Monday, May 26, 2008

Respite

The last weeks of Java Boot Camp have finally ended. The official training ended two weeks ago, but we extended for one more week to finish the first iteration of the library web application that we were designing. Three days ago I said good-bye to the other interns, all of whom are from La Salle. Their first trimester for the year starts today; I probably will never see them again, since I'm a UP student. Orange and Bronze has begun sponsoring a Computer Science elective at La Salle, and one of the interns is taking it; the others said they'll be sitting in. I'm just sad that I can't be with them as they soak up even more Java-related knowledge... It's so much easier to learn new things when you're learning them with friends. :)

It's been a little over a month, and I find it hard to believe that I don't have to go to work in a few hours' time (it's now almost two in the morning). Two of the other interns still have a few days' worth of internship hours to fill in before they can receive their certificates; they'll be spending this week working on revisions and fixes for the first iteration. I decided to give myself this one week of rest before enrollment for the first semester starts, since I started my internship the day after following up some requirements at the last minute for the previous semester. After all, I'm not getting any credit for this internship; I just didn't want to be bored the whole summer long. Internships at our department are taken as summer electives, and since I'd already used up all my electives I decided not to enroll it. (Not to mention the fact that, in case I didn't pass, it wouldn't show up in my transcript... :D) I had no clue what I was in for...but I have to admit, I was never so glad to fill in overtime hours. And it's not just because of the nice laptop and unlimited wifi access.

My head is still reeling after being repeatedly barraged with Java and OOP best practices. I appreciate all the effort our trainors put into our training, although I did slack off half of the time (and read manga online whenever the lectures were especially boring ^^;). I learned something completely new; not just web development using Java, but an entirely different mindset from what I'm used to. Although I did learn Java and a little OOP in my freshman year, I realized how little I understood either of them. It was difficult for me to grasp the concepts central to the design of the programming language and the paradigm behind the language. Now I've had the chance to put what I've learned to practice, with a real application that Orange and Bronze is planning to use. I could have done better, worked faster, been more supportive of my teammates, the list goes on. But there's no doubt that I spent these last weeks in the most productive manner possible, and right now I find the shift back to doing virtually nothing at home somewhat disconcerting. Perhaps part of the reason is the environment: at Orange and Bronze I can easily get into programming mode, and there are so many people to approach whenever I have questions or problems. Everyone is friendly, jokes around a lot, and the office is so comfortable, if a little cramped. And of course there's the work. I was challenged, and though I feel I didn't give my all I enjoyed myself. I'm the type of person who doesn't get motivated easily, especially if I have to motivate myself... Being around so many motivated people who love their work was a refreshing, if not enlightening, experience.

Now that I have to bum around for a week, I'm going to miss all of the Orange and Bronze people, as well as the other interns with whom I shared a month's worth of learning and laughter. If I sound cheesy, take it at face-value; I really do feel this way, and the feeling will linger over the next few days.

8 comments:

Bharat said...

That's funny... I had a feeling I commented on this... I just keep having the feeling that I've commented on everyone's blogs... But anyway.. you've been tagged!! Check my blog out (and I'm sorry if you've already done this before)

JAVA RULES!! YEAH!! :)

Bharat said...

Well, anyway, my previous comment was about how I keep trying to convince my teacher that Java is not a 'joke'... 'tis versatile... he swears by VB... I personally just love Java... and I would prefer applets in Java to Windows or whatever in C...

JAVA RULES!! YEAH!!

LJ said...

c rules! joke, i miss java!

yes naman, java expert na sya! pwede ka na sa Web Science or Computer Vision and Machine Intelligence research lab for 198!

Emir Rio Abueva said...

Iba talaga kapag may kasama kang working peopsies noh? Na-eengganyo kang magwork din! LOL
Congratulations at nakaraos ka rin ng OJT!

Aleta said...

It sounds like you had an excellent experience with Orange and Bronze. You can take that with you to any new employer and hope for the same atmosphere or at the least, know what type of atmosphere you want to work within ~ a very important aspect of happiness!

Sucharita Sarkar said...

so you are ready for the next level after orange and bronze? great stuff! reading manga when the lectures are boring reminded me of doodling during class-lectures, or hiding a book within the textbook to not fall asleep in class!

Rich said...

I remembered reading your post about how embarrased you were at the first day of training. It's good that it seemed you already redeemed yourself and did had a good time there.
Keep enjoying life and CS!

Sucharita Sarkar said...

Hi,

I'm tagging you regarding the book you are reading at the moment.
Open to page 123.Go to the fifth line.
Post the next three lines.
Forward this tag to 5 persons and acknowledge who tagged you.

happy reading.