Being useful on a 1 day a week internship

Hi everyone,

This is a hypothetical question as I haven’t applied to any companies in my area yet - I currently have 1 weekday/week to spare with which I hope to gain some industry experience. I want to add value to the prospective company but I’m not sure what would be achievable given only one day per week with beginner knowledge. I’d like to be able to work without getting in the way of others too much. I’ve heard the term ‘HTML emails’ thrown about so maybe that could be worth investigating but what other skills could one focus on and up-level that might tempt a prospective employer?

Thanks

K

I don’t want to be discouraging, but I suspect that it will be very difficult to find an employer who would be interested in hiring someone who can only work 1 day per week.

2 Likes

Unless you are a super Developer they would not mind to create some space for you, otherwise they will reject you.

If there is an employer willing to take you on under these conditions, they may have small tasks that need constant chipping away at. If there are smaller jobs like HTML emails, you could be reasonably tasked with them. They might want someone to write or maintain tests or documentation - which you may or may not have the skills for. They might want you to QA their product. The best case scenario would be that you pair program with one of their regular full time devs.

But as suggested above, the likelihood of finding an opportunity like this is pretty slim. That said - you miss 100% of the opportunities you don’t try for.

You might find a better use of your time is to get seriously involved in Open Source.

This gives you the benefits of the experience of working in an established codebase, and working with others, while giving you the flexibility to work at your own pace. You may have more to show for your 1 day a week if you go down this path.

Thanks for the input guys. I wouldnt be seeking renumeration at this point as the experience would be the prime factor but I’lI definitely take onboard the open source idea