My name's Logan Ryan, I go to Valencia College and am working towards an A.S. degree in IT. I grew up in a town called Davie in Broward County and have now resided in Orlando for several years, even before attending Valencia. My internship was with Intern Pursuit. I would describe it as an illuminating experience. I learned so much about how to design web page mock-ups and user interfaces, how to create and code web pages, and how to work with others through the development life cycle of website.
Much of my experience at the internship was spent designing the front end of the website. I started using GIMP, a free photoshop-like tool, to create mock-ups of what pages would look like. Through several different mock-ups I learned how to use GIMP proficiently to do this. I learned several weeks in that GIMP isn't the preferred tool for making mock-ups and UI designs, and started learning Adobe XD, a free tool made for that purpose. XD was very easy to learn and extremely intuitive. It was especially interesting to take some of the mock-ups I had made and then create those pages in the platform we use for Intern Pursuit.
Early on in my internship I was not experienced in JavaScript at all and had only basic HTML experience. I studied a lot of it on my own through the weeks, and then I finally got to apply that knowledge by adding JavaScript to sections of the Intern Pursuit site with the help of a more experienced coworker. This is something I'll continue to learn as I stay on with the team and I know that it'll surely help me in the future.
I think the experience that I got just working with this team on a website was very important. Learning how we communicate, how we throw ideas around, especially in a work-from-home position. I learned not to be nervous about presenting my own ideas. I attended brainstorming meetings for the website where I helped make major decisions. Power skills (also known as soft skills) are incredibly important and contribute to being an integral force to any team you’re in.
Doing this internship has cemented my feeling that a job in IT is the right job for me. Whether it’s web development like this position, programming, or something else; I'll take the skills I learned and continue to learn with Intern Pursuit and apply them into my career going forward.