Benjamin: Our Very Own Web Ninja

Hi, I’m Benjamin Morvan from Dijon, Burgundy, France. I’m 20, passionate about music and web development, and fond of Lego (gosh how I love it). I’m studying at the Dijon IUT MMI department (ex-SRC) and had the chance to complete an internship in a company of my choice. At first I was looking for French web agencies (mostly because I was clueless), but thanks to my English teacher, I met Rémi Perrot, an older student from my IUT, who introduced me to Parachute. When he told me his experience, I was convinced in a minute.

So I started to create a portfolio to apply for an internship. Bad news was I had never made a website ever, I only knew some of the basic languages to do so. It seemed that I didn’t really prove myself at the first attempt. But I was more motivated than ever. So a few months later, after having made some work up, I applied again with a new portfolio. Answer was “You seem very capable. If you’re still interested we would gladly accept you.” *Big smile on my face* After having only a few days with the team, I knew I’d made the right choice. Scottish people are really welcoming, charming and willing to help. To give you an idea of how warm they are, just picture me wearing shorts. Yes, shorts, in winter [Editors Note: He did. He wore shorts. Everyday. Even in the snow]. The atmosphere in the company was motivating. Almost everyone in the same room, working over a musical background, eating lunch together, taking part in interesting projects – just like a family. But mostly, it was a rewarding experience for me – more than I expected! I’ve learned many things from it, I improved and progressed on what I already knew and used new tools! What’s better than learning something directly from professionals?

Even though I was a novice, David (my supervisor) included me in the team’s projects. My main tasks were to integrate design for websites. But I was lucky enough to do plenty of other tasks, like creating a mail signature for instance. I even got used to using command prompts which used to scare me (you know, the programming window that say stuff like “Hello World” or “Follow the white rabbit”). My experience was so interesting, in so many ways, that if you asked me to tell any bad point, I wouldn’t be able to list even one. I now have a resume stronger than ever and hope that I will be able to take part in something like this again soon.