{"id":1463,"date":"2024-05-21T12:04:48","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T10:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.contribute.be\/internships-at-contribute-mira-en-gwen\/"},"modified":"2025-03-25T17:06:31","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T15:06:31","slug":"internships-at-contribute-mira-en-gwen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/contribute.be\/en\/internships-at-contribute-mira-en-gwen\/","title":{"rendered":"Internships at Contribute: Mira and Gwen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Mira and Gwen found themselves in Contribute’s diverse APEX software factory team, something they weren\u2019t used to. \u201cI\u2019m currently studying programming at AP. Initially, I studied preschool education, but it didn\u2019t quite fit. My mom works in IT, and she suggested I give it a try,\u201d says Mira. \u201cWhen I started at AP, I noticed that it\u2019s mostly a male-dominated field. We do have some female students, but the numbers are much fewer. As a woman, you stand out more. That\u2019s how I eventually met Gwen. She was one of the few women in our class.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIT wasn\u2019t my first choice either. I had studied orthopedagogics and worked in the field for 5 years. But I also realized it wasn\u2019t really my thing. During my studies, I had to work with computers regularly, and that\u2019s when I started to develop a passion for IT,\u201d Gwen adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“I wasn\u2019t sure what to expect from low-code, and I was afraid it wouldn\u2019t be my thing, but APEX was a pleasant surprise. I\u2019ve learned a lot already, and there\u2019s also a lot of PL\/SQL involved. So, my fear that we wouldn\u2019t write much code turned out to be unfounded,\u201d explains Gwen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The charms of low-code<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is the first time Mira and Gwen are working with low-code development. Although it wasn\u2019t their first choice, they\u2019re really enjoying it. \u201cThis is the first time I\u2019m working with low-code. Throughout our studies, we mostly worked with TypeScript,\u201d Gwen clarifies. \u201cI also really enjoy coding. I wasn\u2019t sure what to expect from low-code, and I feared it wouldn\u2019t be for me, but APEX has definitely been a pleasant surprise. I\u2019ve learned a lot in the process, and there\u2019s a significant amount of PL\/SQL involved. So, my fear that we wouldn\u2019t be coding much was totally unwarranted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mira also found Oracle APEX appealing. \u201cI really enjoy working with low-code. You learn a lot by doing, and low-code definitely doesn\u2019t fall short of standard coding. There\u2019s still coding involved, but you see results much faster. I was already more inclined to focus on front-end development, so this is a great middle ground.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A genuine connection<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Although low-code development didn\u2019t immediately draw them in, Mira and Gwen immediately felt a connection with Contribute as a company. \u201cWe met Saskia, the HR manager at Contribute, at an internship event. These events are always a bit overwhelming. We handed out our CVs to a lot of companies, mostly because we were advised by our program to start approaching companies early,\u201d Mira explains. \u201cBut we really got the feeling that many companies were painting a rosy picture. Moreover, many companies seemed uninterested in us. That wasn\u2019t the case with Saskia.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cSaskia immediately made us feel at ease. She was genuinely interested in who we were and what we wanted to do with our internship,\u201d confirms Gwen. \u201cAfter the event, Saskia called us to schedule a conversation. We were immediately on board, and that\u2019s when the Contribute internship came up.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Mira and Gwen continued to experience that personal connection throughout their internship. \u201cEveryone here is really open and approachable. We\u2019re all working together across different sister companies, and every colleague is willing to lend a hand. The barrier to ask questions is very low, and a lot of time is taken to explain things,\u201d says Gwen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t feel like just an intern here; I really feel like part of the team. We\u2019re even invited to team-building activities. The term \u2018interns\u2019 is actually only used jokingly,\u201d Mira continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re kind of spoiled here. Everything is provided, from laptops to lunch. We even got to go to APEX World with a few colleagues. It\u2019s really great that we get these opportunities. I can\u2019t recommend this internship enough to other students,\u201d Gwen concludes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Mira D\u2019Hoir and Gwen Sneijders have temporarily joined the Contribute team as interns. Together, they are working on an outdated APEX application for sister company Exitas, with the goal of modernizing and optimizing it. The application will be upgraded from APEX version 4 to version 23, with a strong focus on improving user-friendliness. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1467,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-testimonials-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/contribute.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/contribute.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/contribute.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/contribute.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/contribute.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1463"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/contribute.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1588,"href":"https:\/\/contribute.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1463\/revisions\/1588"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/contribute.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/contribute.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/contribute.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/contribute.be\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}