Interview with Ramona Tudor – Project Manager at Innobyte
“Every pro was once an amateur. Every expert was once a beginner. So dream big. And start now.” Robin Sharma
Starting a career is undoubtedly a complex experience. Professional development is that journey that never ends. The more you develop, the more you discover how much more you have to learn. However, nothing compares to the satisfaction of your first career success and the confirmation that you are on the right track.
We at Innobyte are always keen to attract passionate people to our team. Although we always have open positions for experienced candidates, with the launch of our first internship program in 2015, we are committed to training young people without experience for a career in programming.
July 2019 marked the start of Innobyte’s latest internship programme. We spoke to Ramona, the project manager of this project, and asked her to tell us more:
Q: What is your vision for internship programs?
Ramona: Until a few years ago, the notion of internship was not very popular in the Romanian labour market, and university graduates often faced problems in the hiring processes without experience. The emergence of internship programmes has changed the labour market dynamics in favour of students or recent graduates. It gives them the start in their career they need at the beginning of their journey to adapt more quickly to their new status as an employee.
Q: How important is an internship for young people/students?
Ramona: An internship is a good way for young people to experience what a career in a particular field looks like and whether it suits them. It does not require previous work experience, as many employers are willing to train young people for a particular position, even if their education is not in the field.
The internship can be considered a launch pad into the desired specialisation. Many companies offer full-time jobs to interns after completing the programme. It’s also a plus on a resume for employment, as it makes the difference between a student with work experience and one without.
Another important thing is that interns have access to information within the company: working procedures, best practices in the field or recommendations from more experienced colleagues. Lastly, it is a good way to earn money, besides experience, during your holiday.
Maria: “I think that for any new graduate internship programs are very important for personal development, especially professional development. Through these programs, you can test a specific professional field, accumulate new knowledge and form a more stable basis for your career.“
Adrian: “An internship is the launching point in a young student’s career. It’s where he discovers new skills and acquires information that will shape the career he wants to pursue. This internship has been a good incentive to encourage this kind of development for the beginning.”
Claudiu: “An internship is important for the development of a student who has never had contact with the workplace. During the internship, they learn how to work in a team and what responsibility means and improve their programming skills.”
Stefan: “I believe an internship program contributes to gaining experience for both the student and the employer. I believe that a short time in an internship helps the student’s personal and professional development.”
Q: Tell us a few words about the purpose of the internship program organized by Innobyte
Ramona: Our goal is to develop future colleagues interested in working in IT, in growing together, based on a win-win relationship. We support them by providing the ideal environment to learn and practice their skills, and the company ensures that it has the right people to fill the open positions.
So far, we have organised four editions completed. Each programme came with its challenges as we had different types of interns. The theme adopted has been modified from year to year, depending on the IT market’s requirements and the company’s needs.
Q: What were the criteria for the selection? What mattered most in the choice of interns?
Ramona: From year to year, we notice an increasing interest in students participating in internship programs. This year, the number of applicants far exceeded our expectations. It was a real challenge to select the interns we went forward with. In the evaluation and selection process, we used the following criteria:
Hard skills: university degree/courses in the field, entry level programming experience in any language (Java, C++, MySql, SQL, JavaScript, PHP was a plus);
Soft skills: team player, communicative fire, enthusiasm and dynamism;
Availability for a full-time program, including after completion of the internship – the program targets graduates or students in their final years and availability to start on the date set with the team.
Q: What were the aspects that made the difference in a CV?
Ramona: The CV is the first interaction with a candidate. It is their business card and the first step in the recruitment process. Therefore, it is important to include up-to-date information (education, certifications, experience, etc.), be simple and concise, and contain information relevant to the position for which you are applying.
In the selection process, we appreciated applications in which, in addition to the attached CV, candidates inserted a short letter of intent, conveying their interest in working in the field and joining our team.
Q: What is the profile of the candidates who applied for the internship?
Ramona: The program was aimed at graduates or terminal year students to ensure that interns would be available to take up full-time positions after completing the internship program.
Besides the applications of young people with the profile we were looking for, we had some very pleasant surprises. We received CVs from candidates without a degree but who were learning programming in their spare time because they wanted to make a career change (e.g. air traffic controller, nuclear energy or medical engineering graduates).
Q: What did the internship programme involve?
Ramona: This year, interns were introduced to web programming and eCommerce solution development, using the most used eCommerce platform, Magento.
The internship program started with the introduction of the new colleagues to the company: getting to know the colleagues and the team of mentors, presentation of the working procedures, the applications to be used, presentation of the roles in the company and project, and the software development methodologies (Agile and Waterfall).
The theoretical and practical part
– introduction to eCommerce (learning the Magento platform in several chapters)
– PHP concept
– practical exercises in Magento
Introduction to a project
After completing the theoretical and practical stages, interns were introduced to real projects, where they received development tasks, alongside senior developers, technical lead, QA, Sys admin, front-end developer and project manager.
Maria: “I want to develop a career in programming, so I chose to do an internship in this field. Although I didn’t study PHP in college and had very few tangents with it, at Innobyte I learned it in quite a short time thanks to the mentors. So it’s not impossible to learn a new language, whether you already have a background in programming or not. Although I studied programming in college (but in a different language than PHP), I had and still have a lot of things to learn. That’s why I want to have a job in programming because you always have something to learn, it’s not a monotonous job, and you are always in continuous development.”
Adrian: “I am progressing quite fast, both on the hard skills side, programming and adapting to the work environment, and soft skills such as communication, team work, etc. Magento is a vast web development platform for online shops, which can be assimilated quite quickly and studied in detail through the documentation provided. In practice, we have learned to work with modules, events, observations, and various adjustments both on the front and back.”
Claudiu: “During the internship, I advanced my knowledge of Magento, git, cli and php. I learned the frontend and admin sides of Magento. I made a frontend page where I display posts and comments to that post, adding posts and comments. On the admin side we displayed posts in a grid, made CRUD for posts and comments.”
After completing the three-month internship, we continue collaborating with 3 of our interns, who are web developers in Innobyte.
Q: What do you recommend to young people who have not been accepted to an internship program?
Ramona: I recommend continuing individual studies and developing projects to practice the knowledge learned in college. These can be inserted later in the CV and represent a plus in the selection process. I also encourage them to attend programming conferences, specialization courses, meet-up events or workshops. Such events take place throughout the year. They are a great way to gain knowledge and get in touch with company representatives or experienced developers. Last but not least, continue to apply for internship programmes.
