My Full Stack Developer Internship Experience at a Start-up
I still remember the moment when I got a call for my summer internship from the co-founder of a product-based company (was referred through a professor in my college). It was my first interview call! I was excited in the beginning, stayed attentive, and spoke confidently. The co-founder was kind, asked me to introduce myself, queried about my skills and personal projects, and ended the call after explaining to me about the start-up, Paymatrix. After a few days, I got a mail from the co-founder, saying that I got selected for the Full Stack Developer Intern position and would be working for 2 months. I became really happy and eagerly waited to join the company.
Being a Full Stack Developer, I built features and developed a component for Paymatrix’s SaaS product. A brief about the tasks I accomplished during my internship:
- Validating user form data: I had to validate numerous forms and display error messages using Vue.js, enable file uploads using PHP and, convert data present in CSV and MS Excel uploaded files to be stored in the database.
- Creating RESTful APIs: I created API’s for multiple sections of the application in Laravel to GET, POST, PUT and DELETE the data.
- Creating databases: I created databases for specific sections of the application according to the requirements using MySQL and built database tables through (migrating files) Laravel.
- Integration of front-end and back-end applications: After all this groundwork ready, I used Axios to enable the client-side application to interact with the server-side application and the database by consuming the API’s.
Each day was a new experience during my internship. I got the chance to learn new technologies and apply them to production within no time. With my initial knowledge of Git and coding experience in HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and MySQL, I was comfortable with work during the starting days. I had to learn Vue.js, which I felt a little complex, as it is the first time I worked on a web framework. Reading the official documentation, several online resources, and watching tutorials on YouTube helped me understand it much better. To get hands-on experience on Vue.js, I built an interactive game app within a short time (Click here to view it). Then, I was asked to learn Laravel, a PHP framework. I was perplexed while reading the documentation and other online resources. A sense of fear developed inside me while studying Laravel because I didn’t have any prior knowledge in server-side scripting and had to learn it in very few days and to get into action. A lot of learnings happened and I was introduced to many new concepts in this process. I learned the MVC architecture, how large applications are divided into modules, the development process, to leverage the terminal, and more. Besides this, I learned how to create REST API’s and why is it essential, and to integrate client-side and server-side applications.
Apart from learning new techniques and technologies, I also recognized the importance of writing clean code, following coding standards, inserting comments, organizing and managing code, and collaborating with other teammates through platforms such as GitLab.
I really liked the culture which Paymatrix maintains and their concern towards every employee. The workplace is comfortable, full of lighting and has a pleasant ambiance. The founders of Paymatrix were amazing, they took good care of me and ensured that I was comfortable working there.
My exciting journey was filled with an introduction to new technologies, complex problem solving, a lot of debugging and vast learnings. Every teammate has helped me through difficult times. They were very friendly and guided me to progress. Discussions and meetings with the team helped me gain huge knowledge on the work. Apart from it, we had team lunches, birthday treats, an idea competition, fun games, and productive conversations.
I would thank everyone who supported me towards successful completion of my summer internship and a special thanks to Paymatrix for making my journey interesting and enjoyable along with valuable takeaways, and for offering me a Pre Placement Offer(PPO) 😃.
