Internship
Computer Science assistant
Over the course of two months during the summer, I interned for my father as a computer scientist in training. Although my father works for a start up company called Proofpoint in Sunnyvale, California, he is also self employed in the sense that he is pursuing a project that would become like a second job and it has to do with programming an algorithm to analyze stock market trends. Since this project has no designated location for a workplace, I am required to spend the time at home learning and practicing how to code basic databases for interpreting current data on the stock market and displaying that information on a website that we can use. Since my dad has a full time job, I had to create the website we would use for data collection from scratch so my first duty was to create my own training schedule and learn specific coding languages that would be used for the job. On my own I learned how to manage my time learning Ruby on Rails and the basic languages(html, javascript, css) for simple website formatting, and I had to use MySQL for the database of the website. My father outlined the concept of what the entire website and algorithm would look like, and I had to essentially create the platform that we would later work on when he had a lot more free time. He told me that in the field of computer science, jobs and tasks vary greatly and he told me that my internship is one of the many jobs where the schedule is more flexible than your average non-technical job, but there is also difficulty in that nature.
I reaped the benefits of getting to wake up whenever I pleased and put in the designated amount of work or time depending on my father's daily tasks in the comfort of my own home, so I felt that since I had a relaxing work environment I could focus on getting the work done without getting stressed out. However, there are big drawbacks to working a job like this. The fact that I am a “one man army” in this project means that I am fully accountable for every single task and if I fail to meet deadlines and expectations, I am fully responsible. My dad treated me how a CEO or a manager of his company would do their job and when I failed to meet an expectation I would have a professional sit down and warning. Also, when I produced good work or exceeded expectations I would sit down and get a raise or promotion of some sorts with entitled benefits(all raises, promotions,warnings.
Logs:
June 27th: First Day of Internship
Log: On this day, Monday, I went over my job responsibilities for my internship with my boss, my father. For the first 30 minutes I was getting myself acquainted with the project I was going to begin. We started analyzing the stock market looking for trends and then the goal was explained clearly and then we moved on to the outline for the website. I later spent the remaining time discussing how to plan the model and database that I would use.
July 2nd: First Evaluation Conference
Log: On this 10th day of the internship, I evaluate my progress to see that I have came a long ways from when I started the first day. After analyzing the market for 3 full days, I have located the exact behavior of a particular stock and will begin designing an algorithm to evaluate that stock and record data of each day. Work feels pretty slow and it feels difficult to know if I’m on the right track.
July 20th: Productivity Climax
Log: After checking in with my boss for the second time, I have been told that I have made remarkable progress on my website and database. He said he was pleased with the database's ability to store information and recognition of the stock trend. I can only say that my work is getting more difficult as time closes in. I wonder if the website will be good enough by the next time to be able to predict market trends.
July 29th: Last Day Working on the Internship
Log: I can safely say that I have learned a tremendous amount of information pertaining to being able to hold a job and manage my own time independently with a project on my shoulders. It has been quite a learning experience with many ups and downs, but ultimately, I did finish the project. However, my dad told me that if I were doing this in a real job, the deadlines would be a lot more strict and I probably would have failed to get the job done and would have gotten fired.
Log: On this day, Monday, I went over my job responsibilities for my internship with my boss, my father. For the first 30 minutes I was getting myself acquainted with the project I was going to begin. We started analyzing the stock market looking for trends and then the goal was explained clearly and then we moved on to the outline for the website. I later spent the remaining time discussing how to plan the model and database that I would use.
July 2nd: First Evaluation Conference
Log: On this 10th day of the internship, I evaluate my progress to see that I have came a long ways from when I started the first day. After analyzing the market for 3 full days, I have located the exact behavior of a particular stock and will begin designing an algorithm to evaluate that stock and record data of each day. Work feels pretty slow and it feels difficult to know if I’m on the right track.
July 20th: Productivity Climax
Log: After checking in with my boss for the second time, I have been told that I have made remarkable progress on my website and database. He said he was pleased with the database's ability to store information and recognition of the stock trend. I can only say that my work is getting more difficult as time closes in. I wonder if the website will be good enough by the next time to be able to predict market trends.
July 29th: Last Day Working on the Internship
Log: I can safely say that I have learned a tremendous amount of information pertaining to being able to hold a job and manage my own time independently with a project on my shoulders. It has been quite a learning experience with many ups and downs, but ultimately, I did finish the project. However, my dad told me that if I were doing this in a real job, the deadlines would be a lot more strict and I probably would have failed to get the job done and would have gotten fired.
Hours Log: (rounded down)
June 27th, 2016: 1 hour
June 29th, 2016: 2 hours
July 2nd, 2016: 2 hours
July 6th, 2016: 4 hours
July 8th, 2016: 4 hours
July 11th, 2016: 1 hour
July 18th, 2016: 2 hours
July 20th, 2016: 6 hours
July 25th, 2016: 1 hour
July 29th, 2016: 1 hour
June 29th, 2016: 2 hours
July 2nd, 2016: 2 hours
July 6th, 2016: 4 hours
July 8th, 2016: 4 hours
July 11th, 2016: 1 hour
July 18th, 2016: 2 hours
July 20th, 2016: 6 hours
July 25th, 2016: 1 hour
July 29th, 2016: 1 hour