Differences between internship and classes



During the different orientation events, my internship mentors provided so many resources. Such a long list of resources was helpful and overwhelming because I did not know why I needed some resources. Unlike Computer Science courses that provide relevant resources with progressing levels of complexity, the resources provided at my internship were of varying complexities. It was a hard transition from class projects to my internship project.

Additionally, during my meetings with my project management mentors, the requirements for the Project Management aspect of my team's product were very unclear, not explained in detail, and vague. The lack of clarity in the project requirements was notably different from my experiences in various classes because, most times, the specific project requirements are precise. Once I achieve these goals, then the project is regarded as successful. Unlike those classes, there are no project requirements lined out and no specific definition of success for my internship project because the project's direction will heavily depend on our findings from h customer surveys.

I think the primary cause of these differences is that classes are considered the first time we interact with the material. Gradual progress through the class material is ideal for the students to understand the content thoroughly. However, an internship is not about just learning the material but about building a product that customers will use within a short time. It is also important to note that the mentors and engineers at my internship are not trained professors who have learned about software engineering pedagogy. Bottom line, I account these differences to the motives of the two places: classes are for learning the basic to advanced Computer Science concepts. Internships are a way for companies to build business products while providing some experiences to the interns.

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