Most students start researching summer internships in February or March, but I was still undecided well into April whether to visit family in Nepal or seek an internship for the summer. In late April, when COVID peaked in South Asia, they cancelled all the international flights, so I had only one real option. I started to panic assuming it was too late for me to find a good internship—especially as a sophomore—but when I saw an internship with Well Done Marketing on IndianaINTERN, I felt like this could be a perfect fit.
Early in the morning on May 26th, my phone vibrated with an email notification. I hoped to sleep for a few more hours, but what I saw next made me jump out of bed. Well Done’s director of web development, Josh Apgar, had emailed me to offer me the summer web development internship. That just made my day. As unreal as it felt, I had landed my first internship. It all became real when I stepped inside the door of Well Done Marketing. I was welcomed by many new faces, and my colleagues made me feel like I already belonged there.
More Than Web Maintenance
As a web development intern, I was primarily responsible for conducting regular web maintenance, but I learned a lot about every aspect of web development. Writing code for WordPress content blocks, I felt powerful—as if I had created something that is uniquely mine. The knowledge I gained from doing work at Well Done surpassed what I’ve learned at school. At school I would learn how to code, but this internship helped me see where and how to implement that code. I learned how to manage WordPress pages, plugins, and functions. I now know how to design custom fields, contribute to the development process of a website, and how everyone has their important role to play in web development. Most importantly, I learned how the business world works and what I need to do to become an important part of it.
I was eager to get started and learn more, but the internship definitely required some adjusting. I had to get used to waking up early in the morning and to staring at a screen for most of the day. While most of my friends were going on trips or partying all night, I was heading to bed early and going back to the office every day. Despite feeling like I was missing out on all the fun, I realized that this was my opportunity to start something serious in my career.
Being around Fountain Square certainly helped my mood. I had just done a photoshoot for a family around Fountain Square a few weeks before I applied for the internship, and I made plans to come back sometime soon to explore. Working in the Fountain Square Cultural District gave me an opportunity to more fully explore the place. The two local places I really liked are Bovaconti Coffee and Red Lion Grog House—they’re honestly two of my favorite places in the entire city now. The staff, food, and drinks were more than amazing.
Learning from the Best
As I wrap up my internship, I want to give a shout out to the development team—Josh, Nate, Eric, and Brian—for always answering my questions. If it were not for them, I would not have developed my skills as well as I have. They all shared with me how they started coding, their experiences and their preferences in coding, and that motivated me to work harder—to be as good a programmer as they are.
I would like to thank the entire Well Done Marketing team for always supporting me and teaching me things—whether it was a question about digital strategy or graphic design or social media marketing, or something else. No one ever made me feel like I was there just to learn about web development. Well Done has always encouraged me to do the best in whatever I am doing. I feel like I will always be a part of the team and hope to work with them again in the future.