My first internship had me and my then flat-mate (he was independently selected for the only other internship spot, neither of us knew about the other’s applica

My first internship had me and my then flat-mate (he was independently selected for the only other internship spot, neither of us knew about the other’s application, while overseas on Erasmus study, which is uncanny) adding “pay this invoice with online payment” (PayPal/Stripe/…) functionality to a product that handled time-tracking, tax reporting, and invoicing for Freelancers, with a enthusiastic user-base of SMB/sole-traders and a high UX-bar. It was the number one UserVoice request and we were incredibly lucky to have the entire feature ownership to pair develop (with minimal but stellar oversight from the tech lead) and it had a huge multiplier effect on the product offering overall. I’m very grateful for being in the right place in the right time and it’s contributed a lot to the “valuable code is the code that your users are benefiting from” lesson that constantly reminds me that book-smarts are nothing without a solid understanding of user needs.