What My Software Engineering Internships Taught Me About Communication

When I reflect on my software engineering internships at Hawl Technologies and Clinisys, I think about both the good and the challenging parts of those experiences. The good parts were the people I met, the projects I worked on, and everything I learned. When I think about the challenges, however, many of them centered around communication.

Both internships taught me that having meetings does not necessarily mean everyone has a shared understanding of what is happening.

When Silence Creates Confusion

At Hawl, we had a company-wide meeting every Friday, along with separate departmental meetings for teams such as frontend and backend. My first assignment was to redesign the company website with another intern. We began by scheduling a meeting to discuss how we wanted to approach the redesign and divide the work. Unfortunately, that became the first and last time we met during that sprint.

Over the next couple of weeks, I tried reaching out but had difficulty getting in contact with the other intern. Without regular communication, we each started following our own ideas about what the website should look like. Some of our work began to overlap, and I put off certain tasks because I wanted to make sure we were still working toward the same goal.

When the sprint ended, it was time to show the company our progress. During the weekly meeting, the other intern presented a finished version of the website. I was surprised because I did not know that version had been completed. When it was my turn to speak, I had to explain that I had not been aware of the changes.

In the moment, I was confused and frustrated. Because we had not spoken in weeks, I did not have enough information to understand what had happened. I later learned that there was no bad intention behind it, but the experience showed me how easily people can make assumptions when communication is missing.

After the meeting, my boss asked to speak with me. That conversation was important because it made me consider what I could have done differently. Initially, I focused on the fact that I had not received a response. Looking back, however, I realized that I had also allowed the situation to continue without telling anyone.

I did not want to create conflict or get anyone in trouble, so I thought we could resolve the issue ourselves. After about two weeks without a response, though, I should have gone to my team leader or boss and explained the situation. Raising the issue earlier would not have been about blaming the other intern. It would have given the team the information it needed to help us move forward.

At Hawl, I learned that staying silent because you want to avoid conflict does not necessarily solve anything. Sometimes, it allows a small misunderstanding to become a much larger problem.

Learning to Ask Questions

At Clinisys, I learned a similar lesson in a different way. We had a meeting every morning to discuss what we had completed the previous day and what we planned to work on next. Even with those daily meetings, we sometimes began projects without having a shared understanding of all the requirements.

I was part of a cohort of five interns, and we worked on several projects throughout the summer. At times, we did not fully understand what everyone else was working on or how the different parts of a project would connect. We also did not always ask for clarification as early as we should have.

I would not say there was a complete lack of communication. The larger issue was that important conversations sometimes happened later than they needed to. Questions that could have cleared up confusion early were occasionally not asked until a project was already well underway.

We eventually began holding additional meetings outside of our daily stand-ups to discuss our progress, responsibilities, and roadblocks. One main project took up most of our time and was also where many of these communication challenges appeared. By the deadline, we had enough completed to give a demonstration, but the project was not fully finished. That left me wondering whether we could have completed more of the MVP if we had started asking certain questions and sharing our concerns sooner.

The biggest lesson I learned at Clinisys was not to be afraid to ask questions. For much of the internship, I thought I could prove my value by completing my work without needing help. I also worried that my mentors were busy and that asking questions would bother them. Some of the other interns felt the same way.

Toward the end of the internship, we became more comfortable asking questions and communicating about our work. I realized that working independently does not mean working silently. Asking questions does not make someone less capable. In many cases, a five-minute conversation can prevent days of work based on a wrong assumption.

Meetings Are Only an Opportunity

The hardest part of these internships was not coding. It was learning how to communicate with other people. Both experiences showed me that people can attend meetings and give progress updates while still leaving without a shared understanding of what they are building, who is responsible for what, or what problems need attention.

There is more to being a software engineer than writing code, understanding algorithms, or learning system design. You also have to ask questions, raise concerns before they grow, and make sure everyone is working toward the same goal. Meetings create an opportunity for communication, but the people in those meetings—including me—still have to use that opportunity.