As we celebrate National Intern Day 2024, we’re proud to showcase the dedication and growth of our summer interns—bringing new skills to our company, enhancing their own career paths, and strengthening our local tech community.
Internships offer valuable real-world experience for students, provide us with fresh ideas, and help build a stronger tech industry locally.
Read on to hear what our interns will take away from this summer—
Ethan Stone
Software Engineering Intern
School: Indiana University
Major: Computer Science
“My favorite part of my internship is the people and the work environment. Everyone is always happy to help, and no one ever treats you differently because you are an intern or don’t know something. This experience has prepared me for my next professional step by exposing me to a real work environment. Since interns work on project teams alongside SEP engineers, I got a new perspective on working in a professional environment while learning new technical skills. My internship also showed me how a team should work with each other and a client to get work done as efficiently as possible.”
Advice to Future Interns: “Ask as many questions as possible. This will help you get the most out of your time here by learning from your team and everyone at the company. Also, try to talk to as many people as possible; everyone here is happy to talk and help with anything, even something not work-related.”
Will Trimble
Software Engineering Intern
School: Rochester Institute of Technology
Major: Software Engineering
“SEP internships offer great variety. You start by choosing a team based on which problems and technology sets you want to explore over the summer. Once part of a team, you see how they solve the problem from end to end. This allows you to practice the parts of software engineering you are most interested in while getting a rounded intern experience. Interning at SEP has given me practice in facing the real-world problems of a professional software engineer. School assignments are usually designed to help you avoid intractable problems. However, in real software development, you sometimes run into issues like bugs in your UI framework where finding a solution or workaround is unreasonable. My fellow SEPeers have helped me learn to let go of the problems I can’t solve and focus on the ones I can.”
Advice to Future Interns: “Get to know your fellow SEPeers and learn as much as possible. SEPeers are full of professional and personal advice across all topics they love to share with the next generation of software engineers (secretly, they are also learning from you!).”
Zach Phelps
Software Engineering Intern
School: Stanford University
Major: Computer Science + AI
“I had a fantastic time interning at SEP this summer! One of my favorite parts about the SEP work culture has been that even as an intern, everyone genuinely values your opinions and insights. They make you feel like a vital part of the team and encourage you to share your thoughts and contributions openly. Throughout the summer, I gained valuable experience developing software as part of a team. I feel more confident working collaboratively with a team to tackle large-scale projects professionally.”
Advice for Future Interns: “For all future interns, my advice is simple in theory but perhaps more challenging in practice. Don’t be afraid to ask questions! You will be much better off seeking clarification early on rather than gradually getting more confused. You are not expected to know everything, and asking questions is the best way to learn and get better.”
Caleb Lehman
Software Engineering Intern
School: Rose-Hulman
Major: Computer Science
“There are many ways to learn and further your skills at SEP. There are Gamejams and Hackathons where you can work on whatever you want. You get a say in the project you want to participate in for the summer. There are many different projects, all with unique experiences and technology. Even within a project, there are still different technologies that allow you to broaden your experiences and skills while being in a supportive environment with peers who are always willing to help. That’s what makes SEP so amazing. Whatever skill you want to learn, there is some way for you to pursue that, and you have the tools provided to do so. An internship at SEP helps prepare you professionally by putting you in a real project environment where you do everything a full-time employee does. There is no specific project only for interns; your code will end up in production, and your efforts will improve someone’s life. That is invaluable professional experience.”
Advice to Future Interns: “Try to soak in as much information as possible in the short summer. Go to as many events and work on as many different technologies as you can. The summer will be over before you know it, and you’ll wish you had put your all into learning everything you can during your time here.”
Andy Jang
Software Engineering Intern
School: IUPUI
Major: Computer Science
“My favorite part of the SEP internship was participating in a wide variety of events outside of my project. Organizing the Summer (New Hire) Cookout, taking an outing to the Indy 500, and finally taking a tour of a data center were big highlights over this summer. During this summer, my internship with SEP allowed me to see that being a software engineer is as much a people problem as a software problem. I developed the skills to clearly communicate and interact with clients while refining my technical skills using C++, C#, and PWAs, just to name a few. Instead of being an intern among developers, I was treated as a developer among developers.”
Advice to Future Interns: “As a future intern, you’ll hear this a lot, but it’s because it’s that important—Please keep asking questions. There are no bad questions to ask, and no one will treat you like an idiot if you don’t know something. Everyone here is always willing to help, so ask away!”
Peyton McKee
Software Engineering Intern
School: Northeastern University
Major: Computer Science
“My favorite part of the SEP internship program was seeing the steel manufacturing plants that my project was assisting in the design of their steel joists. It was interesting to see how the software we built was going to be used in such a real-world application. I learned more than just coding, but how to work with others in a supportive environment so that everyone can put their best foot forward and contribute meaningfully.”
Advice to Future Interns: “Try to live by the water. It is extremely hot in Indiana in June.”
As we wrap up our celebration of National Intern Day 2024, we’re inspired by the stories and achievements of our interns. Their reflections illustrate not only the valuable skills they’ve gained but also their significant contributions. We look forward to seeing how they will use their new skills to shape the future of technology.
Considering a summer internship before graduation?
Discover what it’s like to be a software intern at SEP.
