If I had to choose one thing that I’ve developed the most during this internship, persistence is a strong contender.

In all my previous work (coding and otherwise) I was all about getting to the easiest solution. These days everyone and their dog are building frameworks, APIs, plugins, and bundles so if you’re willing to sacrifice a small amount of customization, you can get up and running pretty quick with minimal code writing.

Making anything from scratch in development or doing it “the right way” is completely optional. I had done very little of either. Frankly, I needed shit to work and I made it work. This internship has been like a workout regimen for my inner programmer. Everything we do at Punchmark is built in house. No importing libraries for every little thing or using 3rd party plugins.

Perhaps most importantly, I have to finish everything I start exactly to specifications. This means no weaseling out and tasking on extra files to make life easier for me in the short term.

I’ve learned a lot. Just four weeks in and I feel more confident in my abilities to tackle a project that in two years of school.