What I liked
I love that the work I did and am doing was real. I wasn't sectioned off to do projects that were put aside just for interns. While smaller in scope and not as time-sensitive, the work I did was just like the senior developers would do. I also love the level of autonomy I was given. I was given a project and requirements, and I was able to ask questions of my mentor or other team members whenever I needed, but I was given lots of freedom to complete my work the way I saw fit; I owned my project from beginning to end. I learned a ton about industry, with code reviews and regular meetings for looking ahead or checking in. Most importantly, I was given access to real systems that supported thousands of daily users, and I was able to dive deeply into these systems to learn about them. I also really valued the amount I had to learn on my own. I spent (and still spend) many hours reading documentation, learning about tools made by other teams, and trying to figure out how to best use the tools available to me. Oftentimes, it was frustrating to have to do so much learning and reading before actually getting to writing code, but the lessons I learned from it were extremely valuable. The fun activities that my office planned for the summer Jr. Devs were also lots of fun, and they led to some good friendships and connections going into this new school year.