Software Development Intern

About Midwest Systems

Midwest Systems is a 32-person software shop in Chicago. The founders still answer support tickets. Customers who call us usually reach someone who wrote the code they are asking about.

About the role

This is a hands-on coding internship. Most of the work is in Python and Node.js, with some SQL and a bit of shell scripting. The company is based in Chicago, the US. We are a distributed team spread across a few time zones. You will intern remotely with our team in Chicago. We have hosted remote interns from several countries before. You will need at least 4 hours of overlap with US Central time. Communication happens mostly in Slack and short video calls.

What you'll do

Raise pull requests on GitHub and respond to code review comments within a day. Add unit tests with pytest or Jest so new code does not lower coverage. Fix bugs from the Jira backlog, starting with small, well-defined tickets. Pair with other engineers over screen share to work through tricky problems. Present a short demo of your work to the team every two weeks. Query and update data in PostgreSQL or MySQL, including simple migrations. Profile slow endpoints and suggest fixes, such as adding an index or caching a result.

Who can apply

Available for the full internship period. Own laptop and a reliable internet connection. Undergraduates or recent graduates in IT, computer science, management or a related field. Based in Sri Lanka. Own laptop with at least 8 GB RAM and a reliable internet connection. Able to communicate clearly in written English on Slack and in pull requests. Good grasp of at least one programming language: Python, Java, JavaScript or C++. Must be able to overlap at least 4 hours a day with the team's working hours.

What you get out of it

You will ship at least one feature that real users touch before the internship ends. How a production codebase is organised, deployed and monitored. Code review on every pull request, so expect a lot of feedback on naming, tests and structure. Weekly 1:1 with your mentor to go over what went well and what to work on next.

Duration: 2 months

Start date: Within 2 weeks

Stipend: $300 - $400/month

Perks

Performance bonus. Mentorship from senior team members. Internet allowance. Laptop provided for the internship. Job offer on successful completion. Flexible work hours.

We look at every application, usually within a week.

Duration: 2 months. Start: Within 2 weeks.

Demo job created on 11jobs for testing and demonstrations. It is not an actual opening at Midwest Systems Inc..