This spring, Substance welcomed Jessica Tsuji as our first ever participant in the Substance Substantial Apprenticeship Program. We invited Jessica to share her experiences at Substance.
This is her story…
Finding an internship while going to school full-time, especially in this state of economy is tough for anyone. However, finding the most gratifying and rewarding interactive internship experience in the Portland area is a rare commodity that should never be passed up.
Searching
My internship hunt was a tough one, especially looking for one where I would be offered the chance to grow and not be treated like a workhorse. I searched for a couple months to be turned down by one company and to get offered paid internships by a few. However, after meeting with the guys at Substance for the first time, I just knew that this tight knit team was exactly where I needed to be. They seemed to really understand that constant self-growth and introspection through collaboration for any professional is the key to staying relevant in an industry that can get so caught up in buzzwords and trends. I was ecstatic when the guys announced that they wanted to refer to my internship as an “apprenticeship” to rectify the misconception of the title “intern” being a blanket term for unpaid-part-time-work. It solidified that we were all on the same page in wanting this experience to be focused on learning and gaining real insight, not just a hierarchical coffee-making one.
Learning
As any new person to a team, it was a little daunting to jump right into things while sitting at the same table with everyone at the company. But that initial unease completely disappeared once I got to talk with all the guys. Every single one of them was extremely welcoming and willing to share their insight with me from Day One making it an extremely open learning environment. The open door (or even lack of door completely) environment was what I appreciated most as the first apprentice. Any time I needed to ask questions, I didn’t feel like I was about to get my head chewed off or belittled for not knowing their system for doing things. I also appreciated the opportunity to get to pick everyone’s brain on the very first day to get to see what they were working on and observe how their approach.
Growing
On my first project, I got to work on my own but was guided by a ton of feedback from working with their UI Guru, Cory. He gave me so many helpful tips in working in an actual production environment and helped me to improve my front-end work and knowledge of Wordpress dramatically. I also got to work on another main project in which I was also able to get great feedback that helped me to improve what I was working on and further my design skills. This courageous mentality of “doing things better” that’s seen throughout Substance is what I most admire about these guys. The level of detail and quality that they strive for is something that is easily said but not done for most companies but Substance writes the book on standing by their word and believing in what they do.
Another aspect of my apprenticeship that set it apart from the rest was that I got to participate and hear a wide range of discussions ranging from current and future projects to trends in the industry to inspiration to discussing how great keyboard cat is. I really appreciated the chance to be included in all facets of what was going on in the company on both a professional and personal level. I really felt at the end of the day, I had just hung out with a great bunch of friends who were all as passionate about the same things I love. This level of approachability and openness made it an easy transition to work on their projects because I was a part of or at least overheard the internal and even client discussions to understand the general overview of each project.
Lessons Learned
There were many motivating quotes that I’ve taken away but the three that stand out to me were
(I might be paraphrasing here):
- “More social, less media. Let’s concern ourselves with intent, appropriate messaging
& audiences, not simply platforms.” (via Erin) It should be less about the medium and more
about the message. - To soon-to-be graduates: “Don’t do what you know is wrong even if everyone else is doing it.”
(via Stephen) So often, people tell you to do what is right, but be honest. Half the time, no one knows what
is right, but you’ll always know what feels wrong. - “I’d rather have 50% of it done with 100% of the quality than to have it 100% done with
only 50% quality.” (via David) While this may not be everyone’s mentality, it goes back to the quote above;
50% quality to me feels wrong.
Over the last seven weeks, I gained a tremendous amount of insight from seven professionals who all are extremely talented at what they do. I honestly feel that having this apprenticeship from a company guided with the right priorities made this the best internship experience I could have gotten, bar none. With their amazing Mixtape Mondays and trips to visit the 7-Eleven Slurpee machine, I always looked forward to coming into work knowing that everyday I learned something new and had fun doing it. I got everything that I was looking for in an internship and more. David, Stephen, Todd, Erin, Cory, Eric, and Shaun are all amazing and I feel very fortunate to have apprenticed under the Substance family.
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