Incubagency: The Beginning
In recent months, working as a web developer has become something of an aspiration of mine. Maybe it’s an attraction to the ‘buzz’ or maybe it’s just how the internet itself keeps becoming more ubiquitous, but I can’t shake it. And I can’t think of a better place to be interning than with the team here at Digital Operative in search of that goal.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started working here, granted the common notion of an intern as glorified office barista. Having actual work experience only in the IT support field, I guess I would have to say I expected to observe for the most part, with the occasional menial task thrown my way.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
My first week here at digital operative has been just about hands-on as you can get. So far I’ve been tasked with creating a system for bug tracking and project lifetime management and after a brief rundown on some of the approaches and methods the team here at DO has adopted, I have been given free reign on designing and building the entire project. Getting down to business and producing a project right off the bat has so far been great, even granted the learning curve in adopting new programming environments (in this case the Zend framework). All-in-all, I can definitely say that I’ve learned more applicable knowledge about web development in the past week than I did during the entirety of my last 3 months taking web programming classes at school. And I don’t see that letting up any time soon.
The team here at Digital Operative has laid out a jam-packed time line for their internship program this summer. Down the road there are plans for us to design, build, implement and manage digital marketing plans for both a non-profit organization and our own idea or project; possibly even moving in to actual client work. The idea of being part of a team that is incubating our own projects, seeing them grow and eventually come to life, has me looking forward to my next few months working here.
I’m excited to be a part of the team as Incubagency moves forward and I foresee having a great experience and learning many new things along the way. I know that I’m in for a lot of work over the next 10 weeks, but hopefully it will all result in something I’ll be happy to say I was part of.
Keep an eye out for my blog post next week as I tackle 37signals’ book Rework, my next step in integrating with the DOmachine.
Great to see everything is going well! You also just reminded me that I need to finish reading my own copy of Rework as well.
Glad to have you on board Chris. Hold on tight.
Seems like someone has you busy. Great post and hopefully a good indicator that we mean business when it comes to interns and arming you with REAL skills and knowledge. Look forward to this summer. We may have to throw some coffee making, which you’re solid at, and a bit of furniture moving
Wow! This sounds like a great experience so far and it has only been a week. I look forward to hearing more.