Dean Abusood

College: Lehman College

Education Level: Senior

Career Interest: Software Engineer

I am a Computer Science student who is aiming to be a fulltime software engineer to work on projects that help others. I have a passion for programming and love to build projects revolving around my personal hobbies and interests. I am always on the hunt to pick up new skills inside and outside of tech and welcome the competition. Some of my favorite things to do are playing guitar, gaming with friends, working out, watching films, and reading books/articles. When something piques my interest, I always try to find ways to include it in a small project of mine. I see myself as someone who loves to innovate and the challenge that comes with it.

What was your role?

I have worked across the Unadat site to fix both major and minor bugs (worked through almost every file).

What did you work on?

What was the impact of your project?

I believe users would appreciate the work my team and I have done. It`s a more enjoyable experience to navigate the site without any groundbreaking bugs visible anymore. From major bugs to minor ones, all fixes have helped create a more user-friendly environment.

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

My teammates have taught me a ton of things. We each have our own past experiences and are able to communicate to others just that. If I were struggling on a bug, I would reach out to the teammate who had previously worked on a similar bug or section before, and vice-versa. We always had each other`s backs and if once of us had time to spare, we would assist another on bugs/roadblocks.

What skills have you gained?

I have learned a few small tricks I had not previously known about in JavaScript from teammates of mine. I have also learned so much in jQuery along with ajax calls through the provided code reference and working on the code myself. Out of the tech scope, communication is something I periodically struggle with, and each presentation has helped me voice myself more directly and concise.

What was the biggest roadblock you've overcome?

A roadblock of mine has been breaking into tech and securing an internship was the first step. I am extremely grateful to have been picked for this opportunity knowing it`ll immensely help me down the line. I have learned so much in this small period and feel way less imposter syndrome than I felt coming in. Aside from my own personal roadblock, I had not felt any roadblocks at Unadat since there was always someone to talk to if things were to arise.

How has company culture guided your work?

The company culture was extremely welcoming and friendly. If I had any tech related questions, my teammates or Dan were there to help guide me. If there were any other roadblocks, Sean was always there to help out. This was a supportive environment and I feel it dramatically affected my work because I always felt ready to work the next day.

What was your experience at Unadat?

My experience at Unadat was amazing! I really enjoyed brushing things up on the site to make it look and function as designed. I also enjoyed having the autonomy within my team to choose which tasks to work on each sprint. Having that option made our team much more efficient since many teammates would already be familiar with a specific bug or file it was located in.

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

I`ve worked on bugs such as fixing the navbar sitewide, fixing the create and edit fundraising stories to function properly, fixing the way friends were cleared in the Invitations tab, and so much more. There were no real big projects since most of the bugs took a similar time span which was under a week to complete.

What advice would you give to future interns?

Never feel afraid to reach out to others when you don`t understand something. Interns are not expected to know everything at the end of the day but take this opportunity to build on just that. It`s a learning experience and by asking questions, you`ll be able to learn so much.