Oh my goodness. It is officially my last week as a Cerner intern. *sad face*

When I began the internship, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect, especially since half of my friends work for Cerner. The internship is going to start off slow with orientation and a few tours. Then, I’ll be thrown right into a project and I’ll learn how to be big girl developer. Pretty chill.

It has been a little over two months now and I have learned so much about software engineering, the important role Cerner plays in healthcare IT, and what it takes to excel in this industry. I am glad to say that my internship with Cerner has been more meaningful than my expectations. Here are a few of my favorite takeaways and moments:

Favorite Takeaways:

• The people around you are there in your best interest. Even though I already had friends at Cerner, starting a job at a new place can prove to be difficult, especially if you’re extremely timid like me. You’re a new face and there is already an established culture. I felt pressured to fit in, but to my surprise, it wasn’t like that at all. From day one, I didn’t expect to feel so welcomed. As people walked by my desk, they made it a point to stop by and say hi or to ask if I needed any help. Some even invited me to grab lunch or coffee.

• Keep an open mind and soak it all in. Going into my internship, I didn’t expect to be working directly under a Distinguished Architect, a.k.a. Really Important Person. Not only that, I was given the opportunity to work on a brand new project. So, almost all the code will be written by me. Talk about a valuable experience! Intimidating too. Nonetheless, my manager had been supportive throughout and patient with my noobiness. Besides programming experience, being with a person of high caliber like my manager has given me an inside look of what it is like to manage not only a small team but an entire organization. This was incredibly special to me.

• Be the rockstar that you are. It’s perfectly OK to be shameless. I am naturally hard on myself and rarely feel like I’m qualified. I didn’t expect to be given so much responsibility and trust on the project. It made me feel like I’m another member of the team and not just an intern. My manager trusted me, so I should trust myself and in my abilities. Your mentors want you to succeed so don’t be afraid to show what you got. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes either!

• Have some fun. Work hard, play hard. Fun is just as important when it comes to culture. Cerner holds a stigma of being a “sweatshop” due to a controversial email in the past. However, I didn’t expect how much I’d enjoy this internship. I understand why culture is such an important thing now, and why companies like Cerner and Google spend so much on developing a creative office space.

Favorite Memories:

• Winning third place at the Cerner Intern Hackfest and having the opportunity to present in front of 50+ interns and other Cerner employees in the Assembly. It was one heck of a week with lots and lots of code and data mining. It was also one heck of a struggle balancing actual work with Hackfest work. Here are a couple pictures from the event:

• Learning how to effectively use an office space to prank your team members at DevCon. It was so amazing to see Cerner supporting good ol’ office pranks. It really showed me that Cerner cares about having a positive company culture.

• Drinking an absurd amount of coffee. There are free coffee machines on every floor of the Cerner campus and it doesn’t seem to ever run out of coffee. It’s a dream come true.

• Flynn’s Arcade. Spending hours on end playing Galaga or Foosball. Some friends also came to visit one day and we spent a good hour finishing a round of Chinese Checkers. Also, shouts to the giant chess set on the 5th floor.

• Cerner Interns 17 Discord. It’s a love-hate relationship.

These past two months have been an awesome experience. Cerner is a giant in the healthcare IT space and has a pretty cool company culture ❄️. My best takeaway? Throw away all expectations. Just be open, trust yourself, and have some fun. You’ll be surprised of the rewards. I am beyond thankful and will definitely miss being around the office, but I’m excited to see what the future holds.

Who knows, maybe I’ll be back next year. Full-time. 😉