I spent my summer of 2022 at Fidelity Investments’ Raleigh-Durham office, working as a full-stack software engineer. It was an invaluable opportunity that allowed me to gain practical industry experience and insights into the constantly evolving world of software development. I enjoyed my experience so much that I decided to return there for my summer 2023 internship, and although I was once again a full-stack developer, my experience could not have been more different! Having two varied experiences allowed me to broaden my horizons, develop different skill sets and learn about the wide assortment of responsibilities that Fidelity engages in.
This summer (2023), I collaborated with multiple cross-functional squads to incorporate new software utilities, which allowed me to cultivate not only my technical skills but also my inter-personal skills. I also got the opportunity to practice the AGILE framework and gain experience with ceremonies like daily scrum, retrospectives, and sprints. I was tasked with helping my team improve their web-based, client-facing application by adding more features and functionality. Additionally, I was entrusted with researching and developing a proof-of-concept to help migrate the website to a headless content management system to allow for greater flexibility and lower wait times. Given the team’s lack of familiarity with the headless content management system and the intricacies of integrating it with the existing application, I took on the role of a leader and educator within the team. I initiated meetings with individuals from other teams to understand how they have used the content management system and also ensured to write extensive documentation about my findings in addition to conducting knowledge transfer sessions with team members.
I was also able to generate the foundation for an essential utility that is now being developed into a business unit-wide solution that will allow teams to integrate with their applications with the content management system, while ensuring that their applications continue to meet company and accessibility standards. I gained a wealth of knowledge this (and last) summer at Fidelity Investments, and my key learnings were as follows: Firstly, I learnt and further improved upon a variety of technical skills such as Angular, version control software, headless content management systems, splunk, java and JavaScript. I also became more familiar with working in a large team and frameworks like AGILE. Secondly, since I was working with technologies that my team was unfamiliar with, I had to look to others outside my team for assistance and advice. This allowed me to further develop my teamwork and communication skills while teaching me to leverage a variety of resources. I also took the opportunity to be mentored by various industry professionals like cybersecurity experts and project managers which allowed me to learn more about the type of work that they do. Lastly, I learnt the importance of asking questions, listening and sharing information with others: communication and continuous learning are instrumental for making efficient progress and keeping up with the rapidly changing technology.
As I look back on my summers at Fidelity Investments, I am filled with gratitude and appreciation for my mentors, fellow interns, challenges, opportunities and experiences. I am excited to continue learning about technology this semester at Duke University and applying them in a practical, industry setting.
