Originally from Winnipeg, MB, I moved to Fredericton, NB before beginning high school. I’ve always had interests in a variety of areas. I have a background as a musician, experience with content creation and design, and a fascination with computers. I was interested in learning more about web development, and working with an experienced agency seemed like an ideal way to gain those valuable skills.
Interning at Evolving Web
After finishing my first year working towards my undergraduate degree at McGill University here in Montreal, I had the opportunity to join the Evolving Web team for a four-month internship. My internship has three main objectives:
- Gain hands-on job experience by documenting the processes used by the company’s different teams
- Learn HTML, CSS, and Drupal basics, which I’ve been doing with the help of Evolving Web’s webinars
- Develop an understanding of functional quality assurance.
Most of all, I want to be able to explore multiple aspects of the company’s operations and learn about the different elements of web design and development. Here are some of the new skills I’ve developed so far.
New Skill: Adapting to a Global Pandemic
I didn’t plan to start my internship remotely (no one could have planned for this pandemic), yet the team here at Evolving Web is filled with spirit and enthusiasm despite the lockdown situation at hand. As I’m writing this, we aren’t able to return to the office just yet, but I look forward to meeting everyone in person, as they’ve all been kind and given me great advice to help start me off on the right track.
New Skills: Agile and Scrum
From my very first day at Evolving Web, I got to dive in and experience agile project management and the Scrum framework in action. Focusing on continuous learning, collaboration, and flexibility, agile project management prioritizes completing short iterations of work and adapting your approach based on the experience each team member gained from the previous iteration. This helps to maximize productivity and is a great way to work as a team.
Scrum is a framework used at Evolving Web in conjunction with their agile project management approach. Scrum focuses on planning goals to be met within the same short periods of time (sprints), receiving feedback, and reflecting as a group on the work accomplished and the successes and challenges. This encourages the team to continually learn from experience. Daily meetings help ensure that everyone is on the same page and promote transparency and accountability.
New Skill: Process Documentation
While I have experience with academic writing, writing business documentation will be a new experience for me that will help me expand my skill set. Observing how the different teams work together and translating those processes into clear, comprehensive documentation is also helping me understand how organizations function.
New Skill: Building Drupal Websites
I had the privilege of joining in on Evolving Web’s HTML/CSS and Drupal webinars, which gave me the ability to build my own webpage from the practical and interactive workshops. These have been a wonderful opportunity to learn with the help of a great instructor, Trevor Kjorlien, who did a great job teaching me new, applicable skills that I’ll be sure to use in the future.
New Skill: Quality Assurance
The next step was to immerse myself in the ongoing projects at Evolving Web. I had the chance to start working on functional QA for a project and get into website testing using different software, which was an eye-opening experience for me. A crucial part of the website building process that requires attention to detail, thorough quality assurance ensures a functional interface and the best possible experience for end-users.
I’m certain that my time with Evolving Web will provide me with many insights on how successful businesses operate, while introducing me to the world of web design and development. I’m eager to learn more about the ongoing work through different roles within the company, and I know that this experience will help me grow and expand my knowledge throughout the summer.
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