MissYeh

This is a very belated internship Touchnote review.

It has been a while since I updated my blog with, what I find, share-able posts. My life as a student can be quite hectic but now I found the time to concentrate on writing about a very fruitful period of my life; my internship with Touchnote.com.

After I left my previous internship earlier I gave myself 3 weeks to find a paid internship in London, else I’d go back to Holland to find one.

I applied to several paid internship jobs in London as web developer. A web dev agency was interested and Touchnote, which I found on GiveMeaStudent (disappeared all of a sudden).  It took me a few days to decide with which company I’d like to work with. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. In the end I chose Touchnote for it was closer to home (still quite far though), I enjoyed my communications with them, having a smaller team I expected a more personal approach. Touchnote was interested in meeting me so I arranged an interview asap.

My first English job interview

Obviously I had a horrible Dutch accent but my interview with Touchnote was very pleasant. I spoke with the CEO and the lead developer.  The chat with the lead developer was interestingly perfect! The type of questions asked by him gave me an idea of their way of working, professionalism and their knowledge regarding web development. What they could offer me was exactly what I was looking for! Now I just hoped that I could offer them what they were looking for. I was quite insecure to be honest. I had no portfolio to show that I am well or reasonable capable of using PHP, MySQL, CSS and HTML. I could only explain what I knew and did, what my experiences with PHP were sand what I wanted to learn.

After a week I heard the good news! I could stay in London!! Yeh.. now I couldn’t wait to get started.

The dev team and me

Feeling a bit insecure I hoped to be able to live up to their expectations. They sure lived up to mine. I got all the support I needed; during work and for school. I made some errors and felt very ashamed and I also made successes. The dev team was always open to my questions as well as to my suggestions. They were very clear in their expectations and in explaining different things. I could ask the same technical question like 3 times and still they wouldn’t be fed up with me

Due to my previous internship experience I actually expected not to be taken seriously because I was just an intern. To my surprise; my suggestions, ideas and opinions were taken seriously and I was more than just an intern.

I worked with new tools to help with the development of the website. I learned new coding tricks and more about Cake, JQuery and 3rd party API’s. I had the chance to apply my own SEO skills and on top of that I learned new, never heard of before, SEO strategies.

I tasted a bit of how the lead developer plans projects in an Agile, SCRUM, way; how to realistically estimate the time of each project. From start to finish I experienced how a lead developer manages it’s team and how he can get desired results from its team when time is limited. How to look at problems and how to try to tackle them. This is definitely something I’ll always take with me if I ever get a leading or managing role of any kind in my life. His managing capacities to me are a very important lessons, so is everyone else’s role within the company.

I’ll remember the deployment evenings/nights. The days working towards them were hard work but the deployments were always good fun and usually came with pizza or snacks as well

The rest of the Touchnote team

I am surprised how everyone in the company communicates very well and clearly. I think I always knew what everyone was up to, everyone was always well informed, we knew how the paths forward looked like, what the next steps were, what expectations are and no surprises other than good surprises. It is very fascinating and again very important entrepreneurial lessons for me. Examples of good behaviour is very important for my learning progression

Never was I asked/demanded to get coffee for the team never did I felt being treated as “the intern” or “the student”. Such a delight!

I was offered to stay after my internship but decided to go back home and continue school. It wasn’t an easy decision but school is something that has priority now. I just want to get over with it first.

Conclusion

I honestly could not have hoped for a better internship. I learned a lot; gained real practical experience with a professional company. It was fun and gave me more confidence in my role as web developer. Every person in the whole Touchnote team is very devoted to the company, hard working, professional, reasonable, fun, well mannered, respectful and friendly. What more does one need?

I sincerely hope that any future web dev intern will have similar positive experiences.

Thank you Touchnote Team!!

Side note to all students looking for internship in London

Key is to search well and thoroughly, apply to different internship jobs… It is possible to find decent, good and even paid internships if you are determined and know what you are looking for..don’t compromise in that! If I am able to accomplish what I was looking for then you sure can too.

My personal points of improvement

After this experience I thought of new challenges that I’d like to pursue.

Obviously some more web development skills; website architecture, JavaScript (or JS libraries), advanced CSS. I quite like to learn more about ZendFramework and more more hard core Linux commands!! That is so awesome.

Believe it or not. I quite like to be a (junior) project manager at least once in my life. For that I seriously need to work on my English communication skills; explaining technical situations to web novices at any time. Be able to clearly explain situations: what do I expect and what is happening, what do I do and what are my expectations.

I’d like to become more British in how I communicate so more British accent is coming! Bye bye Dutch accent.. Tot ziens!

MissYeh Geek Related, NHL CMD, Reflectieverslagen internship, london, review, touchnote, uk, work experience london

oh wowowie..what have I been doing so far in the UK? I thought my life here in London would evolve around internship-UK and studios92 but that nightmare came to an end quickly. The nightmare is still there and it is hard to get rid of but is getting better and better. Obviously you will find a few lines or posts more even about this company in my future posts.

I know people from studios92 are reading with me and are following my every move on this. To those at studios92 who feel addressed: no worries, this will gradually reduce.

Sooow, what have I been doing in London since I left studios92 and started with Touchnote? An update for those who like to know..
Read more…

MissYeh MissYeh, NHL CMD

Touchnote just tweeted:

“2 free cards on www.touchnote.com coz it’s summer! Valid until Sunday. Promo code: 2-CARD-WEEKEND Please retweet!”

Yes, this means you can send 2 free real postcards to your friends, family, lover(s) … secret lover perhaps even?

You got to be quick.. this promo code lasts till Sunday.

I will send one to a friend who recently visited me in London.. still thinking to who I will send the other free postcard…

MissYeh NHL CMD card, free, touchnote, touchnote.com

So, how was the experience? Did I learn and would it be worth my money if I paid studios92/internship-uk london of UK?
Will it be worth it for you if you paid for an internship? (don’t get fooled if they say companies don’t pay for interns in UK).

Anyway.. lets look back. This is valuable info for you if you are considering to do an internship with them..

Read more…

MissYeh MY internship @ Studios92 - Internship-UK

Looking back: Web development static versus dynamic - ASP or PHP

I was quite motivated to start because of what they wrote on their website. The amazing things I would learn. Although they were quite vague on the phone and in the email about what I would be doing there exactly.

The idea I got was optimizing gift-tours or studios92. Or working for studio-solution.com. The impression I had of the latter was that outside companies were actual customers. Soon I learned that all the 100+ sites they have with studio-solution.com are their own. No actual customer with specific desires that lead to meetings, designs and programming.

Static websites?

I wondered why their websites are all HTML (with only a few exceptions). It may seem a very quick solution on the short term, but it is an extremely expensive and clumsy on the long run. When walking through the office all I see are screens with Quanta Plus (Linux editor). All marketing interns are modifying the content in the files itself (in between the HTML and bits of JavaScript code)..!!

Let me quote internship-uk.com:

“By creating modern websites and efficient software modules, you will acquire practical skills in different programming languages. During your internship you will be able to develop all your IT skills relating to web development…”

If I really was creating modern websites and software, the marketing team wouldn’t have to edit content offline, upload it and then re-create sitemaps every time they make changes to a page.

Their few dynamic sites

Their portfolio consists of few dynamic websites only. Very dynamic sites of procedural coding only. A few ASP site generate HTML pages. It is not something new to me but at least something a bit more interesting when dealing with heavy traffic. Unfortunately they never mentioned this technique by the right name, FAIL! Instead all I heard them ramble about static pages being faster. Which is true but so are dynamic pages?!? The very valid reason I heard is when de db connection is gone.

My first ASP project was changing and adding new functionality to aankom.com, a free classified ads site. Some procedural coding here and there, nothing fancy for a passionate web developer.

I find ASP not being the most optimal language to create websites. I missed a site like PHP.net with all documentation. I am not sure if there is such a site for ASP. No one told there is such a resource available and www.asp.net was slow to load (because the studios92 internet connection is f*cking slow all the time).

Use PHP: NO! … Use mod_rewrite: NO!

When I suggested to use PHP to create dynamic sites, where you can easily apply SEO techniques as well, their reply was something like: The reason why we use static websites is that when there is no database connection the site is still online (true), it is hard to apply SEO techniques with dynamic sites (false), and the best one: Google doesn’t index dynamic site! (laughing my ass off!!) For this my friend, there is a solution, which I suggested as well: mod_rewrite. But they rejected both dynamic websites and mod_rewrite HARD!

As you can see I was already confronted with a few things in the first weeks. New things are great but it felt like being brainwashed about the way of doing web development things. I felt I could teach them a few things related to web development as well, they won’t listen and always had excuses (which weren’t always valid). You can understand that I was quite angry as I have to take the things as it is: what they say is true… I am just a clueless intern.

…and a week later, PHP-related project: launch 6 dynamic sites using Dolphin Boonex Community Script and use of mod_rewrite! Install the script, modify little bits and you are done..now, that is the art of true web development!

(no wonder the boss says it is hard fro IT web developers to find a real job in the real world)

Honestly, if web development in real life is how it is with studios92, then it is a huge turn off for me! I will pack my backs and never do any coding every again… (just kidding.. they are clueless, I feel sorry for them).

Don’t create! Copy and Paste!

The boss wanted copied/pasted code. I have no trouble doing so, that is perfectly oke and legal if done the right way. It is easy for me to do so to make it work with a current site. But I wasn’t here to learn to copy/paste code only. Therefore I avoided copy and pasting code as much as possible.

Looking back: SEO tactics

The very first thing I learned were their SEO skills. I won’t get into much detail of it. Some of their SEO techniques are correct. And there were some techniques that are totally wrong in so many ways, amazing really. I explained why but was not able to convince, even not with proof.

SEO is difficult to apply

I was told that it is difficult to apply SEO when creating a website. I was surprised and puzzled. In my experience, a part of web development is about creating websites best as possible and take into account how customers or marketing can apply SEO techniques without much effort. Once you know the techniques it is easy to implement.

Probably the reason WHY it is difficult for them to apply SEO is because of their HUGE amount of static websites where everyone is editing text using a text editor. They have 100+ websites of their own. Can you imagine all these websites are updated using text editors. People are writing text in between the HTML.

Looking back: the promise by their website and the reality

I wanted to become an IT web developer with studios92 because of their info provided on the site. Looking back and analysing the promise of their website and the real life, I came to the following conclusion:

“By creating modern websites and efficient software modules, you will acquire practical skills in different programming languages. During your internship you will be able to develop all your IT skills relating to web development…”

The above sound very professional! Internship-uk and studios92 do not have modern websites. They don’t create software modules. They want us to copy and paste code everywhere because that is safe and less time consuming. Come on guys, I am not here to copy and paste code. I prefer to actually create software modules and learn how to make them ready and safe for production. Instead of blindly copy and paste!

“Developing web platforms for on-line communication systems will turn you into a flexible specialist in software engineering, web development and web marketing. As a logical thinker who can recognize structures fast and implement the most common algorithms efficiently, you will be suitable and ready to make the difference on the job market.”

Developing web platforms for online communicating systems and software engineering, sounds very professional as well! That means I don’t have to regret that I did not read Informatics Engineering at the university, I can learn it here! … ok, are they even aware that they mentioned this on the site?

Honestly, what kind of structures and algorithms do you need when you are writing little parts of procedural ASP code and copy paste much for small sites?

The only difference I could make in the job market after this is how to code using ASP, how to copy and paste and what a drag it is to use unprofessional tools. Guys, come on. I know how to write procedural code with ASP and PHP. I want the professional stuff! What you promise on your site!

“Benefits of an internship in Web Development

* Gain profound knowledge of program languages,
* improve your IT skills in web development,
* improve your management skills,
…
* cope with the most strict deadlines..”

I am not sure if I can improve my management skills in an environment where the manager is always right. That is no realistic situation. A real manager (and boss btw) learns how to deal with people and feels how to best approach every individual. Motivate them and get the best out of them. Not creating a situation where the boss or manager is always right.. creating an environment in which the interns are ass-kissing and always Yes nodders (while they actually mean No)..

But it was a nice power trip though .. telling others what to do without any resistance :p

Profound….profound? Where is the expert? … there is none, so no comment!

Strict deadlines, that is for sure.

“Furthermore we require knowledge and experience in following aspects:

* Basic knowledge in web development,
* knowledge of e-commerce and web design,
* profound knowledge of scripting languages such as PHP, ASP and JavaScript,
* be familiar with database design and SQL.”

They have no idea of programming using PHP, ASP and JavaScript and what is current in the web development world. There is no expert there who knows how to program with these languages and no one who is and keeps up to date with the latest technologies.

Companies usually have these experts and students will learn from them..at least that is what I expect from my intern company.

The internship-uk website for IT development has good content, if only it was the truth.

Looking back: Spending time on school internship reports

There was no time during the working hours for me to write different reports for school about my experiences as leading the IT team and my experiences as ASP coder. Working 7 days a week and sometimes more than 8 hours a day make it difficult to find time to do it.

I for example have to write what I did for certain competences to prove my skills. But there was simply no time for it because all I did was work work work! The moment I found time to write, I actually had no activities to write about that is within the level of my University.

Some interns lie about their activities here. If their University finds out, they have to return. They don’t want to return because they don’t get any money back!

I told my University how this company works and about my activities. I prefer to go back than staying. They agreed that I had to leave internship-uk to find a good company in London: Thank GOD… (no I don’t believe in God). After I received the approval of my University, I told the boss and left the building the very next day!

More readings:

Boss threatens to fire interns because of my post

I had to take down this post for a while because the boss read about it and threatened to fire a few interns I had contact with. Now they have finished their internship I put this post back online and split into different posts:

- Review: My experience with internship at Studios92 (Internship-UK)
- Review: Looking back to Studios92 and internship-UK.com
- Review: Studios92 & Internship-UK Webdevelopment internship | thumbs down

If studios92 was hell and/or disappointing for you too…

If you are one of the interns or ex-interns, please comment below or send me a message with your feedback, experience or your story. Your message will be displayed in this post and your name/email whatever will never be revealed!

Comments that seem to come from studios92 because they are obligated to write positive are not being considered.

MissYeh MY internship @ Studios92 - Internship-UK

I am in London now since March 8th and it feels fantastic after I left internship-uk at studios92!

Now..finally it is time for some fun stuff in the real world!

The world outside studios92’s littlestone hotel is so different! I feel free and I have air to breath.. So, what have I been up to so far?… well…

Read more…

MissYeh MY internship @ Studios92 - Internship-UK, MissYeh chessington, internship, london, MissYeh, studios92, touchnote.com, update

I started my internship as web developer with internship-uk. I knew after week 1 that this is not the type of internship I am looking for. Left internship-uk after 4 weeks, March 8th to be exact.

So, I left internship-uk! I think I owe any potential future internship-UK/studios92 intern student something. Something that you don’t get from their websites or other of the many resources on the internet. Not only do I feel I owe them something, also to every person who might be dealing with one of their services one day.

Who should read this article about studios92 and internship-uk?

• Read it if you are interested in becoming an intern with studios92, internship-uk, gift-tours,
  • because you are about to spend a lot of money. I just want to make sure you get what you expect!
  • if you are ambitious and want to get a glimpse of a professional environment (in this case, they are not what you are looking for, their information is very deceiving)
  • especially if you want to be an IT Web development intern (because that was what I am)
  • If you joined internship-international.com. Their userbase is mainly all accounts created by the interns. Every article talking about their internship experience is written by their own interns because they were had to
• If you are a teacher of an University of applied science or University and need to know about the quality on this internship to see if this is what you want your students to be in.
• If you want to know about the quality of their hotel reviews related to website of studios92, for example worldwidetraveltips.com with their own fake users and own written reviews

This article is about my experience within internship-uk and studios92. I will highlight both the positive and negative ones. You don’t have to either agree or disagree with me. It is written from my perspective, from my Code of Conduct. I never mentioned it before in my blog because wanted to give the company the benefit of the doubt.

Warning: It is a long post and only a part of what I want to say is covered.

Boss threatens to fire interns because of my post

I had to take down this post for a while because the boss read about it and threatened to fire a few interns I had contact with. Now they have finished their internship I put this post back online and split into different posts:

- Review: My experience with internship at Studios92 (Internship-UK)
- Review: Looking back to Studios92 and internship-UK.com
- Review: Studios92 & Internship-UK Webdevelopment internship | thumbs down

Read more…

MissYeh MY internship @ Studios92 - Internship-UK experience, internship, internship-uk.com, internships in the uk, internships uk, london, new romney, review, studios92, work experience london

How I experience my first weeks of internship with Internship-UK, studios 92, gift-tours in New Romney?

After my 5th day here it already felt as if I am here for months! Now, is that a good or a bad thing? Oh yes, why do I list 3 company names? Pick whichever you like it is all the same company. They all offer the same internship programmes.

Ok, so I am ready to do some OOP with PHP and ASP..and unit testing and applying SEO and working in teams ..have meetings..learn from others, share my experiences and put that into practise…and lots ..lots..lots of coffee.

But..the internship programme they have is not worth money paying for!
They’ll use you and you can not go anywhere if you paid them. They don’t refund!
Read more…

MissYeh MY internship @ Studios92 - Internship-UK, NHL CMD internship, internship-uk, internship-uk.com, Kent, london, new romney, review, studios92, work experience

Yes, only 2 days and 3 nights before my plane takes of from Amsterdam Schiphol to London Heathrow. How exciting is that? Well, for me it is! I depart at 15:00 and arrive at 15:15. How cool is that? ..an web development internship with studios92 which is also internship-uk, an accommodation booking site. Their website looks promising with many internship programmes.

In my previous post I stated that I’ll be staying 6 months as an intern with Studios92. In the meantime I managed to turn that into 1 full year. The division I’ll be an intern is not located in London *sad* but in New Romney (~1.5 hours away from London).

Read more…

MissYeh MY internship @ Studios92 - Internship-UK internship, internship programme, internship-uk, Internships jobs, london, new romney, studios92, uk jobs, UK summer internships, work, work experience london

One of the best ideas in todays online life: bookmarking!

I have bookmarks on my laptop, home PC, home mini Mac, at school and at work. How on earth can I get to the bookmarks on my home PC easily at any time of the day if I am at school? Solution: online bookmarking sites. Not that I am using any (social) online bookmarking services right now..as I have not found the one that is suitable for my needs.. but

Delicious is one of the most known bookmarking sites. Some people even claim to use Delicious as search engine instead of Google!.. unbelievable
So, here you go: my Delicious bookmarks

I found an other very nice one, Startaid.com, but after a while I learned they a) have no option to cancel your account and b) pages set as private are still accessible and indexed by search engines like Google.

MissYeh NHL CMD, PC | Internet 23dingen, 23things, ding #10, thing #10