My internship at Mintech lasted two months, and during this time I made lasting connections with coworkers and learned extensively about front-end development.
When I first entered the company, I brought with me my knowledge from classes in college, where I mostly learned popular algorithms and important concepts such as dynamic programming and pipelining; however, I did not put these ideas to use at Mintech as I mainly worked on the “AngelRobotics” project: a front-end UI for a user and robot management website. This was the first time I worked with React JS or more specifically javascript, html, and css. While I was daunted at first by the new languages, I came to quickly realize that javascript was extremely similar to other languages like C++ that I had learned before. Additionally, on the first day of work, I took a mini tutorial of React that managed to kickstart me in the right direction and subsequently, I learned more on my journey. On the other hand, html and css came easily and it was extremely satisfying to see the physical results.
The project I worked on was in conjunction with the client company AngleRobotics. I created the front-end website and connected HTTP requests to display the data online using REACT JS; meanwhile, my correspondent at AngelRobotics worked on the backend, or more specifically the API in Node JS. The biggest problem that arose during the project was the difficulty in communicating with each other, as I was obviously much more comfortable and fluent in English, and my opposite was fluent in Korean. It also did not help that both him and I were quite new to backend and frontend coding, respectively, which led to even more confusion. Nevertheless, I tried to power through and in the process, learned much about React js and frontend coding.
One of the best parts of working at Mintech was the people I got to interact with. Coming from America, I was awkward with the social formalities and niceties required in Korea; however, my coworkers were extremely welcoming and the use of company nicknames helped me ease in with everybody. While I had the option to choose days I could work remote or in-person, I ended up commuting to the office almost every day even though the trip was around an hour long as I loved getting to know my coworkers better and having casual conversations with them. In the end, despite my inability to speak completely fluent Korean, I created everlasting bonds with everyone at Mintech. I will be forever grateful for this opportunity as I have learned so much-from business social skills to technical frontend coding-and will be sure to come visit again if I have the chance to come back to Korea. To 쑥, 오리, 양파, 와플, 바다, 베리, 쿠키, 책인님, 도리, 초코, and 브로콜리사장님: Good luck on all your future endeavors everyone and hope you continue to welcome all interns with open arms!