Entrepeneurship - Silver
Software Development Intern - SilcsBio, LLC
Description
My specific tasks in this internship varied, but they mostly involved completing various extension tasks, adding additional levels of functionality to portions of an existing product. These tasks varied from accepting new forms of input, to running across multiple nodes, to basic quality assurance testing of the product with some of my new features included. These tasks were also supplemented by being able to join in some of the planning meetings; these meetings introduced me to some of the practical concerns of a startup, such as avenues for finding and securing customers. This introduced me to work in an entrepreneurial environment, specifically one that manufactures software.
Commitment and Connection
My entrepreneurship experience was an internship with SilcsBio, LLC, a startup company producing molecular modelling software. This took place over the course of two months in the summer of 2017, along with some limited work during the following school year. The connection to my challenge comes from the perspective that I gained in this position; by learning about the practical goals and concerns of entrepreneurial software development, I am learning about what potential barriers could stand in the way of successfully implementing security procedures in cyberspace. This then highlights for me another major aspect of my challenge. Not just do I need to learn about the technical solutions that can secure cyberspace, but I need to learn about other factors such as business requirements that may need to be met to even be able to use those technical solutions.
Reflection
One of the big things that I learned from this experience is just how much work I need to put into being more entrepreneurial. None of the actual entrepreneurial topics, like finding a need to address, designing a business plan, or finding customers, seemed as sensible or easy to follow as the code I was working with. In the short term this tells me that my role is not in startup culture, and that I should focus my efforts on other avenues of attack. In the long term, however, this tells me that I will need to learn more about entrepreneurship and become more comfortable in the discipline if I am going to have a full toolbox for helping to secure cyberspace.
Learning Objectives
Integrity - As this internship was my first time working with proprietary information, I got to experience a different sort of integrity. I already had a sense of personal integrity, but working with intellectual property, especially when accessing it outside of the office as I had to do when working remotely, requires a kind of professional integrity. This sense of professional integrity was further clarified when discussing with my supervisors what parts of the internship I was/wasn't allowed to discuss in interviews or similar situations in the future.
Perspectivism - As the focus of this internship was strictly software development, I got to see a much more production-focused environment than I am used to. This showed me what other concerns are present in production that a theoretical discussion may overlook, and helps me gain the perspective of those who may have other priorities aside from the security challenge I am pursuing.
Realistic vision - This internship showed me just how much work goes into even simple pieces of industry software, or even additional modules for a piece of software. Knowing how much work goes into these tasks gives me a more realistic idea of what can be accomplished with a given amount of work, and what may have to be sacrificed if demands are increased.
Teamwork - Since all of my projects were building upon existing software and accommodating existing standards, being able to work in a team with my supervisors was a great benefit. Being able to ask for help with obtaining sample inputs or interpreting the preexisting code cut development time down significantly, showing me firsthand how important it is to have teammates that can help each other out and answer questions.
Persistence - No matter how much work got done, there was always something else that needed to be added. Not just that, but for every task, there were always multiple stages to implementing it. Continuing to work through all of it and maintain motivation to keep working was an exercise in persistence in and of itself.
Flexibility - Due to my supervisors sometimes working irregular hours or leaving for conferences, working as if this was a regular office job was impractical. As such I had to be flexible in meeting my work requirements, ranging from starting and ending late to working remotely.
Entrepreneuship Learning
Develop strategies for recognizing opportunities and identifying the tools for quality risk assessment. - All of the different projects I was given had the task of enabling the product to fill a role that it would be beneficial for it to fill. This had the indirect effect of showing me what kinds of tasks software might be expected to do, and thus where to look to see if there is an opportunity to fill that gap with a new product or extension to a product.
Exhibit skills for communicating ideas in a concise and logical way. - My internship required me to complete a variety of different tasks, all within a short time frame, and all integrated into the existing product. This required being able to quickly communicate what I was trying and how it was working to my supervisors on multiple occasions, as well as being able to logically explain how it tied into the product so that they would be able to smoothly integrate it after I was done.
Work effectively in teams focused on entrepreneurship-related projects. - As the entire team was working on a single product, even when my specific project was unrelated to what my supervisors were working on, there was still a team environment due to the shared framework that we were contributing to. In a similar manner, all of the different projects contributed to a single, marketable product, enabling it to fill a missing niche; this is in a practical sense an entrepreneurship-related goal.
Apply entrepreneurial thinking to social issues and social problems. - In working for this startup I learned some of what motivated the founders to create it in the first place. This motivation took the place of identifying a need in a certain community that they had the skill set to address, and proceeding to try to meet that need. This introduced me to an entrepreneurial process based on the community, which can be just as easily applied to the social issues of another community.
Demonstrate an understanding of real-world entrepreneurship, including business plans, startups, and other projects. - Over the course of this internship I got to attend some of the companies strategic meetings, learning about how they made plans for progress, what other factors impact running a startup, and other similar elements of the business side of a small company.