Farrukh Karimov

College: City College of New York

Education Level: Senior

Career Interest: Back-end Developer

I am a Senior at CCNY majoring in Computer Science. I've lived in the US since 2013. I always knew that my career would be something to do with technology and I ended up choosing the computer science field because of a Java course in my high school. I've tried android development, deep learning algorithms and even some game development, however, my favorite field of computer science is back-end/full stack development. Python has always been my favorite programming language but slowly I am transitioning to JavaScript. I am dedicated to keep learning about new web development concepts and improving my programming skills. In addition, I know 5 languages and I want to learn more in the future, so I can travel the world much easier. Besides coding, I enjoy watching/playing sports, mainly soccer and basketball. And after graduating, I hope to land a job as a back-end developer.

What was your role?

At Unadat, I worked on creating a financial wellness score on the website that user can access. I also added new inputs for user’s to enter their information that would be helpful in calculating their financial wellness score more accurately.

What did you work on?

What was the impact of your project?

Hopefully, our financial wellness score/model will help users evaluate themselves when it comes to their financial health. The project could be expanded by showing the user how to improve their score if their score is low. And if their score is high, it could tell the user what they’re doing well. The 4 subscores that we have right now could be very useful for that.

What did you learn or improve on from this internship or from your teammates?

The UX/UI interns helped with my web design(front-end) experience by giving me a different point of view with some of the designs on the website. And from the quants interns I learned more about statistical analysis.

What skills have you gained?

The main skill that I learned during this internship is learning a new programming language: PHP. All the web development that I have done before was with Python and JavaScript. So, having another language under my belt is pretty helpful. Also, it is always good having more experience working with SQL.

What was the biggest roadblock you've overcome?

The biggest roadblock during my internship was balancing my summer course with my work and tasks. My summer course was an advanced math course, so I had to do a lot of studying but in the end it all worked out.

How has company culture guided your work?

The agile development was very helpful in completing small tasks each week and adding more tasks if I finished my tasks early. Also, whenever I had questions, the product manager interns were always there to assist me, and if they unable to help me, Sean and Daniel were always available to contact.

What was your experience at Unadat?

My experience at Unadat was very pleasant. The team that I worked on was very friendly and helpful. They were always there when I had a problem or a question. Also, Sean and Daniel were very supportive throughout the internship. Whether I had scheduling issue or a technical question, I always was able to find a solution in the end with their help. During this internship, I also had a summer course but they were accommodating with my schedule. The meetings at the end of the week were very informative and helpful, if you were having problems with your tasks. In addition, I also got a lot of hands-on experience with coding.

What was one big project you worked on during the internship? Can you walk me through the process?

One big project I worked during the internship was the wellness score. First I created the inputs where the user could enter the additional information needed to calculate the score. Then store that information in the database. Next, create a pop up with links to those inputs. After that, get the variables that Unadat already gather about the user and combine them with my inputs to calculate the wellness score. Finally, display the score in a pop up for the user to see.

What advice would you give to future interns?

My advice to future interns is to not hesitate to ask Daniel or Sean if they have any questions or problems because sometimes students can be reluctant when they have technical questions. It’s better to work out the problems then not complete your tasks.