I had the opportunity to intern at StockX( a fast growing start-up located in downtown Detroit ), though the HackerFellows program. Hackerfellow's is a program which connects aspiring software developers to Michigan Start-ups. The program includes a one week software development and entrepreneurial training bootcamp, a job with a Michigan start-up for the summer, a compensation boost, software and product development experience, and mentorship from the HackerFellows and Invest Detroit team. In March of 2018, I was matched with 10 different start-up though the program. After a couple of rounds of interviews, I eventually choose to work at StockX for the summer as an engineering intern.
StockX is the "worlds first stock market for things- a live big ask marketplace". On the platform, buyers place bids on things they want to buy and seller's place asks for things they are selling. At the time of my internship, StockX was focused on a couple of different verticals(types of products)- sneakers, handbags, watches, and streetware. At the time , I did not know too much about any of these verticals, which really forced me to step out of my comfort zone. I wrote about that experience in a blog post for Hackerfellows, which you can read here.
I worked on a couple of different projects during this internship. The projects focused on creating webforms to automate processes that were currently done by hand. During my internship I improved my technical skills by learning new technologies, like Javascript, React, Redux, NodeJS, PostgreSQL. I also was able to create and publish a node module to call a backend API, learned about HTTP protocol, and work with GitLab CI/CD. I was able to participate in agile practices, like standups retros, demos, and code reviews. I also learned more about the platform and the company. You can see more detailed descriptions of the projects on the presentation shown below.