A Semester Away From Being a Student
A Semester Away From Being a Student
  • Ko Ye-song (CSE 18)
  • 승인 2020.07.06 21:21
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After 13 years of being a student, I was tired of being one. During my first semester of being a sophomore, I discovered the Summer Experience in Society (SES), a school internship program acting as an intermediary between students and various companies, being offered every summer. I always dreamed of building my career.  After much consideration and research on the applicable companies, I decided to apply for a Deep Learning job offered by Polaris3D, a growing start-up providing indoor autonomous navigation solutions. I submitted my CV and fortunately got a chance for an interview. For half an hour, I was subjected to intimidating questions that I was unable to answer. In the end, they asked if there was anything else I wanted to say. I told them “even I would be reluctant to hire a sophomore like me, with little experience and qualifications, but I do know how to teach myself. It is easier to fill a blank sheet of paper than editing a paper half full of other things. I am already grateful for the interview, but I can do more.” I had little hope of being hired, but surprisingly I was accepted. My dream was slowly becoming true.
Time flew by and my first day of work came. It turned out to be way more exciting than I expected. I was introduced to my co-workers and got some help settling down. It was my first time using Linux as the main OS. What was even worse was that I had never used Python before. Everything was new. I spent the first two weeks trying to adjust to the working environment. As I continued working, I loved everything about it. However, I was worried about one thing, ‘Is it possible for me to finish what I was assigned within the remaining one month?’ I took some time to think about it and discussed it with my boss. He gave me a tempting solution: to take a semester off and continue working full time until December. That seemed to be a viable solution, so I accepted his offer immediately.
I wrote and edited training codes and training data. I had meetings with the CTO and discussed how to solve problems. I spent a lot of time studying, reading, and searching Stack Overflow. However, it was tough working full time while all my peers were at school. Even though I worked hard, there were limitations since I had not covered a lot of school work. If I am not feeling well, I can skip classes, but it is not possible to skip work. At school, if I do not know or understand something, I can ask my friends or professors. At work, if everybody else is busy doing their own things, I have to solve it unaided. It soon became a big problem. I could not find a reason to spend time on things that I could not possibly complete even if more time was given. I wanted to go back to school and learn the basics first. I was proud to do things on my own and be part of the company, but it was way beyond my limit. I was tired both physically and mentally. I needed a break.
With much consideration, I quit. It does seem like running away from my problems, and yes I did. I handed over my work for the last seven months, thanked everyone, and finally bid adieu. My dream of working was difficult, to say the least. Nevertheless, I learned and experienced things unavailable just by staying in school. What could have been a three-month experience had unexpectedly turned out to be a seven month one, but I do not regret it. I recommend everyone to participate in the SES or any kind of internship before graduating, without being afraid of chartering unfamiliar waters.

Ko Ye-song (CSE 18)
Ko Ye-song (CSE 18)