Hello, my name is Daniel, I am 19 years old, I am a student .
In the summer of 2018, I did an internship at the Department of Information Technology, Department of Information and Digital Technologies which I would like to share with you now. It was my first real job. It was she, perhaps, who finally convinced me that I was doing the right thing, wanting to connect my life with the field of IT technologies.
The internship was not quite ordinary. The thing is, I only have 2% vision. I move around the city with a white cane, and use my phone and computer with screen readers. For those who are interested in what it is, you can read here () Well, first things first.
How it all began?
In the spring, I realized that I was not interested in spending the whole summer in the country and decided that it would be nice to go to work. Through acquaintances, I learned that the Garage Museum will be hosting an internship in their inclusive department. I contacted the organizer Galina: it turned out not to be exactly what I wanted, but in general it would also be interesting, and we agreed on an interview. According to its results, another girl was taken for this internship, and I was offered to work in the information technology department. Naturally, I happily agreed.
What did I do there?
The internship was much more focused on learning than on work, for me this was also a huge plus, since I only knew Microsoft Office and a little Pascal. My main responsibility was to register requests from users in an Excel spreadsheet, distribute requests among the IT staff, monitor their implementation and remind colleagues to give feedback to users and close the ticket. In a word, a kind of Service Desk system. In my free time, when the flurry of applications subsided, I studied. At the end of the internship, I started working with HTML and CSS, mastered JavaScript at a basic level, learned what API, SPA and JSON are, got acquainted with NodeJS, Postman, GitHub, learned about the Agile philosophy, Scrum frameworks, Kanban, started learning Python using Visual Studio Code IDE.
How was everything organized?
The Department of Information and Digital Technologies consists of 3 departments. The IT department is everything related to infrastructure, workstations, telephony, network technologies and other traditional IT services. Department of Digital Technologies, in which the guys are engaged in multimedia installations, AR, VR, organization of conferences, online broadcasts, film screenings, etc. Development Department, where colleagues develop information systems for the back and front office.
I had a personal mentor from the information technology department, Maxim, who gave me at the beginning of the day what I needed to do. At the end of the day, I wrote a progress report. At the end of the week there were meetings with the head of the department Alexander Vasiliev and the development of a plan for the next week.
I would like to especially note that the team has a very friendly atmosphere, everyone was always ready to help if there were any difficulties. If any questions arose, I could immediately turn to Alexander, since he was sitting a few meters from me.
Photo: press service of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
I was not the only trainee, Angelina worked with me, a first-year student at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, who came to the internship after Alexander's lecture at the Higher School of Economics from the basic department of information technologies in the field of culture. Since I also plan to enter this university, it was interesting to talk and learn more about it.
There is a cafe in the Garage Museum where they ordered free delicious meals for me. Also, you could take coffee or tea with sandwiches and various snacks. This is also a huge plus.
Photo: press service of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
Were there any difficulties with moving?
Absolutely none. At first, Maxim or Galina met me near the metro station in the morning and saw me off in the evening. After a while, I started walking on my own. Galina and I specially chose such a route so that later I could walk along it on my own. At first, I also asked to see me around the office, and when I got used to it, I began to move around on my own.
What are your impressions of the internship?
The most positive. I will gladly go to Garage to do an internship this summer as well.
Results
For me, an internship at the Garage Museum is a huge experience, interesting acquaintances and the development of important connections, without which, as you know, there is nowhere in our world. At the end of the internship, I was given a letter of recommendation, which, of course, will help me with further employment and admission to the university. With Alexander, we also worked on my resume, looked at several vacancies for which I could apply as a novice specialist.
In conclusion, I would like to say that many companies, unfortunately, are afraid to hire people with disabilities. It seems to me, in vain. I believe that if a person really wants to do something, he will do it, despite the difficulties that may arise. I know that now Garage is developing a course for the blind and visually impaired who, one way or another, want to work in the IT industry. The course will teach blind and visually impaired pair programming with sighted developers. For me, this is a great success and I will gladly take part in it.
My project, which I made as part of an internship, you can find on GitHub at
Daniel Zakharov.
Source: habr.com