My SIWES Journey: Month 1
Hello world, my name is Okonu Deborah! You might not really know me, but I am a young lady who loves to document her journeys. Wondering why? 🤷 Well, I believe every journey and story has a lesson and someone might just learn something from mine.
As a 300-level Computer science student at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria, currently embarking on my SIWES (Student Industrial Work Experience Scheme), I am excited to share my journey with you, promising to be an informative and engaging adventure.
Hold onto your seats, because this article is not your typical read. Get ready for a journey packed with laughs, learning, and a whole lot of cool stuff.⏸️ If you’ve read my previous journey articles, there has always been a tradition. Can you remember? 🤔 Well, if this is your first time following me on one of my journeys, I just want to let you know this; Get a glass of wine and a piece of cake, ha-ha, cause it’s going to be quite the adventure!🤩▶️
As a curious individual, I began exploring internship opportunities in my 100 level. I was determined to find a placement that would challenge me and allow me to grow my technical skills. The word on the street was that we needed to brush up on some skills to land those top placements. Companies, after all, want interns who bring value, not just sip coffee right? 😉 So, I gave web development a shot, but coding turned out to be a wild rollercoaster! Thank God for the advice I got from Miss Shullamite (CEO of FemCode Africa), I shifted gears into project management, and that’s when I fell head over heels for product management.
I loved the fact that I get to actually put my logical reasoning skills, communication, management, business/marketing, team building etc. skills to use, be able to solve real life problems and lead a team of engineers to build super amazing cool stuff! Surprisingly, the tech skills from my web development stint came in super handy. Yeah! My experience with web development has been invaluable in my Product Management career, providing me with a deeper understanding of the product development process.
On August 7th, 2023, my dream came true when I joined Renaissance Innovation Labs as a product manager intern. That acceptance email? OMG! It felt like I’d won the lottery🥳😂. Alongside my colleague, Michael Ukpeh, a talented Back-End developer with a touch of Full-Stack vibes, we embarked on this exciting journey.
The onboarding process was insightful, providing us with a comprehensive overview of the company’s culture and values. We were introduced to the team and our fellow interns. I was placed under The Product Manager of Renaissance Innovation Labs (RIL), Mr. Ayaosi Godfrey. As an introvert, it took me quite some time to adjust to the new environment, but the supportive atmosphere at RIL made the transition smooth.
Skipping ahead a bit⏭️… Week two was a blast! The interns, both front-end and back-end folks, got to create products using OpenAI API. I had five front-end teammates (Johnson, Ini, Emmanuel, Nicolas, Josephine) and two back-end buddies (Micheal, Obianuju), and my job was to help them deliver their projects smoothly.
Front-end folks used React JS, and the back-end guru (Obianuju) dabbled in Python. While one of our backend wizards worked on a geo-location validator package, where he used Typescript to build the package and then started creating a test app using React and Mongo Db, which was different from the OpenAI stuff. You guessed right? That was Micheal Ukpeh A.K.A Agba Dev! 🙌💪
Now, here’s the fun part — they had only two weeks! 😳 It sounded tough, right? But guess what? They nailed it! While I was working on documents (writing Product Requirements Documentation (PRD) for each of their products), the front-end folks, learned React (first time) in a week and built their products in the next, the back-end wizards, did amazingly well too. Reports were sent, challenges were solved — we were on fire! 😁🔥
A few days to the deadline, we had an in-house demo, where the interns showcased the progress of their work so far, with senior engineers giving valuable advice. The progress in less than two weeks was amazing!⏸️ I actually didn’t doubt that they could deliver in 2 weeks 😉▶️
Finally, it was presentation day. Everyone’s heart was racing fast! Hope the Director would say something positive about my project? Hope it won’t crash during the demo? Hope Nigeria’s Network providers won’t decide to go to sleep during that time? 😂😂and so many questions were racing through everyone’s mind, most especially because it was an online demo presentation. Was I calm? 😂 ha-ha what do you think? It was my first time anchoring a demo presentation as the PM.
But thank God, everything went well. Although one of the interns couldn't demo because Nigeria's network providers at his location probably went to sleep at that time, ha-ha. Well, each intern showed off their work with a slide presentation and they all received positive remarks. And as their PM, I was super proud of them and seeing what they could build in just 2 weeks made me realize that you can anything by God’s grace if only you put your mind to it and work towards it. ✅
We had: AI Recommendations App by Emmanuel, AI Paraphrasing tool by Johnson, AI Chat Bot by Josephine, AI image generator by Ini, AI Symptom checker by Obianuju, and a geo-location validator package by Micheal. 👈Give them a try and let me know which one you like best in the comments! 😁
Month one was an absolute blast! 🌟 To cap it all off, we had a sleepover/pajamas party at the office! I admit, I was on the fence at first, but FOMO got the best of me. 🙈 Turns out, it was super amazing! We played games, did a little karaoke (yeah! I sang off course😌), etc. I was so glad I didn’t miss out! 😂
So, what’s cooking for month two? 🤔Stick around to find out!
Want to know more about Renaissance innovation labs, check out their website. Here.
Just like the text in the image says, you’re really going to figure it out, and once you do, you might just forget that there was a time when you thought you couldn’t figure it out. Put your faith in God, keep trusting, keep believing and most of all Keep putting in the work. You’re a Star and you’re going to shine so bright! 🌟
Matthew 5:16 (NIV), it says, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Thanks for being part of this wild ride. 😁I hope you didn’t run out of your Glass of wine and piece of cake, because I think I am out of mine😂 and I hope you had as much fun as I did!
Don’t be shy to drop a comment, give a clap here on medium, and follow me On Twitter => @debbstech and on LinkedIn: @Okonudeborah. Cheers! 🥂
