent students worked at Eucon, a company close to my flat in Münster, where I was studying at the time. Therefore he could provide me with an initial connection, so I have to admin that I didn't have to go through the usual application process.

In this post, I want to share what I learned at Eucon. You can find a full description of the projects I worked on there here.

The Company

Eucon does data and claim management for large insurances. Mainly in the automative sector, but also in real estate and other areas.

My Experience

My first time at Eucon was scheduled for 2 months. As mentioned, I had very little experience with coding but an enormous interest in learning. Afterwards, I stayed for another 6 months before I decided to enter my entrepreneurial journey. I even received the offer to come back as a full-time Data Scientist after my studies.

Here are my most impactful takeaways from my time there:

1. Don't be scared

Do not underestimate yourself when you have little experience. While you definitely should not expect to be put on super important projects as a beginner, seek ways to have an impact and contribute to the company. A lot of projects will sound super complicated to you and involve tech you never heard of before, but that's okay. See it as a challenge and an opportunity to learn. Enter with a mindset: "I can do this" and have in mind that the more senior staff will be there to help you, if you follow my second point.

2. Value your colleagues time

As a beginner, you will have thousands of questions for every project that you work on. Make sure to keep in mind that you want to be valuable to the company and not a burden for your team. Therefore, try to really find solutions to your problems on your own first. If you can't find a solution, ask your colleagues for help. But make sure to ask them in a way that they can help you efficiently.

Do not run to your manager and ask every time there is a decision to make. Most likely you will start working on less important projects so those decisions are not worth it to be made by your manager all the time. Rather think about it yourself and make a decision that you can argue for. Then later present your work and argumentation to your manager. Then you can ask for feedback.

3. Pair programming is super cool

Right at the start of my internship, a senior developer joined me in a project and we sat down twice for 2-3 hours and worked on the project together, doing pair programming. While I think you cannot expect too much time for this, I think it is a great way to learn and get to know your colleagues. As I had so little experience, I feel this really fast-tracked my development and I learned a lot from it.

4. Present yourself

There will probably come opportunities where you can present your work to higher management. Take them serious and prepare well. I think this one is HUGE. Especially in software developemnt, I noticed that a lot of colleagues do not take this opportunity. Therefore, if you do, you have the opportunity to stand out and show that you are not only a good developer but also a good communicator.

My final thoughts

Do not wait too long before you start applying for internships. Nobody expects from you that you have a lot of experience. Please do not wait until you have "Database 2" in your next semester.

I loved my time at Eucon, and I am very thankful for the opportunity. I learned a lot, and it was a great experience.