Intern Diaries: Ala Baganné, Software Engineer (Post #1)

Sharings of my first month as an Intern with Realinflo!

Hello! I’m Ala Baganné, a student studying Computer Science at the Higher Institute of Applied Science and Technology at Sousse. Being curious about how computers work, how programs are made and wanting to improve people’s lives by providing software to make their job easier, I knew that I wanted to get into programming at a young age. I also love music and the majority of my free time is spent learning to play the guitar.

In my internship for Realinflo, I work on various dashboards for the platform that improves data management and visualization for our users.

Realinflo is a data analytics platform that provides granular, instant and verified building and transaction data on markets across Asia-Pacific. I started my internship at Realinflo as a Software Engineer one month ago and I’d like to share with you what I have learnt during my first month.

1 – It’s ok to ask for help

As a junior web developer new to professional life, I felt like I had to prove myself and that I could handle whatever is thrown at me. Well, this is true to some extent, but at the cost of something else, which for me is time – I spent two days stuck on the same feature and when I reached out to my manager Rachel, she provided a solution with an example that helped me understand what needed to be done and how to use it in other scenarios.

2 – Communication is important

When you’re new to the software development industry, you tend to think that all developers do is to stare at their screens and write code all day long. Some developers indeed prefer to talk as little as possible. But trust me, learning to communicate will help you further understand what needs to be done and it will take you very far.

3 – Use source control

Source control will save your life over and over again – and it has saved my life many times! Use Git or any good one you can find. Learn to use it. The great thing about Git is that it is easy to experiment with.

I hope you can learn something from these lessons. If you have some lessons you have learned that you would like to share, I would love to hear them in the responses.

Thanks for reading! If you have any platform (or song!) requests I can be reached at ala.baganne@realinflo.com or you can also find me on LinkedIn.