During the past years I’ve been achieving all the steps to become a Software Engineer – I’ve accomplished my internship, I mentored other interns and I discovered some programming aspects that are and aren’t fundamental in a successful company. In this small article I try to show this learning and I explain a little about why it all.

What’s fundamental?

The code review practice: this is certainly the most fundamental feature to look for in an internship. It’s very likely that a newbie in the area still don’t know what the problems are of not following good practices when programming, and this is normal. That’s why having a strong code review culture, that is, your co-workers (generally more experienced) reviewing your code consistently is fundamental in developing as a professional, this is when you will really learn to program better and why it is to program this way.

• Business culture: How helpful the people you are working with are important for all career levels, but at this stage, where you will need constant help, it is even more necessary. (https://www.themuse.com/advice/the-3-career-mentors-everyone-should-have)

• Diversification of activities: It is very interesting that you have market experience in different activities of the profession (backend, frontend, DevOps/SRE, QA, Customer Support), as this will help you when choosing your next job as a junior or when deciding in which area of the same company will you work.

• Implementation of automated tests: this type of practice helps to maintain some sanity between the development team and the operations team and is also good for beginners who will work on the project with greater confidence, because it is possible to change a piece of code and find out if it broke any pre-existing functionality.

What’s very good but not essential

• Salary: Money is Always good and extremely necessary. But an intern’s earnings generally don’t tend to vary much from company to company.

• Remote Work: the possibility of working remotely is always very positive, but as an intern you may not be a game-changer.

• Business area in which the company operates: it’s something interesting to consider starting from junior seniority, but for an internship it doesn’t make much difference. Anyone who works in a software house ends up having contact with numerous business rules.

• Organizational maturity: there is a certain popular saying that says - “Working in new companies is building things, working in old companies is optimizing things”. Not necessarily an absolute truth, nor a moral judgment, but it’s a good thing to consider.

Which practically makes no difference

• Stack of the company: whether the company uses the technologies that are in fashion, it doesn’t make that much difference. Learning fashion technologies is good, as it can help you get a higher-paying job, but as an intern it is more important to learn the fundamentals of the profession (which do not necessarily depend on the tools that the company uses). (https://devskiller.com/infographic-highest-paying-tech-jobs/#Top_10_highest_paying_tech_jobs_by_skills)

• Video games, a ball pit, and a hipster coffee machine: knowledge that may have already become mainstream, but it is always good to point out that none of this has a significant impact on a job (in some cases they are made to keep you longer in the company)

Conclusion

Not everything on this list is accessible things to know before joining a company. My suggestion is to use social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter) and ask current and former employees about the company and check if it doesn’t have a blog/Medium where it publishes articles on corporate culture. It’s also always good to remember that we have a natural anxiety when we’re going to do something for the first time, so it’s essential to know what mistakes are going to happen and embrace the rich. I hope to have helped you in the beginning of your professional trajectory.