“D2L is here? That’s so weird. Wouldn’t it be funny if I worked for them?” – Me at a career fair, 2022
Although I’ve used D2L Brightspace for most of my life, it had somehow never crossed my mind as a place to work until I saw the booth at the Canadian Celebration of Women in Computing career fair.
I was a bit taken aback, definitely intrigued, and decided to approach the recruiter and chat with her about D2L. She was very friendly and informative and encouraged me to apply for an internship role. After applying for a software developer internship, I was interviewed and eventually got the offer.
I was excited, but I was also a bit nervous with anticipation. What would working at D2L be like? Would I do well in my tasks? Would I fit in with my team?
It’s been a month since I started my internship, and I can say that it’s been an amazing experience so far. Now, D2L isn’t just a web platform for online learning to me. It’s a company where I get to learn a lot and make contributions (however small) to education.
Let me give you a glimpse of what one of my days might look like at D2L:
~7:40am: Wake up, eat something and prepare for the day. I don’t work in a client-facing area, so casual wear is OK. I work remotely, and like most employees, I can choose when to start my day, as long as I’m available for meetings and communication.
8am: I log into my laptop and start/continue working on my development tasks. I get to work on real tasks that have an impact on D2L’s products and services—no coffee runs or busywork. My team works on the foundation of Brightspace, so I may not be developing cool new features, but I am helping to strengthen its quality, stability and future growth.
9:45am: Standup meeting with my amazing team. This is a short daily meeting where everyone just gives a quick update on what we’re working on, what challenges we may be facing and what we may need help with.
10am: Continuing with my development work and most importantly asking questions. I’m constantly interacting with my team and even other teams (when called for) over Slack/meetings/email. I am also in the MST time zone while most D2Lers are in EST, so I tend to concentrate my communications earlier in the day.
12am: Lunch break. Time to relax and recharge.
12:30pm: Code reviews. This is where I review code changes made by other developers on my team or other teams before they get merged into the main codebase. It’s a great way to learn from others and improve my own coding skills.
1:15pm: Team meeting. We have periodic meetings where we plan and reflect on our work, set goals and priorities, and discuss any issues or feedback.
2pm: Writing this blog post, which is a nice break from any errors I’m helping to fix.
3pm: Finishing up development for the day. I wrap up my tasks, update the planning board with my progress and next steps if needed, and make sure everything is in order. There typically aren’t hard deadlines for my tasks because they’re often hard to estimate.
4:30pm: Done with work for the day. But not with Brightspace. I still have a course I’m doing this spring.
So, there you have it—a bit about my day as an intern at D2L. Of course, this can differ based on your role, how you want your day to look and your team. It’s been a fun journey so far, and I can’t wait to see what’s next. If you want to join the team, check out D2L’s Early Talent Opportunities.
Written by:
