Internship Stories: Connor Williams at Tyler Technologies

January 13, 2021 Internship Stories, News, Student Profiles

Name: Connor Williams, Class of 2021
Major: Business Management
Internship Placement: Tyler Technologies

Why did you choose to participate in an internship at Tyler Technologies?

Whenever I was taking a class with Dr. Graham, he would always talk about what a great company Tyler Tech is. His opinion spurred my decision to go on the MBS Bear Treks trip to Portland in 2019. While exploring the local businesses, Tyler stuck out to me. Their office was amazing. The employees I spoke to were nothing but insightful, and they made a point of having a healthy work/life balance. The company’s value was also massively rising, and they were on the S&P 500. I decided to intern here to grow my programming skills and get a foot in the door as a software developer.

What were you tasked with as an intern?

My first task as an intern was to finish making a training course app. This included me digging through various .per and .4gl files to find corresponding primary keys, creating the staging table with appropriate elements and columns, creating the XML file with triggers that detect data changes within the staging table, and finally testing triggers to see if incremental or full staging has occurred when it should have.

The next thing I worked on was a SCRUM sprint design that included the possible integration of visualization software called Plot.ly/Dash. In the first week, my team met up with two other teams, one consisting of more back end developers and a UX team.

What did you liked most about your internship?

The introduction to SCRUM was by far the most eye-opening for me. Collaborating with my team was one thing, but once we started working together with other teams, it blew my mind how well organized the process was.

What were the biggest challenges you faced while interning?

Interacting with colleagues that I didn’t directly work with was challenging in my virtual internship. If I were in the office, I could chat with people I don’t know while on break, at lunch, after hours in the office gym, etc.

What are some things you learned during your internship that you couldn’t have learned in the classroom?

I learned that collaborating with others is not always a drag. In classroom group projects, one or two students take the large majority of the work and carry the others that might care less. In working with my team, I found that they wanted me to ask any and all questions – even the ‘stupid’ ones.

How do you think this experience will help you after graduation?

If anything, this experience has confirmed that I want to pursue a career in software development. I’ve always been interested in learning programming languages and doing personal projects that I was passionate about. But I had no idea if that would translate into the workplace and be a right fit for me. Beyond that, the experience of working a ‘real’ job has given me loads of confidence that I can work in the business world.

What would you say to students considering an internship?

An internship can’t hurt, so I’d say go for it even if you’re not sure. You’re not going to pigeonhole yourself if you decide that you don’t like the field in which your internship is. At the bare minimum, it is an excellent resume booster and you get to meet new and interesting people.

Maine Business School