Niklas, Working Student in Software Development

During my internship, I spent a lot of time designing, implementing, and documenting a new REST API. This is used to communicate between the CHECK24 mobile app and our backend to offer the customers of the shopping comparison portal a native payment experience in the app. For this project, I worked as a web developer with our app developers almost daily for several months. This gave me initial insight into app development. I also had to understand how the app works and think my way into the app developers' problems due to the partly close interlocking of API and app. In this way, I found solutions together with them. Taking responsibility for such a large project, which I accompanied from requirements analysis to going live, was the highlight of my internship! I always get to face new, exciting challenges as an intern and a working student. I recently developed and fully implemented a proposed solution for a new project. Customers who have stored their mobile phone number in their customer account and place a shopping order via the browser now receive an order confirmation with a short link via SMS. This quick link leads the customers directly to their order in the customer area of the CHECK24 app if they have already installed the CHECK24 app or to the App Store/Play Store, where they can install the CHECK24 app.

At the comparison portal Shopping, we use the PHP framework Symfony for our backend services. I had worked extensively with PHP and similar frameworks before but I still needed to work with Symfony. However, this was not a big problem, so I learned the ropes in the first few weeks of my internship before taking on my first actual programming tasks and deployments to the production system in the day-to-day business. Although the level of difficulty and complexity gradually increased, I could always turn to colleagues with questions, so I never felt overwhelmed. Furthermore, I had the opportunity to participate in the two-day web conference "SymfonyWorld Online 2021 Winter Edition" and learn about exciting and helpful Symfony components, techniques, and concepts in lectures. During my time at CHECK24, I was also able to learn how to use the monitoring platform New Relic, gain a lot of practical experience in agile development methods, deepen my previous knowledge in the area of payment systems and gain valuable insights into test automation with Cypress for quality assurance. In the meantime, I am happy to pass on the knowledge I have acquired about our technologies, processes, projects, the shopping comparison portal, and general information about CHECK24 to new colleagues in our team.

I particularly like software development's variety and diversity: you constantly learn new things because you research solutions, develop solution concepts, exchange ideas with colleagues, and always try out new things. Of course, depending on the problem, it can be a bit trickier and more time-consuming, but the sense of achievement is all the more rewarding for it.

A Bachelor's degree gives you a good overview of various IT areas but often needs more in-depth content and practical application.

A Bachelor's degree gives you a good overview of various IT areas but often needs more in-depth content and practical application. Therefore, I can only recommend, if possible, to consider studying one or two semesters longer and use the time gained to realize your projects and gain initial practical experience, for example, as a contributor to open source projects, as a part-time self-employed person, or as a working student. In this way, you can find out what you enjoy most and what your professional future should look like before you take the step into professional life after graduation!

I appreciate that at CHECK24, whether you are an intern, a permanent employee, or a manager, you come together as equals. I have never had the experience at CHECK24, where my opinion counts less because I am "only" an intern or working student. On the contrary: you are respected and appreciated by all colleagues, which is crucial for your well-being in the company and enables a constructive discussion culture, which allows us to achieve great results. Even with little practical work experience, you can contribute significantly and offer new perspectives that benefit everyone.

This and the dynamic start-up culture enable interns and working students to take on responsibility within the scope of their abilities at a very early stage, provided they are motivated and show initiative. As an intern or working student at CHECK24, you can gain valuable experience, make your first contacts in various specialist areas, and think outside the box here and there - which is very helpful if you are a student still deciding which direction to take after graduation. CHECK24's products differ thematically and use different technology stacks, making CHECK24 the ideal place to find something suitable for you.