Being a Software Developer Intern at HCSS is multi-faceted. My work revolves mostly around full-stack web development, but I have also learned a lot about the web design process, parsing large datasets into useful reports.
In my team, Credentials Dev, we use a wide variety of tools, which requires me to know a nice mix of programming languages and keep an open mind for learning new things. For example, while working in the backend, I primarily use C# and SQL; on the front end, I use HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and TypeScript. I also have had the opportunity to complete many fruitful and challenging projects, such as revamping the old HCSS Apps login page, updating our API system to be properly versioned with standardized responses, creating unit tests for our APIs, updating the design of Credentials, designing and implementing new customer-requested pages, and many more.
Yet, I did not join my team knowing how to accomplish all these tasks. My skills and overall web dev knowledge grown significantly from the awesome training and mentoring that I received since starting at HCSS. I was anxious going into my onboarding and training, as this was my first professional experience as a Software Developer intern. However, my anxiety was soon swept away after my team took the time to go through the codebase, explaining how all the pieces worked together and answering questions I had. My real work began with small bug fixes and implementing minor features, often as paired programming, to further familiarize myself with the codebase and to hone my skills. Shortly afterwards, I gained more freedom within my projects and I took on more challenging issues.
In addition to the rewarding work, HCSS is big on promoting its employees’ health and learning. It is common to see a sports tournament happening right outside the window or group workout sessions. One of my favorite activities is attending HCSS Tech Talks where employees share some of the cool technologies they have created or are learning, encourage best practices, and demystify complex topics.
Another awesome event that I had the opportunity to partake in was Ideas Cup 2020, which is like a hackathon at HCSS that any employee can participate in– all you need is an idea! During Ideas Cup, I paired up with Ramon Ramirez, a software developer in Credentials, who sought to fix how user authorization and permissions are managed. Currently, many of the HCSS product development teams implement their own form of handling user roles and permissions that affect what features users are authorized to access. Therefore, one of the main goals of our project was to consolidate these user roles and permissions into a single service that can then be shared across our products. Additionally, the project encourages a separation of concern between the two distinct processes of authorization and authentication. Working on this project with Ramon was a great experience. I learned a lot about the process of authorization and creating a microservice that could help other development teams.
Overall, I’ve had so many fun learning experiences through my time as an intern. When I reflect back on my skills as a developer, I’m honestly amazed at how much I’ve been able to improve. Having a team that actually listens to you and helps guide you towards your interests is one of the best things about HCSS. Even though I’m still in the early stages and exploring what I enjoy most in software development, I’m happy to know all my efforts are making a great impact to my team and to HCSS.