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My Journey With Unbounce

Let’s just say the first couple of days were interesting… Initially it felt like I was being thrown into a shark tank. Turns out, these “sharks” were actually friendly, progressive, knowledge hungry animals and it only took a few days before I really felt like part of the team. Deploying our web app to production, taking care of issues in the A-team’s sprint, doing some QA on minor issues, and setting up my dev environment were just a few things that I was left to do, solo, by day 5.

Values to live by

Core Values Unbounce lives by 6 core values, Delight Everyone, Be Empowering, Be Courageous, Be Transparent, Be Humble, Be Generous. It seemed daunting, everyone around me embodied each of these values so well, was I going to be able to step up to the challenge? By the end of my internship, I looked back and tried to think of a time where I embodied each of the 6 core values, and I personally think I succeeded. If you are an intern, an employee or even an external reader I challenge you to think of a time when you fulfilled each of these values. They may be “Unbounce’s Values” but for me they transcend this ownership and have become a part of my everyday life. I encourage you to do the same.

Journaling for reflection

I kept a journal the first 2 weeks of being here and the entries are interesting to come back to! One of my favourite quotes is “I have almost touched everything and it is only day 4”. I laugh, mainly because this statement is outrageous and comical. I will never touch everything… ever! If there is something I learned on my journey to becoming a developer is that you will never get anywhere if you compare yourself to others, although to strive to know what others know is the key to success. I take this rule from my time at Lighthouse Labs. Everyone is the best at something. You don’t know the Unbounce web of technology like the network of people here do. They have months if not years of experience with it. Learn from them as much as possible. Listen to everything they have to say and every lesson they teach you. Even if you think that an issue is trivial or unnecessary in a way, although it might be, it is teaching you about different parts of the code. Now I guess this isn’t exactly true if you are coming to be an intern in the marketing department but a lot of it can be translated quite seamlessly across this divide.

Words of Wisdom

If I were to give you 3 pieces of advice when it comes to being new at Unbounce, they are these:

    1.  I know I am repeating myself but, Don’t Compare Yourself to Others! Learn as much as you can from the amazing people here and appreciate the little things even if you think you know what they are talking about.  Repetition is key
    2.  Be Vocal, speak up.  Get your voice heard and make a name for yourself.  Put your name on anything you can get your hands on and take responsibility for projects that you think may be above your knowledge level.  This is a community and everyone is looking out for each other.
    3.  Get involved.  There are book clubs, sports teams, and don’t forget an after work Ping Pong games.

I want to say thanks to the entire Engineering Department, especially the A-team, for putting up with me throughout my internship and the few months I have been a full-time software developer.  I have learned so much and can’t thank each and everyone of you enough.

Kieran Cormack
Junior Software Developer