Hi,
I'm currently an intern developer for Coca-Cola European Partners and I'm in a slightly unusual position for an intern because I'm completely self-taught (as opposed to being a university student).
My responsibilities are mostly frontend stuff in HTML + CSS and some work with Saleforce, but I'm the only programmer on my current team so I'm doing bits and pieces all over the place. I've also got free reign to teach myself anything reasonably relevant when I'm not directly working on a project, which has enabled me to solidify my understanding of Javascript and start learning Haskell.
Currently I'm a month in (with an expected duration of three months, but the possibility that it'll be extended to six months). My eventual goal is to get into backend web development and move to London.
General advice from people who've been in a similar position would be great, but I also have a few specific questions:
- How much value is there (if any) in having worked for a relatively 'prestigious' company like Coca-Cola for development roles?
- I often read about how getting your first job as a self-taught programmer is the hardest part of the process. To what extent does having previously interned somewhere help with this?
- Is it reasonable for me to be looking/applying to jobs now with the expectation that I've got two months left, or should I wait until closer to when I finish to start applying?
- I'm planning to apply to both Junior dev positions and other internships (if the latter is closer to what I want to be doing in role), but I'm under the impression I was pretty lucky to get my current role as a non-student - how true is that?
I don't know the market for Haskell. If you want to get into backend for web, you can't go wrong with Node.js. Agencies using those services usually prefer the backend written in Javascript or Typescript so more devs can, in principle, work on both ends. Moreover, you can get into cloud services like AWS and Azure easily if you know Node. I reckon it will be easier to start as generic "web developer" or "junior developer" and then gradually evolve into backend. Specialists tend to be mid to senior.
You should start sending applications on your last month. I don't think it will take you more than that to land a junior role in London (there are many more junior openings than internships). But you can create a Linkedin account today if you don't have one.