The Journey Begins: Internship Week 1
At the end of each week of my internship at RoleModel Software, I’ll be providing a recap here.
It’s about more than telling a story. There are a few reasons this is beneficial.
Learning Out Loud
A large part of this opportunity is about learning. In the midst of providing value for RMS, I’ll be learning every step of the way.
As I record just what I learned, I’ll be able to look back and see how far I’ve come. Others will be able to do the same. Every week, I’ll essentially be adding to a map that will take someone from where I started to where I am at the end.
Proof Of Value
It’s one thing to say “I worked in Product Development/Management at a software company”.
It means a whole lot more if you can back that up with proof of what you did. Recording my journey will provide that proof to someone who wonders what I really accomplished.
Cool Story, Bro!
For me, it will certainly be a story worth remembering. Besides what I do at work, I’ll also use this as a place to write about everything else about my life in Holly Springs throughout my time. I don’t have much of one right now, but maybe that will change.
I have had moments where I’m discouraged with my current place in life. That’s normal, and it’s not just going to stop. But, it’s encouraging to look back on what I’ve done.
So many times, something seemed insurmountable. But here I am. I did it before, I can do it again.
(Besides, God is stronger than any tough situation, so I look to Him when I’m down. That’s better than anything we can do on our own.)
I’m looking forward to the journey. I hope you enjoy hanging with me!
I actually only worked three days this week. But I wanted to establish the weekend as my time to write these posts, so I’ll go with that.
Sunday
I drove and drove and drove and drove.
Lester Prairie, MN to Louisville, KY. Nearly 800 miles over ~12 hours. I stayed at an Airbnb in Louisville, which was located right next to the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. I took a walk through the grounds which was super cool.
Monday
I drove and drove and drove some more!
Louisville, KY to Apex, NC. I think it was around 550–600 miles over 8–9 hours. I’m thankful for a largely uneventful drive all the way through; that’s a lot of miles!
Tuesday
I got settled, bought some groceries and the like, and got ready for my first day of work!
Wednesday
My first day!
With Covid-19 still an issue, there were not many people at the office. I met with Ken(the CEO, who I’ll be working closely with) and it didn’t take long for me to get a better handle on just what I’d be doing over the course of the next weeks and months. I spent the day largely getting introduced to the typical operations of the company and what part I would play in that.
Thursday
I sat in on some more meetings and got started on my first real task. I spent a large part of the day searching for plans in a particular format to use with the product we’re building. Ken wanted to have a larger library of plans to use as examples for potential users, so I dug through the WWW looking for something we could use.
After a lot of digging, I found a source that looked promising and got a whole bunch of plans. I then had to convert them all because they were in the wrong format.
They worked perfectly, right?
Of course not. But that leads into tomorrow.
Friday
I spent most of this day with a tool I found called LibreCAD. Since the plans I’d found were rather amateur, they weren’t set up with our product in mind. We were having problems finding the actual plan when we opened it.
So I opened the plans with LibreCAD and basically cut up the plans and recentered them in a new file so that they would appear the way we wanted.
We also had a demo for a potential user and he really liked what he saw.
That being said….
Two of my biggest takeaways from this week would be the importance of perseverance, and also the importance of taking initiative. I can tell that finding a way to get things accomplished and also seeing a progression of what I can pursue next without being told explicitly is going to get me a long way.
Bright Idea Of The Week
Something Ken said early on was really interesting. He said we should be focusing on goals, not plans to get there. If we keep focused on our goals, the day to day will fall into place. It’ll just be a natural process, dealing with what comes up.
But if we are absorbed in our plans, we’re going to get all bent out of shape as plans change every minute.
Be steady, focus on your goals, not your plans, and you’ll ride out the biggest waves that come along.
See you next week!
