Meet Sam. Find out what student life was like for her: working, playing and landing a summer job at the ‘hottest webshop in town’!
Studying
Sam grew up in Wellington. She’s currently studying towards a Bachelor of Science at Victoria University. She has two majors: Computer Science and Media Design.
A typical day includes Computer Science lectures and tutorials at Vic’s Kelburn campus. Media Design lectures and studio time are at Vic’s Te Aro campus. Sam loves her courses. “I’m manipulating a computer to create something for a purpose”. She says both her majors involve doing that; each with a different purpose.
Playing
Sam also plays handball. It’s an ‘emerging sport’ in New Zealand but Sam’s been playing it for years.
She trains several times a week and plays for top teams: the Vic Uni Handball team and the NZ Women’s Under 20s team. Sam also plays Beach Handball for the Wellington Regional team and the NZ Women’s team.
Handball’s taken Sam all over the world, including to Bulgaria. This week she’s off to compete in Australia.
Working
Over summer Sam’s been getting some hands-on experience in web development at Abletech.
What’s it like working at Abletech?
Sam has loved her summer internship at Abletech. “I knew some of the developers already but I still had first-day nerves.” They didn’t last long. “Everyone was so nice to me!”.
Sam says it’s been a friendly and welcoming place. “I’m super-grateful for the opportunity to be immersed in web development with Abletech”.
Sam’s gained experience working with Ruby on Rails. “I hadn’t done much with Ruby before — just a Rails Camp when I was at Wellington Girls College.
Now she’s got a variety of skills in Rails and experience with front-end development. Over summer, Sam’s been working on a project that she’s been able to build from start to finish. Now it’s live and she’s delighted to have spent her summer creating a piece of software that genuinely adds value.
A highlight of Sam’s summer job at Abletech was attending Webstock where Sam got to meet tonnes of people who work in the industry. She says it was an awesome insight into the world of web development. “It confirmed this is definitely the industry for me.”
