2020 07 21
To learn good practices, see from the inside how complex projects created in Lithuania are born and touch upon the latest technologies - it is with these expectations that interns - three Kaunas University of Technology IT students - joined Centric IT Solutions Lithuania this summer.
Matas Strukčinskas and Auksė Paškevičiūtė, students of software systems and Laurynas Jonušas, a student of information systems, unanimously state that when choosing which company to do their internship at assessed both organization’s area of expertise and technologies used as well as conditions of the internship. The deciding factor was Centric’s presentation given at KTU Career Days. Or, as in Auksė’s case, an inspiring acquaintance with the company’s employees in a mentoring program.
“I belong to the KTU GIFTed Talent Academy and participate in the GUIDed mentoring program, where I met a career mentor Tomas Stankevičius, a Centric employee and a true DevOps cultural ambassador. Thanks to him, I had the opportunity to learn more about Centric: what specialists work here, what is the atmosphere of the company, the attitude towards employees. As you may have noticed, the things I've heard tempted me to test my strengths in the selection of interns this spring and dedicate this summer to my professional development in this company,” says Auksė, who joined the DevOps and the Cloud Engineering unit, where she currently works as an Associate Software Developer.
Although the interviews with interns were conducted remotely, young people say they did not experience any tensions or inconveniences, on the contrary - the interviewers were relaxed and friendly, they did not overwhelm with the technical questions and the interview truly resembled a conversation rather than a rigorous interrogation.
“I’ll admit, I didn’t have much time to prepare for the first interview: it happened just a few hours after the first call, during which they told me, they would like to talk. Fortunately, the practical questions turned out to be relevantly easy, and communicating with the company’s employees was pretty effortless and fun,” Matas, who joined the Centric software development team, remembers the first contact. “Even before the internship, I was considering a programming career, and the first month spent at Centric only further strengthened this determination and helped me realize that I had chosen the right path. The project I am working on here and the technologies used are very interesting to me, so it is easy to learn and improve. Already in the first weeks of work, I was fully immersed in software development and the technologies used (GO, React.js), in a hurry to learn good programming practices.”
Laurynas, who is finishing his second year at KTU, has always been interested in various technologies, from newly released phones to the latest programming frameworks, and especially cloud technologies. Therefore, the opportunity to receive an internship in the position of DevOps and Cloud Computing was particularly gratifying.
“I have been at Centric only for a month but during the first weeks, I have already learned to use new programming tools, got acquainted with the principles of automation and good code writing standards. What do I hope for in the future? First of all, a meaningful summer, expanded knowledge, and an even closer acquaintance with the company’s activities. And finally, I want to become a useful employee and, who knows, maybe in the future - even part of the company. I’m not sure about my future career, but I believe that this internship will help me choose the way forward since there are so many different roads and paths.”
Auksė, who is also looking ahead, agrees with Laurynas, “Since my career plans have been fairly consistent and clear since high school, I consider the internship as part of the career I want to pursue. I believe that in the three months spent at Centric, I will gain professional knowledge and more confidence in myself as an IT specialist.”
In the three years of Centric IT Solutions’ existence in Lithuania, several dozen interns have already tested their strengths and gained experience in the company - most of them were students at the Kaunas University of Technology. 11 of them were later invited to join the company as permanent employees and successfully entered DevOps and cloud engineering, data analytics, and programming projects.
“Working with young people entering the IT market is an integral part of the modern organization’s culture and I am only delighted that our Centric employees, true experts in their fields, willingly and enthusiastically share their knowledge with young people who have chosen to do an internship with us. On the other hand, the interns themselves, whom we have encountered so far, are curious, intelligent people who wish to sincerely improve themselves, therefore we invite many future specialists who are doing their internships with us to come work for us and continue developing the already started projects,” Julija Stanaitytė, Personnel Coordinator at Centric IT Solutions Lithuania, says.
According to her, the quarantine restrictions in spring did not disrupt the intern selection process, which went smoothly remotely.
“We organize internships in cycles because we want to provide the best possible experience for young colleagues, providing them with all favorable conditions and our colleagues’ attention, therefore, we usually invite students to do internships on a quarterly basis,” Julija Stanaitytė says.
Therefore, it is planned that this year Centric IT Solutions Lithuania will invite more students to its internship program.
