It's been a great summer for internships at XWiki, and we wanted to acknowledge that by interviewing our summer interns and sharing their impressions during the time spent with us. Now that summer is almost over, the moment has come to zoom in and find out more about Killian, our Legal intern who is an advocate of open-source values and is particularly careful about privacy.
And since no two interviews are alike, this time we will not be sharing any photos of Killian because he asked us not to, precisely out of privacy reasons. As a result, we respect his choice of not sharing any photos of him on the Internet.
- Favorite artist: Banksy
- Best book ever read: "La Modification" by Michel Butor, a really nice book with a surprising writing style
- Dream destination: Mexico
- Quote you live by: "Ordo ab chaos", it means order in the chaos: even when you feel like everything is chaotic, there is always a point to hold on to and never lose hope.
- At the office or remote? Remote
Tell me about yourself briefly
My name is Killian, I am 22, and I was an intern in the XWiki Legal Team during the last 3 months! I have various hobbies more or less related to my internship experience: open-source projects, IT, traveling, hiking. Usually, people describe me as someone that is very passionate about learning new things.
The internship experience
How did you find out about XWiki and what made you choose it for an internship?
I already knew XWiki through CryptPad and I met Clément and Ludovic at a conference on open source in Lyon during the month of February. I talked about my legal experience and they told me that they were searching for an intern in the Legal team. Furthermore, I decided to apply because I liked the company and its values and I felt truly interested in the XWiki project.
What was your internship experience like?
At first, it was kind of particular because I got a lot of responsibilities and did not feel like an intern at all. Once I got used to it, the internship experience was awesome because you get to truly debate, work collaboratively and feel that your opinion is valued. To be more specific, on the legal side, every change and addition was discussed and brainstormed using collaboration tools and channels.
The work environment was very welcoming, and it motivated me to learn and do my best!
Doing Open Source software is one part of the story. Providing services around it is another. During Killian's internship, we managed to improve the clarity of our terms and conditions in order to align with the latest evolutions of the law, and to provide more transparency on how we perform our services. In that regard, Killian was very helpful thanks to his prior knowledge in open-source software. - Clément Aubin, Account Manager
What did you find to be the most interesting and challenging tasks?
What was the most interesting and challenging in my opinion was the aspect of protecting software from a legal standpoint, but also the company that creates it while still preserving the autonomy of the software. XWiki is very independent from XWiki SAS and sometimes it makes the task harder because you always have to remember this aspect.
One other thing that was challenging was translating all the documents from French into English since they have a lot of technical details and need to be very precise. It's a long and tedious work, but it ends up being very rewarding in the end!
And what about the integration into the environment? How easy or difficult was it for you?
It felt easy: everybody was welcoming, willing to help me if I had any questions. The only difficulty was that I worked remotely during my internship so I did not have the same contact with people as one does when working at the office. However, I got the opportunity to come to the Paris office a few times, and it was awesome!
Open source impressions
Was open source something you had an interest in prior to XWiki?
Yes! I was really interested in open source before XWiki but never got to really contribute as I do not have the best technical knowledge. However, the principles and values of open-source software were something I always liked very much.
What's the open source value you identify with most?
Openness I would say. I truly value the idea of taking the best option there is and evolving with what the community wants because it ends up making a project truly tailor-made to its users.
Lessons learned
What would you say is the most valuable lesson you learned during your time at XWiki?
I learned a lot of lessons, but I guess the truly valuable one is the importance of adaptability and versatility especially in a company where you have a lot of different profiles: developers, marketers, HR, legals. Along with that, you also need to be able to adapt and switch quickly between French and English, even on technical subjects which implies always being ready and willing to put in work.
The XWiki experience
If you could describe your XWiki experience in one word, what would it be?
Friendliness
Favorite memory at XWiki?
The first time I came to the Paris office, I got to meet the whole Paris team and exchange with them during the whole day. The only difference was that I was not working remotely. Being able to talk directly with my colleagues and having more human interaction felt awesome because I really got to grasp the culture of the company.
