The following article is part of a series of articles about our NerdWallet Summer Internship program. Aaron Kyei-Asare shared their experience as an software engineer intern. If you are curious about joining NerdWallet as an intern or full-time employee, please apply for one of our open positions!

Entering my senior year of college, I found myself in a unique position. I’d had the opportunity to work in a variety of roles on both sides of the stack and was reaching the end of my undergraduate career. Up until this point, I’d concentrated my energy on marketing myself and selling what I could offer to a company. I knew that I would be returning to school the following year for my master’s, so I was keen to make the most of what would likely be my last SWE internship before entering into industry full-time. More importantly, I wanted to focus on what a company could offer me across a number of factors — ranging from the type of work and team sizes to the learning opportunities and professional development. Fortunately, I didn’t have to look far…

Because that company found me.

When I got the email from my recruiter, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’d seen a commercial or two but hardly had NerdWallet on my application radar. But from the onset, the recruiting process stood out to me. Of course, I expected the technical interviews that are built-in to most processes, but what I didn’t expect is a call from my recruiter a few days later with positive, constructive feedback from my interviewers. I got the impression then that I wasn’t just another applicant, and for the first time, it felt like a company was trying to leave a good impression on me instead of the other way around.

Right around the time I got the offer letter, I was considering another offer at a large financial firm. In what now seems like perfect timing, I also happened to be traveling to the Bay Area right around that time for AfroTech. On a whim, I pinged one of my recruiters to see if I could stop by the office and visit. Sure enough, she set up a visit day for me, and just like that, I was on a flight from MD to CA. The next morning, I found myself in a lobby waiting to be brought up to NerdWallet’s San Francisco Office.

In short, my day consisted of an office tour, a lesson in gourmet grilled-cheese making as part of a fully catered lunch, and chats with not one but two engineers, both of whom had interned previously. They answered questions I had about the type of work they were undertaking and about the growth they’d experienced as entry-level engineers during their time at NerdWallet. They even connected with me on LinkedIn afterward — all of this before I even signed the offer.

Going down the elevator that day, I knew my mind was made up. I thought: “if this company was willing to invest this level of time and effort into only a potential candidate, I know that as an employee I will be in good hands”. I signed and sent my offer letter the moment I got back to my hotel room.

Fast forward about 6 months and the world was launched right into the eye of a conjoined global pandemic and renewed social justice movement. And even through all this, I can confidently say...

I made the right decision.

When COVID-19 struck, I, like many other students at my university, was concerned about the status of my internship. Yet somehow, thinking back to the hospitality that was shown to me months prior, I trusted that NerdWallet wouldn’t leave me hanging. So when I got the email that NerdWallet would not be canceling internships but instead transitioning to a fully remote, virtual experience for its interns, I was ecstatic. Once again, my company had passed the test; they cared about me, not just an engineer but as an individual, and I hadn’t even started work yet.

I won’t lie. I was apprehensive about how a virtual internship would turn out.

Would my laptop come in time? How would I see a project through to completion from 3,000 miles away? Would I be able to build rapport with my team on Zoom?

NerdWallet had promised me meaningful work, mentorship, and professional development. Now, as I round out the final week of my internship, I can say...

They delivered that and more.

From day one, my recruiters, manager, and team put in the extra effort to make sure that my transition into work would be as smooth as possible and that I would be supported as much as possible. I was provided an onboarding checklist and received invites to different onboarding sessions that got me up to speed on NerdWallet’s different sectors and core systems. I was introduced right away to my manager and mentor, both of whom set up regular meetings with me to talk about my experience, technical progress, and concerns. The UR team even put me in touch with a Culture Buddy who I could always count on for advice or just a speedy meeting to get away from the hustle of work.

All engineers at NerdWallet are technically considered full-stack, but some are more front-end facing while others are more back-end facing. I was asked in advance about the type of work I was interested in, and I relayed to my recruiter that I wanted to be involved on both sides of the stack. Fortunately, that’s exactly what happened. My project involved creating a new application from the ground up using modern web frameworks and tooling, including GraphQL/Apollo, TypeScript, and React. The purpose of this client is to create Hub pages on the NerdWallet site that display mixed content related to a specific category/topic, and in its development, I would be helping standardize the Hub experience with the rest of NerdWallet by way of shared components and interactions.

Even virtually, I was not treated as an intern but instead as an integral member of the team. I had the opportunity to work cross-functionally, collaborating with DevOps, Design, Product, Quality Assurance, Analytics, and Content Platform teams during the course of my project. I spearheaded technical presentations and spoke at a team charter review. I played a part in making implementation decisions that will have an impact on my team’s work after my internship. Because my project was scoped incredibly well, I was able to hop in and start making an impact right away; an impact that was felt with each pull request. I experienced firsthand the highs and lows that come with the end-to-end software development life cycle — sprint ceremonies, timelines, stakeholder meetings, and all.

At NerdWallet, my voice matters. Every step of the way I was always being asked how I could be best supported. I had the opportunity to speak one-on-one with the VP of Engineering and even our CEO, Tim Chen.

What’s more?

I felt like I was dedicating my time and effort to a company that was my ally. As a Black Engineer in a time of unprecedented unrest and uncertainty, I felt that my company stood behind me.

To all my techies out there, remember that you bring value to the table and deserve to be treated as such. It took me three internships to realize that.

I didn’t find NerdWallet,