Acism conducted 3 months programming internships from May-August 2022 successfully. They were conducted completely remotely. They were based on component implementation. For more details, read on.
Objective
Impart “demonstrable expertise” in the practical aspects of programming through the development of Xsemble components.
The demonstrable expertise obtained from the internships would prepare the intern for remote freelancing work offered by Acism https://acism.com/community or even outside programming work.
Concept
Generally one learns programming through creating small programs. We use Xsemble components instead of small programs. It provides a context that is small enough. But in addition, you get a structure (specific inputs / outputs / exit paths) and auto-generated code which can help a learner. They also learn unit testing, again, with the help of an auto-generated code template. The business logic is about self study, like in case of small programs.
Unlike small programs, the Xsemble components can be parts of industry-strength application. Therefore, the interns would be ready to contribute to creating software that is based on Xsemble. At Acism we do that. We utilize the services of freelancers for implementing the components as per our crowdsourced development model. This opens up another opportunity for them.
Execution
Colleges is where you get a large number of interns in one go. In the past, our internships were always offered to students of a college. However, this time, we opened up the internships to general audience. That gave us a mix of interns with various levels of experience.
There was a gradual progression in how the interns were helped:
- At the beginning, we showed them how to work with the exported components. (They are called Test bundles.)
- Then we gave them the auto-generated template code of some components that we defined for them. We held daily meetings to solve any issues.
- Halfway through the internships, we showed them how to work with Xsemble and asked them to create components of their choice themselves.
- Finally, we wanted them to create a small working Xsemble demo application that can show the working of their component.
Throughout the course of internship, we kept dropping people who were not sincere. We conducted a practical-oriented test mid-way through the internships based on what was covered till then. This test helped separate out sincere ones from the others. We removed the others from the internships group.
The internship completion certificates were issued only to those who sincerely worked towards completing the internship.
Results
Many interns who joined us were women who wanted to get back to the workforce after a career break. This is clearly a group that could not be tapped in a college. We are happy that those women who completed the internships see a benefit in it. See this post by Ms Divya Rohilla for an example. However, part of the mix were freshers as well. Here is a post by Ms Pooja Pandey, a fresher. All those who completed the internship unequivocally told us that their confidence level has improved a lot. Some of them said that they are ready as freelancers.
As the posts say, the programming skills were brushed up for both the UI side as well as on the backend side. In case of some interns, we observed specific preference towards one of those. This was expected, as their natural choice showed through that.
Most of the people who filled the form for internships were not sincere. They did not ask questions, did not show their work and did not attend the group meetings. Many of them did not even come forward to schedule their test when the test was announced. We believe these are the people who just wanted to get an internship certificate but did not want to do any work for that. Needless to say, they were dropped.
The Finishers
Acism congratulates all the interns who successfully completed the internships. Here are their names, in alphabetical order:
- Divya Rohilla
- Neetu Nainan
- Pooja Pandey
- Saurabh Khatri
- Smitha N
- Sri Padma L
Summary
The programming internships were a success. They boosted the programming skills of the interns and made them more confident and capable. Acism would love to work with those who completed those, in some form or the other.