Emily Healy is studying computer science and business at the University of Virginia. She spent one month working on a Software Engineering Internship as part of Start Me Up’s Startup Internship Program in Bali.
I did the Start Me Up internship because I wanted to do something different to a traditional internship. I wanted to explore startups and explore a new place so I thought that this would be perfect.
I was hoping to experience a relaxed work environment where I’m able to learn a lot and explore on my own while gaining guidance from my mentor. And I expected to network and meet with cool people from around the world and travel around Bali, all of which has actually happened.
In terms of work, we’ve been developing an app that’s going to help people in co-working spaces collaborate more easily with each other. I’m helping to code the app and make some of the user interface elements. And that’s been super interesting because I hadn’t learned any Javascript, HTML or CSS before. I also used React Native, learned how GitHub works, accessed my computer’s terminal for the first time ever, ran an app simulator on Xcode. At school we’ve been using mainly Python and Java. So it’s been interesting to do more web development.
My mentor is so helpful, kind and knowledgeable. He has a really cool personality and wants us to get as much out of it as possible so it has been a really great experience.
We don’t work in an office. We work in a co-working space by the beach, which is awesome. It has a great café and you get to meet a lot of cool people from all over the place.
There is something new every day. You can sit somewhere new; you can sit by the pool or you can sit at a traditional desk where you can talk to your friends or people you’ve just met. So, I think that it really adds to the learning experience.
Being here has made me look at work differently. I think people focus too much on having or adding a life outside of work. But here, people are just adding work into their life and that is a really different take on a traditional career.
Here’s what Emily got up to on her internship in Bali…