Diana is a rather new member of our growing team that we got to know during the Stagii pe bune program. She joined us for a summer internship, and she proved to be a fast learner. She's brought significant contributions to the CryptPad project, by making CryptPad more accessible on mobile phones and putting in place a system to automate screenshots for documentation. Now she is taking on new challenges while she gets to combine work with her studies, because she stayed on the team as a part-time XWikier!
Let's find out more about her professional journey, hobbies, and code assistant!
- Favorite artist: Not artist, but band: Fleetwood Mac
- Best book ever read: “A century of loneliness” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Dream destination: Iceland
- Quote you live by: “Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” Les Brown
- At the office or remote? Both!
Tell me about yourself briefly
Hello, my name is Diana, I am 21 years old, and I was a Software Development Engineer Intern from July until October at XWiki, more precisely in the CryptPad team. After the internship, I have started working inside the same team, only this time as a part-timer. Besides programming, my other hobbies are travelling, sports and watching as many movies as I can. 😆
Diana's most reliable code assistant, Little Sock
🌄 The internship experience
How did you find out about XWiki, and what made you choose it for an internship?
I was searching for an internship to do during summer and I came across XWiki on the Stagii pe bune's webpage. It was love at first sight as I noticed that the position included the 2 things I am passionate about: web development and privacy.
What was your internship experience like?
✅ Solving issues and learning to work with a big codebase.
✅ Developing a project to automate screenshots for documentation.
✅ Learning a lot about the good practices and must do's when working in production.
Actually, getting to see my work make a difference, even if it was small, meant a lot to me and kept me going during hard times.
What did you find to be the most interesting and challenging tasks?
Definitely working on issues as I learned they are usually more complex and in-depth than they seem at first sight. They also require a lot of attention to detail and a lot of reviews and implementations of feedback to actually be properly done. It also took a bit of time to get used to searching the codebase and making more sustainable changes rather than quick fixes, but now I can confidently say I am doing a lot better.
And what about integration into the environment? How easy, or difficult was it for you?
It was really easy as everyone was very welcoming and helpful. I also did try my best to go to the office as often as I could, and I can say that definitely helped with the integration.
🔎 Open source impressions
Was Open Source something you had an interest in prior to XWiki?
Sadly, not really, but I did learn, while working for XWiki, some core values of Open Source and the importance of it. For instance, I got to understand first hand the meaning and value of collaboration and the power of the community, because I saw that a great deal of comments and improvement suggestions came from the community. This proved very helpful to me when working on issues for cryptpad.fr, especially from a learning perspective.
What's the Open Source value you identify with most?
I think collaboration. Team work really makes the dream work.
💡 Lessons learned
What would you say is the most valuable lesson you learned during your time at XWiki?
Solving a problem right is usually more important than solving a problem fast!
⏳ The XWiki experience
What made you join XWiki as a part-time employee after your internship?
I really enjoyed my work and my team and I did feel like I made a difference. Also, I really stand by the company's values and principles so even though I knew it would be hard to also work and continue my studies, I didn't want to miss my opportunity of working for XWiki. The 4-hour schedule helps too. 😊 This way I have enough time for both my work and studies.
Will your responsibilities change?
In the beginning, I continued with the issues I started during my internship, and now I got more responsibility working on the project website!!
If you could describe your XWiki experience in one word, what would it be?
Flexibility
Favorite memory at XWiki?
I can't really pinpoint one favorite memory, but all the times I have been to the office or spent time with the team were really nice!
Diana with teammates in Iași playing a board game during the Halloween celebration
