Inside The Life Of An IT Student

From Intern To Unpaid Lecturer

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When Goshen started his internship, all he wanted was to prove he wasn’t “just another IT student.” He entered the office ready to code. But from supervising clueless interns to surviving painfully long hours, here's a summary of his IT Experience

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Goshen’s POV

I didn’t plan to do my IT at the place I did.

I was supposed to do it in another place but I couldn't decide on what I wanted and while I was still dragging my feet, the company closed their doors.

As life will have it, an “uncle” (more like a family friend, you know how Nigeria goes) came over during the holidays and told my dad about his friend with whom he did NYSC with. Next thing I knew, I was in this man’s office the day after Christmas, sorting out my IT.

From the very beginning, I had a plan: enter the office and shock everybody. Show all of them that I was an intern they've never seen before.

I'd been coding for a while and I didn’t want to be that intern who needed hand-holding. Call it pride but I didn't want to look like someone who just started and needed lots of help.onestly.

As you can guess, I achieved my goal.😌

For someone who already started IT with a plan, my first day of IT was pretty dull.

I spent the whole day sitting and watching everyone's faces because my supervisor didn't have time for me. All he did was drop a tutorial link for me to read up and that was it.

I came back the next day and told him I was done with the tutorial. He gave me a skeptical look and gave me a challenge to do. I finished it in three hours. He was really surprised. Me? I was just happy

I was a perpetual latecomer and at a point, my supervisor got tired of correcting me. 9:30am was my best attempt.

My routine was simple for the first 3 months: come to the office, write code, check the time, realize I had over 6 hours left , shout CHAI, code again, check time again until it was finally 5pm. That was the vibe for the first three months.

Then, everything changed in the last three months.

A new intern came. And guess who got assigned to train him? Me.

The new intern didn’t have knowledge about coding. And my supervisor? He simply handed him over and looked the other way. From that moment, my IT turned into a daily tutorial session.

Teaching him was a lot. Many times I had to explain the same thing over and over again. Till today, even though I’m done, he’s still in my DMs asking questions 😭

I didn't have that experience of being a househelp in the office. You know, the type that gets sent to run errands that has nothing to do with learning. I didn't do anybody's chores, it was a pretty standard office to be honest

Still it wasn't just all teaching, my best day of IT was the last working day in March.

My boss randomly told everyone to kick back and just have fun. We brought out board games and puzzles. There was this massive 1000-piece puzzle (might be more, I can't remember). We spent over four hours on it and still didn’t complete it but everyone had a good time.

My worst day was really just the one that I spent all day teaching.

One of my unexpected experience during IT definitely has to be when a second intern joined and my supervisor once more did me dirty 😂

But there were wins too. They had blazing fast wifi (God bless them), so I used that time to practice a lot of things I’d never attempt with my own data. I really learnt a lot.

Early on, they used to have generator issues. So once laptops died, we’d gather around a table and just gist. Hours of random conversations and vibes. Until the senior devs came by to tell us that we were disturbing😂

But aside from that, I wasn’t treated differently or sidelined because I was an intern. The work environment was honestly decent.

My advice to other students about to do their IT will be that, don’t just take IT placement anywhere because time is running out.

You’ll be there for months, so be picky. Look for a place where you’re comfortable but also where there’s real work to do. Not just soft life and “carry file.”

My lecturer once said: "look for a place where they'll give you plenty of work to do." It might not be easy, but if you really want to learn, then a work-filled environment is what you need.

Oh also for the million dollar question. I didn't get paid during IT, exceptonce.

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If you’ve survived IT (or you're currently inside it), tell us what no one prepared you for, your story might just make it to Common Room.

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And don’t forget to tell a friend (or two). Gist is sweeter when it’s shared. 😉