Name: Matthew Schilling
Year: Sophomore
Major: Computer Engineering
CFS Class: Business Field Studies
Employer: blip energy

Interning at blip energy (yes, that lowercase is correct, homage to the relaxed nature of the startup) was eye-opening in a number of ways. Some of the most important lessons I learned were about myself, though that’s not to say I learned nothing about what a professional environment is like or what skills are needed to succeed in the smart home industry (my desired destination). In fact, I did learn a number of things about my potential career, from what sort of documentation to have prepared for a legal team when creating software to ensure that the intellectual property I create can be protected, to what a backend development might look like, to the creation of specification sheets that other engineers might read.

However, the important lessons I learned had more to do with knowing about myself, and what I find necessary to succeed. While many might find remote work, and a relaxed environment of a startup to be luxurious and enjoyable, I found it meant that I struggled to be productive. Weirdly enough, when I began asking for concrete (and preferably rapid) deadlines, I found that I was better able to focus and produce quality work. Another valuable lesson I learned was that if I wanted to work on something, it was absolutely necessary to be assertive, otherwise it might get brushed under the rug.

While these lessons aren’t, say, how to create a machine learning algorithm using Python, they’re still extremely valuable because knowing what’s necessary for your success is really what a first internship should be about, as in general you probably don’t have the skills yet to do advanced work. All in all I’m very grateful to my supervisor for allowing me to learn that about myself, as well as for being forgiving of my shortcomings in the process. I look forward to continuing to improve myself going forward, and hope that my next internship will teach as much as the one at blip energy did.