“Just do it”, says AMES student who joined Summer of Tech internship

AMES Diploma in Computing and Network Support student Jeremy Williams participated in the Summer of Tech Create Camp during August, and joined some of New Zealand’s top local students and graduates in the premier IT internship programme.

The Summer of Tech is a year long programme with the Create Camp being an invite only two day event at the end, where students from all over the country are split into groups and allocated a mentor from the technology industry. It gives students an opportunity to work intensely on a project and develop new skills through teamwork and collaboration.

Jeremy said, “It gave me the opportunity to get a real sense of what working with others in a professional environment is like, albeit a more condensed version of a working week. We started with an idea at 0900 on Saturday, and ended up with a fully functional web application on Sunday at 1700. The very idea of making an app from the ground up in 16 hours was an amazing feat, and to see so much great work coming out of Auckland was a massive inspiration!”

He continued, “My main takeaway from the weekend was that it’s okay not to know absolutely everything at this point, and being on a software team, is less about being a software guru and more about having the right attitude. If you go into it prepared to listen and learn at every moment – you are far more likely to succeed even if you’re not the best coder there!”

The Summer of Tech aims to create opportunities for the country’s technology industry by connecting employers with top local students and graduates for paid work experience and graduate jobs.

And Jeremy’s experience reinforces this. He said, “Just do it – if there’s a place to be as a software developer starting out, it’s this event! Also, Summer of Tech isn’t just a single event it’s actually a series of seminars that are held almost weekly throughout the entire year”.

After that there are internships to apply for, which run over the course of the Summer for around three months. Summer of Tech is free, and is built upon the available time and generosity of many big software industry names.

Jeremy has now applied for several internships, and is completing his programme at AMES.