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Kevin Childs
Post University, Class of 2016
LaunchCode Graduate, Class of 2020
What sparked your interest in software development?
When I was younger, I wanted to make video games. I had no idea what that actually entailed until high school. When I figured out that computer programming was a big part of it, I already had a casual interest in computers. I took a couple of programming courses in high school and really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the problem-solving aspects and the sense of accomplishment from figuring things out and making something work.
What is your work background?
I've worked at a check cashing place, "warehouse"/file management and supervisor roles at cave facilities used by government agencies for records storage, and then project administration and payroll/accounting.
What drew you to Integrity’s internship program?
I knew a recent hire (Jamie) from doing the LaunchCode program together in 2019/2020, and she had mentioned that she had gotten hired on and was having a great experience. So, I went to their website and reached out to them. They brought me in to talk and then offered me a spot. With what Jamie had expressed about her experiences, and my talks with them, it appeared like a great place to work, both in how employees were respected and as a place to learn and develop my skills. I have been looking at moving on from my other "career," so I accepted the opportunity.
What is your favorite part of interning at Integrity?
I enjoy engaging my brain and working on problems every day, even when they can be confounding and frustrating. And it's great to actually get the chance to see software development in a real professional environment and not only a learning environment. The daily staff walks are nice too.
What skills have you learned in your internship that you are excited to take into your career?
I've expanded on some of the tools I am familiar with (React/Redux) and learned some more processes on creating and working with APIs. My past experience with web applications used exclusively one language for everything, and now we're learning to use various tools for different aspects of an application. We've also learned a great deal about the processes of managing a project's development and what kinds of things can cause roadblocks.
How has this experience been different than your previous software development experiences?
There has been a lot more collaboration with this experience. In school, and for the most part in LaunchCode as well as other experiences, the work and learning were done alone. There was limited collaboration with teams, and with what little collaboration that there was, it was faced with challenges of people having vastly different schedules and commitments to the work. Now, there is a team that interacts every day, from the discussion on how things should proceed on the app to working together to solve issues that block progress. It allows us to learn from each other not only when others help us figure out a problem, but also when we're able to help others on the team figure out their problems.
Braden Cooney
University of Central Missouri
Class of 2021 (just two years after high school!)
What sparked your interest in software development?
I am not sure that anything specific sparked my interest. I have always been around it, and the longer that I was, the more that I knew it was what I wanted to do as a profession. I started coding in camps during my middle school summers, and that evolved into taking electives at my high school. From then on, certain aspects kept my interest. For example, the constant problem solving helps it stay interesting.
What drew you to Integrity’s internship program?
I really liked the environment that was set up at Integrity. At my previous internship, everyone was so isolated, and none of the employees communicated much with each other. A lot of their days were spent with everyone doing their own thing and then getting together for the weekly meeting, and that was pretty much it. Integrity is a big change from that—I get to work together with the other interns on the same project and talk with almost everyone in the office daily.
What is your favorite part of interning at Integrity?
I mentioned this a lot with what drew my interest in this internship, but those same points have been my favorite parts throughout the internship. I wanted to go somewhere that valued teamwork and would let me grow as a developer as much as I could. I believe that I have gotten that out of Integrity, which has been what I most enjoyed about the program.
What skills have you learned in your internship that you are excited to take into your career?
The skill that I am most excited about now having is the experience in developing a full software product in a business setting. In school, you learn a lot of the individual components alongside learning how to teach yourself how to code. However, working here has allowed me to put those skills together to develop a full application.
How has this experience been different than your previous software development experiences?
The only other software development experience that I have has been through school. This mostly consisted of people just trying to get the project done and move on along with not everyone putting equal effort into a project. This experience is drastically different. I get to spend every day fully developing a project and actually taking care of those minor details you would always leave behind at school. Plus, getting to work together with the other interns and knowing everyone is putting in just as much effort as you to achieve the same goal feels rewarding.
Cody Reeves
Kansas State University
Class of 2022
What sparked your interest in software development?
The thing that initially sparked my interest in software development was a web design class that I took in high school just for fun. I had no previous experience doing any coding. I enjoyed the class quite a bit and that, alongside the fact that I have always been interested in technology, caused me to look into other programming languages and, ultimately, decide to make it my career in college.
What drew you to Integrity’s internship program?
I was originally drawn to Integrity’s internship program because Integrity’s core values align almost perfectly with my personal values. It was evident just by reading their website that they take good care of their employees and clients. This was further made clear after interviewing and getting to talk with them. Then on the technical side of things, when I learned that Integrity makes web applications, I was even more excited because of my interest in web design.
What is your favorite part of interning at Integrity?
My favorite part of interning at Integrity is the work environment. The three of us interns get to work together every day, so there’s always someone ready to help debug or to bounce ideas off of. I’ve also greatly enjoyed getting to know the full-time employees and going on office-wide walks every morning around the surrounding neighborhoods. It's exceedingly apparent that everybody truly wants to be here and enjoys what they do.
What skills have you learned in your internship that you are excited to take into your career?
The skills that I have learned while interning at Integrity include Domain-Driven Design, building out APIs and API endpoints, using Repositories and ORM mappings with Databases, and how to build front-ends with React and Redux. Before coming into this internship, I had taken classes on different pieces of web applications, but I can now confidently say I fully understand all these pieces, and arguably most importantly, I know how to put these pieces together. I’m very excited to take this well-rounded understanding of software into my career.
How has this experience been different than your previous software development experiences?
This experience has been different from any of my previous software development experiences due to the fact that in most of my classes, teamwork is greatly discouraged. At Integrity, teamwork is prioritized and they have figured out how to do so extremely efficiently. I had never used any sort of Kanban board, and I didn’t have much experience with collaborating through source control coming into this internship. Thankfully, we learned, basically from day one, how to use a Kanban board to develop and organize tasks into features that can produce value as quickly as possible. That is definitely a skill I will take with me into any future software endeavors.