Hello! I’m Gwyn (Gwyneth Margaux Tangog), a rising junior at MIT majoring in Computer Science and Engineering. This summer, I was an Implementation Engineer at Recidiviz. Recidiviz is a tech company that utilizes social enterprising as a tool for social change. The company develops unique products which organize scattered data to help decision-makers in the criminal justice system make decisions more efficiently (e.g. determining eligibility for work release, parole, and more).
While applying for Summer 2024 roles, I initially applied for data analyst and data scientist roles as most of my experience outside of class was in data analysis. With that, I applied to Recidiviz as a data analyst. While I was not accepted for that role, I was told I was a better fit as an Implementation Engineering Intern. When I found out I would still be working with data but be able to practice SQL and engineering-oriented programming more, I gladly accepted the role.
Starting out at Recidiviz, one of the most difficult things was onboarding. I learned that a big thing to adjust to at a company is a company’s system. I had never done so before, so it was an invaluable experience. Once I got more acquainted with the system, I started on work: I made raw data Looker dashboards for data analysts to use, worked on ingest views and raw data ingest that directly affect products, and implemented schema changes that improved the system.
A schema change is when current properties in the system are changed and/or new properties are added to improve data processing downstream. An example is adding new fields such as “DISCHARGED_SUCCESSFUL” and “DISCHAGED_UNKNOWN” to differentiate between different kinds of discharge from programs which helps in filtering for program and release eligibility downstream. In my time at Recidiviz, I made and implemented three schema change requests, including the aforementioned example.
With this task came paperwork and documentation, which I learned to value at Recidiviz. It had initially confused me, my line of thought being “Why do I have to write a request when I’ll implement the change myself? Am I requesting myself to do it?”. After further reflection, I realized it’s important to communicate it well with the data platform team to get it approved. It’s also important to keep everything well documented, especially in a company where most work is done online.
Aside from all of these technical things, I was also able to develop valuable life skills like communication and self-management. Working fully remotely developed my online professionalism through text and video calls. In terms of keeping track of my work, it made me take the initiative to write down my tasks, prioritize tasks over others, and share my to-do-lists with my supervisor for clear communication.
I am also incredibly happy about the invaluable connections I made with my supervisor and the people I worked with. My supervisor was incredibly supportive; I could always ask her questions about my work. The company culture was amazing even though I worked fully remotely. We had Slack channels not only for work but also to share updates on food, pets, hobbies, and more. People were also open to chat with me; when I was curious about different roles, I was able to schedule calls with Software Engineers and Data Analysts about their work.
Overall, the experience was wonderful. I would love to come back as an intern or even as an employee in the future.