Last summer, our interns worked on a project called UDig Glass.  The objective: create a digital signage application to report key metrics, share results and rally the organization around our goals.

With that objective in mind, Amy, Will and Eric set out on a 10-week agile project to build a solution.  Working closely with their UDig mentors, Amy tackled the front-end development, Will worked on the back-end and data configuration, while Eric configured the networking.

The result: a custom application using data from SalesForce, Kimble, Bullhorn and Sharepoint that’s stored in Snowflake using modern Javascript frameworks. Displayed on monitors in our common areas, everyone at UDig can now see near real time updates on new opportunities, progress to goals and new wins.

As exciting as it is to have the new application deployed in our offices, we are thrilled that our interns gained real world experience and are taking away new skills.  As we celebrated the end of their internship, they shared the top 5 things they learned this summer:

Modern Tech

This project gave us the chance to interact with technologies like React, Redux, Node.js, Sass and Docker, many of which we hadn’t even heard about in class. It was cool to take the things I’ve learned at school and build upon them with modern, new tech.

Real Life Learning

Since we didn’t have exposure to many of the technologies, we had to dig in and learn from sources like GitLab and engage with our UDig Consultant mentors. It was eye-opening how fast technology is moving compared to what we see in the classroom, and how much information is available.

Changing Expectations, Shifting Priorities

We were thrown a few curve balls with this project including changing the data source, scope changes and feature enhancements.  We learned how to adjust, be flexible and adapt.  We also saw how important good requirements are to a successful project!

Broader Business Perspective

Working on this project gave us the ability to learn about the whole business, we met with each of the teams across the organization and got a much broader understanding of how much goes into running a business.

Practical Experience

This project was much more “real” than our group project work in school.  Working together in a co-located (at the same table) team, putting Agile practices to work by holding daily standups and providing regular updates to our client really demonstrated how we will work at our jobs in the future. And, presenting to the CEO is a lot different than a professor!

You can learn more about them here or check out our past intern experiences.