George Hum

This was my entry into the world of tech - a 9-week summer software engineering internship at Goodlord, a UK prop-tech firm. I worked at the Sheffield office, but also travelled down to London to learn more about company-wide operations. The internship was a very valuable and core experience for me. I proved to myself that I could deliver real value to real customers with my skills and knowledge. I was also pushed to be a more adaptable software engineer, and dive head-first into unfamiliar code and technologies.

During the internship, I took on real tickets early, fixing bugs but also developing new features for actual products. The main project involved collaborating with another intern to implement a full-stack data collection system for new lettings agency signups.

Naturally, I was also able to apply Agile practices for the first time. This consisted of attending daily stand-up meetings, conducting sizing sessions, working in sprints, code reviews, and progressing tickets step-by-step from the backlog to completion.

I used React for the front-end and Symfony for the back-end. Automated tests were also created for all new features/changes, using Jest, React Testing Library and PHPUnit.

As a teenager, I worked at my mother's packaging and printing firm any time I had any sort of school break. By helping on, I was able to learn core workplace skills. I engaged in manual labour, involving tearing packaging from their cutouts, assembling them by hand, and packing them into delivery boxes ready to be transported. I also frequently did admin work, such as keying in sales information into spreadsheets, sorting and filing documents, and mapping out quotations and invoices for customers. It was here where I learned the inevitable lesson of basic hardwork and grit.