Going into Uni Full(y) Stack(ed)

Hello! I'm Guan Cen, a junior consultant at Mavericks Consulting. I joined as an intern before even starting uni and honestly, it's one of the best decisions I've made. In just a few months, I've gone from knowing nothing about full-stack development to delivering small features and contributing ideas during project discussions. 

But it wasn't all smooth from the start. I came in knowing almost nothing about the tech stack and it showed. Here's how it all went down.

I had just graduated from JC, finished my National Service, and was wondering what to do for the months leading up to university. 

“Stay home and run games with us,” my friends suggested. I was tempted. I really was, but it was eight whole months that I would be spending at home. I was sure that I would not enjoy that life. 

Besides, I wasn’t even sure about my university course. I applied for Computing on a whim, mostly because my brother convinced me that it was the way to go. 

But once I was accepted, I kept hearing that Computing was really tough and that developers were always stressed out and overworked. But how would I know that was actually true? I didn’t want to let rumours decide my future for me. So I went to find out for myself. 

Funny enough, it was my brother who opened the door for me. He’d interned at Mavericks and had nothing but good things to say. So obviously I looked them up online and what I found was surprising. Instead of the high-pressure, stressful environment I had feared, their posts showcased a friendly atmosphere and a unique way of working. I was sold. I took the opportunity without hesitation and, shortly afterwards, began my internship there.

Once I started, I immediately got a feel for how Mavericks works. I had to adjust to a fast-paced Agile environment. I wasn’t used to breaking down work into smaller increments, prioritising tasks and tracking my performance all at the same time. For my own projects, I preferred to code away and work on whatever seemed important at the time. 

On top of that, there was also a steep technical learning curve. I barely knew the tech stacks and had never developed anything close to the scale they were working on. I struggled at first, but the feeling of being challenged pushed me to learn and adapt faster than I was used to.

However, this is where the friendly atmosphere I had seen online truly came to life. Everyone was very open to helping me out with whatever questions I had. I was assigned to a mentor who continuously encouraged me and helped me achieve my goals during the onboarding process. Mark and Wee Li especially were my main go-tos in moments of doubt. 

After getting up to speed, I transitioned to my first project. This was where I experienced pair programming with senior members who introduced the coding practices, conventions and walked me through the codebase. Watching them tackle problems changed the way I look at writing code. It wasn’t just about writing the right code but also writing it the right way.

That’s easy to say, but what does that actually look like in practice? For me, building the product right meant realising that software isn’t just about making a program work as intended. It's completely different from doing Leetcode questions. It has to be built so that if I were in the shoes of a user, I’d actually want to use it. 

Writing code should also have the rest of the team in mind. By sticking to good conventions, other developers can easily understand the codebase and add their insights during code reviews. It reduces the tediousness of skimming through thousands of lines of code just to fix a single bug.

Of course, no one gets things right all the time. During our regular retrospectives, everyone chips in to brainstorm ideas and suggest improvements for the next sprint. There's constant feedback and honest conversations aimed at helping the whole team improve, sprint after sprint. 

But beyond all the technical growth, it’s the people that made this internship experience great. The team is vibrant, knows how to work when needed and have fun when it counts. From the lunches to the different company activities, it felt like I had something to look forward to each day.

I came in unsure about whether Computing was even right for me but now I’m entering uni with more confidence and real-world experience under my belt. If you’re still considering what to do between now and uni, don’t just play games at home. You might find your very own Mavericks!