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My Appian Internship Journey Part 1

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My Appian story started as a naïve freshman. As a go-getter, I felt the need to get an internship as soon as possible and decided to go on a LinkedIn applying spree as a two-month in college student. To my dismay, but understandably, most places did not respond. However, in my spree, I applied to Appian’s First-Year Forward program. This program was my first real technical experience and gave me a taste of what my future would entail.

I woke up early July 19, 2019, and drove to Appian’s brand-new headquarters for a jam-packed day of learning, networking, and excitement. I was assigned a mentor, Jodi Flanders, who happened to have gone to my high school and college, the University of Maryland. Throughout the day, she gave a tour of the brand new headquarters, gave a brief overview of all things Appian, and introduced me to her team — Composable Records UI. After the program was complete, I highlighted to everyone I could how amazing the company seemed, asking everyone if they’ve heard of it and, dreaming about interning at Appian.

Flash forward to today, I am a Quality Engineer intern on the Composable Records UI team and thoroughly enjoying the internship program thus far, despite the remote environment.

Tell us about the team you’re on this summer.

As I mentioned before, I am a QEI intern on the CRUI. Despite having a brief understanding of CRUI from First-year forward (I was really just in awe of how amazing Appian was), I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. Throughout the interviewing process, I was still wary about what Quality Engineering was, however, it is now day 30, and I can confidently say I have made a positive impact on my team and Appian as a whole. CRUI is in our final push towards release with two main features, Read-Only Grid Component, and Grid-style Record List. My specific role is one of the last lines of defense before merging the change. With the name comes the role of ensuring quality in everything we do. Quality engineers test tickets to ensure they work properly, check performance, and think of unique ways to test our product.

My at-home office

What work are you most proud of thus far at Appian?

Thus far, I am most proud of how much of an impact I have already had. I’ve had the opportunity to assist with many projects throughout the short 30 days. On a few occasions, I’ve created a bug ticket and seen it go through its entire lifecycle, testing the fix myself, and seeing it merge. Another aspect of my time at Appian I am proud of is my ability to make a difference out of my team. Another intern and I have been working on the Appian Talks Guild, basically, TED talks for Appian. With this position, we’ve working on app building, getting a different perspective of how Appian works, and working on our public speaking and presenting skills. I was also able to be on the intern panel for the First-Year Forward program, hopefully sparking interest in the students who participated!

Any advice for future interns that join us?

The biggest piece of advice I could give to a future Intern is to take all the opportunities you are presented. Especially in a remote environment, you must be proactive in using all of your resources. Go to your team’s lunch, join a guild, use learning time to explore something fascinating, get to know other interns, and try to absorb everything you can.

Card from intern bingo night
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