Today was our final day at SAS. Our bittersweet final day was still a really fun one, and it started with meeting one of the product managers in the CI360 product. Meeting him was really cool because his story about how he ended up at SAS was very interesting and unique. After one final pizza lunch, we had our presentations for our clean water videos. Seeing everyone’s presentation and having a real corporate presentation was super rewarding in learning how corporate presentations work.
Day 7 was probably my best day so far! We met with Caitlyn in the morning and got to see how a bug was fixed and how collaborative SAS is. Caitlyn also hurt her leg playing softball, feel better soon! Later in the morning, we got to meet with Jerry and learn about development in a different product. It was super interesting to learn about life at SAS and he helped me with career ideas and my vision for college. After another fantastic lunch we got to see Dr. Goodnight’s famous gemstone collection. It was amazing to see so many cool gemstones just in the public for all of SAS to see. After that we had another meeting where we talked about where technology might go in the future and how that will affect working and the workforce. All in all a fantastic day!
On day 6 Shon and I transitioned to shadowing Caitlyn Holland, a tester in a different product. She worked on CI360, a product that allows businesses to track advertisements and other cool features. We also got to talk to Scott Kell, a longtime developer who talked to us about all sorts of things ranging from his job to college decisions to life in the workforce. It was super rewarding to talk to him. Unfortunately, I had to leave after lunch for personal reasons, so I missed the second half of the day. I am super excited to meet more amazing people tomorrow!
Today my group and I worked in building C to finish the project we started on Friday. We finished our recording and editing and asked a small group for feedback. We then were able to use the feedback and improve our video. We will present the final product on Thursday! Tomorrow I am off to see someone new in building C!
On day 4 all the students shadowing at SAS met up to work on various projects. In the morning we took part in a mock product test, and learning about the process. After a cheeseburger and a brownie for lunch, we started a project in the afternoon. Our task was to create a challenge that would go viral in order to spread awareness about access to clean water. My group of Nikki, Saavan, Alan, and I have come up with a great idea that we will record into a video and present on Monday!
On day 3 we continued to meet and learn about the various roles in the R&D department. In the morning we talked to Daniel and Dan, two developers that work in creating the software products that the testers then test. We also learned that in order to be a developer, you have to be named Daniel :). In the afternoon we were able to sit in on a conference about Agile, SAS’s method of doing business efficiently. It was super valuable to see how a meeting is run!
Today we started meeting with many different people in R&D at SAS. We met with UI testers, an AI and machine learning developer, and a component software developer. Meeting all of these people was fantastic, and I leaned that machine learning is a lot more complex than I thought, but I am more intrigued to learn more about the subject!
My day started with meeting Ms. Dougherty, the coordinator and point of contact for the shadow program. Me and my ten other classmates had an opening presentation on SAS as a company and then broke off to meet our individual people. After lunch, Shon and I met Ms. Mayo, the person we are shadowing for the week. She talked us through her job and what UI Testing looks like. After a brief introduction into the fascinating subject, we realized our short day was over and we had to leave. I’m looking forward to tomorrow and meeting more people from Ms. Mayo’s team!