Navigating My Internship: Max Pace

Every Career Journey Needs A Guide

For an aspiring software engineer, an internship can be one of the most influential experiences for personal and professional growth. My name is Max, and during the summer of 2022, I worked as a software engineer intern at Guidewire, based out of Exton, Pennsylvania.

Throughout my internship, I’ve written lots of code and worked on various exciting projects, but I’ve also formed incredible connections with the other software engineers on my team. Between our routine meetings, one-on-one conversations, and an in-office week where I was fortunate enough to be a part of some fun team-building activities, I got to know the team very well.

All In A Day's Work

My typical workday starts with a morning Scrum meeting where everyone on the team shares what they’ve been working on, how they are progressing, and anything relevant to the rest of the team. After that, I’ll get back to work on my own projects and tasks. If I have code in review for a pull request (PR), I’ll prioritize checking that and revising my work based on the team’s feedback if they have any suggestions or changes. Some PRs get approved and merged right away, while others can go through up to a week of constant tweaks, comments, and reviews. I quickly came to appreciate the depth of the testing and code review processes. The team's thoroughness and intensity forced every bit of software I created to be of the best quality and allowed me to be proud of every line I contributed to the codebase.

Working on each project provided a unique set of challenges and lessons to learn from. While my team was focused primarily on Cloud Data Platform (CDP) development, I felt that every story I picked up interacted with a different part of the CDP structure. Having only joined the company, I wasn’t very familiar with the setup or organization of the codebase. In working around this, I witnessed the significance of a proper flow of communication in a development environment. Asking for advice early on from a senior software engineer proved far more constructive than waiting until later. The people on my team were incredibly knowledgeable, having had years of experience dealing with the exact parts I was working on. In many cases, they were the ones who wrote the original classes and functions I was modifying or extending. Beyond just knowing the code, they were always eager to provide help when I needed it. Challenging myself to figure out the solution on my own has its benefits. But having a collaborative and supportive team that could point me in the right direction and provide tips that I otherwise wouldn’t have thought of made my work more valuable and productive.

Collaboration Is Key

After I had finished enough stories and built up a reasonable foundation of knowledge surrounding the basics of how CDP worked and other aspects of Guidewire’s structure, I was able to work on a larger project for the remainder of my internship. I found plenty of use in asking my co-workers for advice or feedback, and help with any questions that came up.

When the time came to give my final presentation near the end of my internship, I knew I was prepared to demo my summer’s work and speak extensively about my project’s functionality, motives, impact, and future. Thanks to the collaboration I had with my team throughout the summer and the experience I had accumulated, not just my main project but the other stories I completed, I was able to confidently provide answers to the comprehensive questions the team had for me.

Final Thoughts

I began my internship with the goals of both becoming a valuable asset to my team and learning as much as possible about software engineering. While I am satisfied that I maximized the value of my time here, I feel even more proud of the work I accomplished and the connections I’ve formed. Everyone on my team was incredibly skilled, and I’m glad that I was able to use what I had learned in class and past experiences alongside them.

To anyone considering a software engineering internship, I strongly encourage you to consider Guidewire Software to gain professional experience where you can grow your skillset with a truly accomplished and supportive team.