What a weird couple of months it has been. We will not bore you with tales about ‘working from home’, ‘the new way of working’, or ‘yeah, we are back to work’. Honestly, nFuse has been set-up to work from everywhere, safely, secure and reliable. The crisis did hit hard though, everywhere and there is no escape, for no-one, which brings us to our interns, Gil, Gökhan and Tommie. What a time has this been for them, as well.
Their internships started normal enough. They came in, collected their assignments, looked bewildered 🙂 and set off to work. Little did we know everything would change for them, for us, well for the world of course. After a couple of days, the guys settled in the pace of work. All the new and shiny stuff faded a bit, and the daily stand-up routine and analysis of their assignments started. The first couple of weeks revolve around analysing and gathering all the required information. Scrapping what is not needed, following leads and information that leads to nowhere, and making sure all work is sent in on time.
Weekly presentations
To put the pressure on them, we asked them to organise weekly progress meetings and to hand over a prep of their presentations. Boy, did they feel uncanny at first. Presenting and preparing for your finals is always tricky. But, doing this in a professional work environment with people that ask difficult questions is a whole other experience. The first presentations were… rough, so to speak. The ones that followed turned out better, more to the point, cleaner and more professional.
After a couple of weeks, the rhythm of the world changed. We all know why. We had to make some difficult calls, of course. We had to ask everyone to start working from home. For the nFuse guys, this was a matter of basically continuing what we were doing after business hours, but for our interns, there was a more significant impact. Suddenly forced to work from home, often they were living with their parents, and in a home situation combining ‘work/school/home’ did not make things easier. The daily routine we asked for was, of course, a bit disrupted and more challenging to handle.
To solve this, we introduced a morning and an afternoon stand-up and made sure Gil, Gökhan and Tommie got their hands on our communication-tools. We use Slack and Teams and often had video sessions open just at least to see each other. Although the situation was different, I have to say that they coped very well. Did they struggle? Of course. Did it impact their situation? For sure. But these guys remained professional, as what we expected, of course. For one of them, it even got more intense since Ramadan came in between as well.
The last sprint 🙂
The last weeks are the most difficult. When all major work is done, the most challenging part remains: tweaking. All thesis materials have been reviewed countless times, and fatigue is kicking in. However, we kept pushing them. With the presentations, with the high standards we demand from them. But our guys delivered. They showed the tenacity and will to keep going on. The last presentation for our team was done, the finish line in sight.
After completing all work, handing over the assignments, and having a wee break in between, the guys had to present their work, projects and results to an external panel. All virtually of course: their presentations were carried out via Teams, where they also got questions about the choice they made. The last push, the final sprint was done!
Reflection
With this group, nFuse has witnessed the best group of interns we had up until now. Meaning, the bar has been set very high for the new interns! Circumstances made it different, but the guys made it a fun time. They honestly did a marvellous job. We had tons of fun getting them through this final sprint. They can now relax and deserve some time off. We did learn a lot ourselves as well. The feedback we received was excellent, but there are always improvements to be made. We, for sure, will use their feedback to improve for the next lot of interns.
Last but not least, Gil, Gökhan, Tommie, thanks for a great time. Our complete team wishes you all the best in your professional careers. We hope you do not lose the drive and spirit you showed us. Continue to improve, continuous evolvement!
The nFuse team