Kim Isak, Developer Intern - About Life at Cloud Insurance

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Hi Kim Isak, as Developer Intern and part of the Tech Squad at Cloud Insurance, what are your daily tasks?

In the beginning, I spent a lot of time learning our tech stack, and then throughout my internship, my duties have been quite varied. 

They’ve involved things such as developing customer purchase journeys, working with how we manage translations, and being a tech lead for the summer interns.

What I love is that I also get to be a part of the decision making process. The tech squad is an open forum where we talk about the overall approach and progress but also educate each other, show feature demos, and discuss opportunities and obstacles. I spend the rest of my day learning, developing, and drinking coffee.

How did you get into programming to begin with?

My first introduction to programming happened in middle school after discovering "inspect element" to play with the content of websites. 

At the time, I created webcomic strips as a hobby on a website called Stripgenerator. Their comics engine was minimal, so I wanted to hack it and make more colour options as there were only four available. 

I failed at hacking the engine but did succeed in learning the fundamentals of web development: 

• HTML, 
• CSS, 
• JavaScript,
• ...lots of Googling.
  

In middle school, a friend and I landed our first client. The client was a student in the year below who wanted a website. We developed a simple, static web page with information about his services, custom gaming controllers, and a contact form to request a purchase.

We made 500 NOK from it! That's when I realized it was possible to work as long as you had a computer, internet connection, and a team.

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Tell us about your first experience at Cloud Insurance! How was the onboarding process?

It was wonderful! 

I was assigned a mentor, Yannick, who held a demo of our services and introduced the technologies we use. 

We also established a daily check-in meeting on my workdays to share my progress, problems or barriers, and questions, which was helpful.

I remember being in lots of meetings. I learned a lot about Cloud Insurance, the insurance industry, sales, our products and services, and the tech stack. It was an exciting way to start the internship because I’d got to meet everyone from the entire company.

After a couple of weeks, I started developing. This time was around the exam period for the semester, and the flexibility of the internship let me manage it in parallel with my studies and exams.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement in the last year?

I’d have to say finishing my bachelor’s degree in Informatics: Digital Economics and Leadership. 

I set a goal of completing the degree early, and I needed a significant amount of credits to do so. 

I managed to combine my studies and intern position and had a semester from my previous studies at another university approved. 

Ultimately, it all added up. I feel pretty great about that.

When we’re on the subject, do you feel your studies contribute to your work at Cloud Insurance, and vice versa? Do you manage juggling the two?

I do, and my studies have absolutely contributed to my internship. 

From object-oriented programming to agile development, and loads of other subjects, I can apply a lot of my school knowledge in my Developer Intern role ranging from thinking about the security of my code to using depth-first search to solve a problem.

Cloud Insurance has also contributed to my studies. 

A prime example was when we were developing an android application with Kotlin. To decide the design for the app, we held a design sprint, which I learned how to do at Cloud Insurance.

It is a relief to know that what you learn in classes can be used for work and the other way around.

It’s gratifying to realize the knowledge and experience becomes practical and usable.

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You originally applied for our Summer Internship, how did it feel to be offered a part-time internship instead?

It felt like I struck gold, especially considering the challenge of finding and keeping a job during the pandemic. 

It was something completely unexpected, and I’m lucky to have gotten the opportunity to work part-time. 

My experience at Cloud Insurance was also valuable for the rest of the summer interns as their tech lead. Of course, I learnt just as much from the other interns, Adrian and Mikkel, as well.

Is there anything else you’re looking forward to right now?

I was recently elected leader of Digitus, the student organisation for Informatics: Digital Economics and Leadership. The position starts in January. And of course, finishing my studies to begin working full-time.