_Summer Internship at TT PSC

Practice makes perfect, and the participants of this year’s summer internship at Transition Technologies PSC have experienced this firsthand. One of them, Jacek Grzybowski, has agreed to share his thoughts on his time at TT PSC.

MM: What were your main tasks during your internship at TT PSC?

For three months, together with other interns, we had the opportunity to explore automated testing, with elements of manual testing. Each of us was at a different level, but thanks to the material prepared by the internship supervisors, we were able to tackle a wide variety of tasks, which included API testing, using nUnit and Selenium in C#, as well as Cucumber and SpecFlow. To coordinate our work, we used business tools that are used on a daily basis at TT PSC.

MM: Which project or task did you find most interesting?

It’s hard to pick just one task, as each involved us in a different way, and each required a different strategy from us. They all showed us different approaches to the problems we might be faced with when working on business projects. Certainly, the most challenging and engaging task was the one during which we used Selenium in C#.

MM: What challenges did you encounter while working on the project and how did you deal with them?

The hardest part was combining styles and agreeing on some standards – I was the only apprentice who had experience in C#, but despite this the style of my code was not perfect. Thanks to the insights of others, I was able to correct both my coding habits and incorrect practices. It took some time to agree on a consistent convention and then to correct the tests that had already been written, but this allowed us to spot previously unnoticed errors.

MM: Which of the skills you acquired during your internship would you consider the most valuable and useful?

It is certainly about organising our own work and synchronising it with that of other team members, especially when we were all spread out across the country.  We supported each other, and thanks to the approach of the internship supervisors, we had the opportunity to get answers to our questions. I am confident that I will be able to use the experience I gained in my future work and beyond.

MM: Would you recommend an internship at TT PSC?

Talking to friends who also decided to do an internship this year and listening to their accounts, I am convinced that I made the best choice under the sun! The atmosphere, the smooth onboarding process, the constant support, both technical and professional, and above all the way in which the internships are run, reassure me every day that I made the best possible choice. The approach of the co-workers, especially the managers and the apprenticeship supervisors, gives a sense of being part of a bigger team and stimulates continuous development.

MM: What was the most surprising or instructive thing about your internship at TT PSC?

Most surprising are the tasks assigned to us by the internship supervisors I mentioned earlier. In fact, every day spent in the office is instructive, because every day is different – every day we face different challenges and situations where we are not left to our own devices but feel the supportive but also critical eye of the mentors.

MM: What were your impressions of the working atmosphere at TT PSC?

During conversations with colleagues, you can feel their professionalism and commitment to their projects. At the same time, their passions and activities outside the office – sports, hobbies or travel – are noticeable. Their open approach to interns meant that we were immediately invited to participate in office life. As a result, working at TT PSC was not limited to sitting behind a monitor, and we also found time to talk about the experiences and experiences of others.

MM: Do you feel that the internship has contributed to your professional development?

As the traineeship is my first professional experience in the IT sector, I believe that it has undoubtedly allowed me to see this world from the inside. The skills I gained and, above all, the improvement of those I already have, will undoubtedly allow me to develop in this direction. The traineeship has shown me possible paths for further development in the direction of automated testing.

MM: What technologies or tools were used in your project and what experience have you gained with them?

Each task we were assigned required us to use different technologies and tools. These included Postman, Jira, GitLab, Selenium in C#, nUnit, SpecFlow, Visual Studio Code, Confluence, and the Office suite.

MM: What would you describe as the biggest advantage of an internship at Transition Technologies PSC?

Undoubtedly, it involves constant development—there wasn’t a single day during the internship when I didn’t gain at least a bit of new skills and knowledge. We were forced to do so both by the tasks set before us and by the approach of the internship supervisors and managers, which simply made us want to get better and better.

MM: Do you have any advice for future potential TT PSC trainees?

It is not worth being afraid! And as clichéd as it may sound, I really think so! Personally, I didn’t have much exposure to any kind of testing prior to my internship, as I was myself geared towards more programming-related majors, but I decided to give it a try nonetheless. As a result, I had the opportunity to experience a really busy three months, from which I got as much as I could out of. This is also what I wish for future apprentices – that they themselves are not locked into one direction and are not afraid to try!

MM: Did you feel ‘looked after’ during your internship at TT PSC? Were staff willing to become your mentors, so to speak?

I felt with absolute certainty that I was wanted here. The time devoted to us by the managers and supervisors of the internship, their approach, commitment, openness, and willingness to share with us the knowledge they acquired made the internship an undoubtedly substantive time focused on continuous development. Inspired, hopeful and, above all, with goals set for the future, I am grateful to them for everything they did for us and, above all, for the time they spent with us.