Archive for the ‘Week 2’ Category

No post yesterday as I was not in work all day. I had arranged a day for doctor, dentist, optometrist, all in one day so I would miss as little work as possible. It was exhausting but now it’s over and I can concentrate on my internship.

Today feels a bit strange in the office – apparently the other intern who is so difficult also took yesterday off. I had not known about that, but then, why should I? It’s really not my business. It just makes me a bit uneasy that he seems to be basing his actions on mine. Maybe I am blowing this out of proportion. I’ll wait and see,  if anything else similar happens I will have to speak to him about it.

On a happier note – I am so impressed with the guy who sits beside me to my left, yet another intern. He is amazing – working on apps for touchphones – his skills are way out of my league…I am maybe a bit envious but I can learn from watching him.

So now it’s the middle of the second week and I am finally beginning to realize I’m going to make it out the other end of this stage without totally disgracing myself.

I have had to make a couple of adjustments – mostly I wanted to distance myself from the other stageiares so I could be judged on my own merits and not lumped together with others.

This is something I have always aimed at – it is one reason that working in teams for the projects at school was sometimes so frustrating. If my partner was one who was content with an “Okay” mark, I was not a happy camper. I don’t see why, if you’re going to try to do something, you shouldn’t try your hardest to do the best you can. And in this case, my end goal for this phase of my training is very different from what I understand the others’ goals to be,  so I am happy to be working more on my own now.

So this post is more about the philosophy I am developing in the workplace, rather than the actual nuts and bolts of whatever sites I have been working on, but I think it is important to acknowledge that there is more than one type of skill being taught and learned here.

A person who can’t figure out the flavour of the workplace and try to fit smoothly in to the stream, will be of no use to the employer, and will probably learn very little to boot. I hope I am not that person.

Came in this morning and continued on with the CMS project. I am enjoying the work, commute notwithstanding, and have spent a bit of time this evening thinking about why that is. I think it is because things are making much more sense now. I am starting to understand the rhythm of the place, and the way the people work there. I am able to get in to the office and start work on my own without having to wait to be told what to do. This is a good feeling – after all, part of the point of doing this stage is to become autonomous. It is also good because I feel I am contributing more as time goes on. I didn’t like feeling that I might be a drain on the resources (people) here.

This may not seem like a big deal when I write it down, but it feels like a big step to me.

So, some days I learn code, and others I learn about other things.

A new week starts, fresh and full of promise – and again with the futtocknadgering javascript! All fixed by Al last week, but now Ed wants it moved over an inch to the right. Luckily for me I watched as Al fixed it the last time so I know just how to do that. I get it done in record tome, and Ed is so pleased – I’m so proud of myself! Then we realise that whie the thumbnails are now exactly in the right place, since they have been moved, now the larger images that show on mouseover are comping up in the wrong spot. I am at my wits’ ens here. Finally get it fixed but it takes forever and I am not certain I understand what magic was used to get the result… had to be magic, because code sure wasn’t working!