Is this the right place? Am I late? Is my attire formal and appropriate enough? Are the employees friendly? Will the other interns accept me? What is my mentor like? Will I be able to complete my tasks?

A large influx of questions rushed through my head as I walked through the doors on the first day. Almost instantly, I was greeted by the Program Manager giving a tour to the group of interns behind her. As I said hello, I eyed the interns warily and they stared back, quiet and stern. Little did I know that we would all become great friends supporting and influencing one another throughout my incredible journey at Quicken.

My name is Julian and I am studying Computer Science at San Jose State University. I interned as a Quality Engineer under Svetlana and Norman, on the Quicken Cloud Services team. Although I have been part of multiple internships before, this was my first time working in the tech industry as an engineer. Initially, I was overwhelmed by the amount of information and new tools exposed to me. Microservice, Restful, Stories, Agile, Backlog, Stand ups, Crud. New terms and Quicken jargon went through my head as I struggled to learn how to use a Mac, an operating system I have not worked with before, while keeping track of time so I wouldn’t miss the next meeting.

I was thrilled and delighted. I love being busy and having many tasks that bring fulfillment. Unlike my previous internships, there were very few moments when I was idle. My to-do list never stopped growing and my fingers never stopped typing. My co-workers were welcoming and supportive, the office was comfortable, and the work was pleasant and productive. The environment was the perfect habitat to improve my skills as an engineer and a team player.

As a Quality Engineer, I was exposed to tools like FitNesse Automation, Postman, and Charles Proxy. I primarily worked on feature testing microservices and automating tests, reporting bugs along the way. I automated more than 90 tests and worked alongside another intern to develop a microservice. In addition, my Whitespace project exposed me to libraries and concepts like Spring Boot, web sockets, and message brokers. My mentors, Svetlana and Norman, were incredibly supportive and patient with me every step of the way, always checking if I needed help and guiding me through harder tasks. I’ve learned many valuable lessons from them that will forever stick with me as I advance my career.

All those worries I had on my first day proved to be futile. The internship exceeded all my expectations and proved to be an amazing and fruitful experience. I bonded with other interns over fun activities like go-karting, mini golf tournaments, archery, and memes. My memories with the Quicken will last indefinitely, and I could not have asked for a better family. I guess the saying that time flies when you’re having fun is true because that was indeed a “quick end”.