My HNG experience(The good, the bad, my fear)
Table of contents
My journey with HNG internship, even though barely two weeks long, has been one hell of a journey. It has its fair share of feelings of relief, tension, and absolute fear. That relief when you finally get promoted by the bot, the tension when the task gets dropped and you feel like you're reading Spanish, and the fear when the deadline is fast approaching and you are still not done, or, worse still, stuck with a bug. Join me as I take you through the good and bad of my HNG internship journey.
The Good Experiences:
Learning New Things: HNG has convinced me that, yes, in tech, it's possible to do something you've never done before, with the right amount of research. For instance, we were asked to build a Movie discovery app with the TMDB API for our second task. Now I've never worked with APIs before, but with research and an accountability partner to help, I figured it out and even went on to practice using APIs by building another project. Which brings me to my second point: Research.
Research: HNG has helped me to learn the value of googling and research, which is an invaluable skill for developers. As developers, we will never know everything, so before concluding that you don't know that thing, do research: Google it, ask chatgpt, ask others. Learning is a school of no graduation, so never underestimate the value of doing research and learning new things.
Time Management: Even if the deadlines in HNG are scary, to say the least, they do teach us effective time management and the value of starting whatever task you have on time to avoid last-minute rushing.
The Challenges
Understanding the instructions: Yes, the instructions can be so complex sometimes, for the stage 1 task in particular, I had to read the instructions over and over again before I could understand them. But yes, they train your ability to comprehend and decode complex instructions. And yes, those are valuable skills for developers.
Tension: In as much as the intensity of the tasks helps you learn new things, yes, they come with their fair share of tension. It takes a right-minded person to acknowledge that it's part of the journey, and the worst thing you can do for yourself at that point is to give up.
Overcoming Fear: Learning new things comes with fear, but it's a good thing to embrace your fears and be confident. Never give in to fear.
My fear:
My biggest fear is being eliminated. I've wanted to give up so many times, but giving up is a sign of weakness, so I'm determined to stick this one out to the end(If I don't get kicked out, of course)
Conclusion:
HNG is not for the weak, neither is it a cakewalk. It's not a place for unserious people or people who expect to be spoonfed. It is a really good experience if you don't let the challenges cloud your sense of positivity. If you focus on the benefits, honestly, the challenges won't faze you. You'll be determined to face them head-on because what awaits you at the end is not an opportunity to be missed