When I took my shoes off and walked around the office in my lovely yellow argyle socks, no one batted an eye lash. I knew this was a good place to be.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, a rapidly moving start up where intern folk like myself get to deploy live code, free lunches in a city where you can try a new place everyday, and working with talented, genuine, and all-around cool people were wonderful parts of the job. But boy did I cherish my barefoot walks around the office!
I think the bigger point, though, is that Expensify is an awesome company with awesome people, and I couldn’t have asked for a better internship experience. For starters, I worked on a product loved by millions. All my CS buddies were testing software at their internships; I was extremely fortunate in getting the chance to write it. In a measly 6 months, I went from barely programming to totally programming, and Expensify gave me the room and environment to build that critical programming foundation that I think school just can’t provide.
But — to my benefit — it gets better. The people I worked with pushed me in the right way, challenged my ideas, and always helped when I needed it. It didn’t matter if it was 10 AM or 10 PM, I knew I could always ask Matt why I was getting a 500 error when it turned out to be a missing bracket. I was given real ownership of the projects I worked on. I was ultimately responsible for the projects I’ve started, and it’s been so surreal that Expensify gave me the chance and opportunity to succeed.
I only hope that wherever I go next is as cool a place like Expensify. I’ve not only learned valuable knowledge, I’ve made some really cool friends along the way and I can’t wait to see how our paths cross in the future.
