AROBS Transilvania Software development > #WritersOfAROBS > Getting my first job during the pandemic

Getting my first job during the pandemic

A big life hack is to make the best out of every situation, even when times seem less bright. Opportunities often appear in our personal and professional lives, so how do you take advantage of them? Stay present, consistent, and keep up the good work.

Our colleague, Maria T. talks us through the beginning of her career in software development. The story starts in an unusal context, because of the pandemic restriction we all got affected by, Maria adapted to the situation and stayed motivated, which brought her first job. You’ll see how hard work pays off. Maria started with an internship on Java, and now she’s a Junior in AROBS Team.

Context

When the pandemic started in Romania, I was in my second year at the Mathematics and Computer Science Faculty at Babes Bolyai University. At first, I thought this situation would affect my progress quite a lot, but this thought was not the right one. Let’s see why.

Practice Stage

The specialized practice usually takes place during the holiday, between the second and the third year of college. This practice can be done even earlier, but the above-mentioned period is considered more favorable because the students have more knowledge acquired after the second year of university.

In March 2020, to protect people’s health, a pandemic state of emergency was declared. Thus lots of companies suspended their internship programs. Students could not apply for an internship in the following period. So, the university helped students, allowing them to do their practice stage in the university.

Remote internships

Even if the practice stage problem was solved, the experience of working in a company was missing. Companies managed the pandemic situation very well, and, in the shortest time, they offered the possibility of applying for remote internships.

Even so, the summer between the second year of college and the third year of college, the summer of 2021, was wasted from an internship point of view for me. The new year of college meant the last year, so I was focused on my bachelor’s exam and my bachelor’s thesis.

Getting my first internship: AROBS Internship

After I graduated from the university, I wanted to improve my programming knowledge. To achieve this goal, I tried to apply for a Java Internship in the Spring of 2022. I heard that there was an opportunity to apply for the remote internship at AROBS; I did not hesitate, so I immediately sent my CV to the specified email address. I passed the test and the interview, meaning a new door had opened.

Why a Java Internship?

I wanted to apply for a Java Internship because I learned the basics of this programming language in college, and I considered that it is a great opportunity to expand my knowledge in this field. I learned the basics of Java rather quickly, so it seemed like a language that was easy to learn and comfortable to code in. Also, Java is widely used in the IT industry for the development of suitable applications. Moreover, Java is an Object-Oriented Programming language allowing us to create modular programs and reusable code.

The AROBS Java Internship

With the programming skills gained during college, I started the internship. The University acquired knowledge represented the foundation I could build upon. The Internship was organized in two stages: during the first one, I consolidated the things I had learned before, and I assimilated new Java theory; during the second stage, I had the opportunity to develop an individual project under the guidance of specialized mentors.

During the learning period, I used Spring Data JPA Repository for the first time. I was so impressed to discover that there is a possibility to create queries from method names using some keywords and column names.

Let’s see the following example: I want to select all users with a given last name.

Using a Spring Data JPA Repository, we can define a query by simply specifying the method name from which the query will be derived:

public interface UserRepository extends JpaRepository<User, Long> {

List<User> findByLastname(String lastname);

}

This is the equivalent of the following query:

SELECT u FROM User u

WHERE u.lastname = ?

Getting my first job

The internship represented a period in which I had the opportunity to work with people active in the IT industry. I consolidated all the learned Java programming knowledge and saw the requirements for developing valuable code.

Because my desire to improve my programming skills has been strong, I focused on all the given tasks during the internship even if it was remote. I was thrilled when I received good feedback from the mentors. These people invested their time to teach us and guide us in such a way that our work became better and better. It was an honor to learn from them. So, I recommend with all my heart the Java Internship from AROBS.

Ultimately, my performance during the internship was evaluated, and I was excited when I was contacted by HR to sign the employment documents.

I learned that if you really want something, it is possible, even in unusual conditions.

I am very happy that I am part of the AROBS team.

I am working every day with priceless people. They are experts in their field, and they are ready to help me, as a junior, whenever needed; I am glad I can learn a lot from my colleagues.

All the things happened at the right time.