In my final day shadowing Ms. Holland, I began with two separate one-hour meetings with different developers. They both had many different insights to offer, but very different stories. The first has worked for several years at AS, but before that was a part of several small companies and has really experienced everything possible in the industry. He taught himself to program when he was very young and has a large knowledge base – in fact, he was able to switch positions at SAS with no warning and no hiccup. He shared insights that he’s developed over his career and gave us advice on how to best prepare for our own futures.
Next, we met with a semi-recent employee at SAS who was much closer to our own age. He talked a lot about his experiences in high school and college that led him to selecting this career path. He offered a lot of memorable advice that was very relatable, and showed us some of the pretty cool stuff he gets to do each day.
After our meetings, we went to lunch- With Ms. Holland, the people we met with today, people from our meetings from yesterday, and new interns. It was great to see such a positive work environment- people from different departments that were not only coworkers, but friends. After lunch, we got to see all of the amazing buildings that make up SAS campus- including the solar farm- in our tour around the campus. It truly is a remarkable place, and an enormous one at that.
After our tour, we returned to Ms. Holland’s office and watched her work and help other people. Then, after some final words, our last day with Ms. Holland was over! We said our final goodbyes and thank-yous and left through the lobby.
