Why a Software Engineer Internship at Strg. Is the Best Decision I Ever Made

Technology grows faster worldwide than any other branch. In particular, more and more children, teenagers and young adults are becoming more and more interested in this field. Most of them, are savvy enough to use their smartphone or computer for playing another round of their favourite game while sitting clueless in class and thinking to themselves, “How can I learn these things?”.

Well, the answer is right there, in front of you. To start with, go visit a school or college that teaches programming and the theory of different parts in informatics. Actually, that’s how my journey in programming started.

It all began with a new school, new people and new surroundings. After class, I involved myself in a lot at different projects in pursuit to improve my skills, but in the end, it was a lot of fun. We had to develop many smaller-scale things but in the end, the projects folded. Of course, this was not meant to demean or dismiss our work, but it was all part of the learning curve in the 5 years I followed the program.

Throughout those years, no real practical experience was gained, there were just a few small projects to be involved with, there was nothing to show your parents proudly, and there was no real grasp on how it feels to work in a team of multiple programmers. Simply put, it was not a positive experience for me, and I no longer wanted to do this. Especially because the other subjects in school weren’t the least interesting for me.

So, I had to find something different, and that’s how I found out that I could do an Internship as a software developer. My search began and with a bit of luck, my search ended with an email to STRG. Since 2017 I’ve been a member of the STRG. team and I have never looked back or regretted leaving school to join the company.

The overall feeling I have is entirely different than the one I had in school. During my first months here, I had to do some support, but I also helped in fixing bugs and creating small features. These types of tasks only grow with time, and after a year, the first features are pending on the personal to-do list.

You gain so much more experience working as an intern, even when most of your work entails with “fix that typo in this title”. There is this feeling of ownership and responsibility that no one in school will ever have.

If you pass a test in class, you get a plus on your paper. Great. When you develop for a real application, other people can see that, and it’s a feature that you can show to your friends or family. It is tangible. It is a great feeling when you can show others what you have done, and yes, you can also show them your top grade on your exam but ask yourself this what looks better, a capital letter, or some cool and useful feature. Think about that.

Working at STRG. is really good. All the interns are part of different teams. Every team is responsible for a different part of the company, and it’s not like that the trainees have to do the ‘dirty’ work. We are an active part of the development of services and maintenance.

As an added bonus, I mostly work on tasks that are is tailored to me. It’s that small piece of the line where I can be productive and, in the meantime, learn new things for the future. Even when I need help with a specific problem. Most of the time, I can ask another team member to help me with my problem.

What is also fun is that we get to socialise after work. From time to time, some of us go to developer events like Vue.js Vienna. Still, we also do have events inside our own four walls, like play Magic: The Gathering or Minecraft on our server, which was set up by one of our team! I really enjoy such events because it’s a great chance to converse and possibly learn something new.
To conclude, I have to say it’s great to work at STRG. especially from the educational and social perspective. I have never felt uncomfortable sitting at my desk because of anything that may have happened in the company and for all the reasons mentioned above, I’m happy to have my internship at STRG.

Written by Keanu Hie