AWS Internship Week 8 Reflections

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This week, I finished implementing and testing all of my APIs. I also wrote code to be a controller for how my APIs and website interact. Additionally, I completed 90% of my frontend UI this week. I made significant progress this week! Even though I took a day off to go on a date with my boyfriend (with my boss’s knowledge), the focus of my team is on delivering high-quality results rather than just the number of hours worked.

One thing I want to share is that in the past, when building projects, even though I used some libraries for frontend design, I still had to deal with a lot of CSS, which was really unpleasant for me. However, here at AWS, we have an internal design system that all developers use to build our products. It’s really great because every component you can think of is already designed and standardized by the team, which is why I was able to build my frontend so quickly.

For example, usually in the outside world, if you want to add space between two buttons, you would need to write a lot of code to handle the spacing, alignment, and positioning. But with the AWS design system, all I have to do is use the <SpaceBetween direction=”horizontal” size=”s”> component, and it automatically handles the spacing for me.

If you’re a new player in the software engineering realm, my suggestion is to learn how to be resourceful and read documentation. Instead of trying to build everything from scratch, it’s often more efficient to leverage existing design systems, libraries, and frameworks. Innovation and invention are great, but sometimes the most effective approach is to build upon the work of others in a simpler, more efficient way.

During the 1:1 meeting this week, my manager said he was so happy I’m on his team because I have a good work ethic and the design doc I wrote is really impressive — even senior leaders on the team said how I organized everything in such a short time really demonstrates my ability to learn quickly and think deeply. I told him that I really appreciate receiving such positive feedback, and looking back, I can’t believe I have come so far! This progress has truly been a collaborative effort, and I’m appreciative of the support and guidance I’ve received from everyone.

Looking ahead to next week, my plan is to integrate the backend and frontend implementations of my project. Ideally, I’ll also be able to set up Amazon EventBridge services and AWS Lambda functions for my fullstack CI/CD project to work. For the final four weeks of the internship, I’ll focus on ensuring everything is production-ready and potentially adding some additional stretch features. No matter what, I’m committed to maintaining my strong work ethic and delivering high-quality results by the end of the internship :)

Next: AWS Internship Week 9 Reflections