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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="zxx" class="no-js">
<head>
<!-- Mobile Specific Meta -->
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no">
<!-- Favicon-->
<link rel="shortcut icon" href="img/fav.png">
<!-- Author Meta -->
<meta name="author" content="Dalton Polhill">
<!-- Meta Description -->
<meta name="description" content="">
<!-- Meta Keyword -->
<meta name="keywords" content="">
<!-- meta character set -->
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<!-- Site Title -->
<title>Dalton Polhill - Adknown</title>
<link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Poppins:100,200,400,300,500,600,700" rel="stylesheet">
<!-- ========== CSS ========== -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/linearicons.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/font-awesome.min.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/brands.min.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/bootstrap.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/magnific-popup.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/nice-select.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/animate.min.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/owl.carousel.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/jquery-ui.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/main.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/font-awesome/4.7.0/css/font-awesome.min.css">
<!-- ========== /CSS ========== -->
<!-- include script for html-includes-->
<script src="js/w3.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
<!--include the header with navigation bar-->
<div w3-include-html="header.html"></div>
<script> w3.includeHTML(); </script>
<!-- start banner Area -->
<section class="coop-banner">
<div class="row justify-content-center">
<div class="about-content coop-content col-lg-12">
<div class="row justify-content-center">
<div id="logo">
<a href="adknown.html"><img src="img/adknown_logo.png" alt="" title="" /></a>
</div>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="container main-menu">
<div class="row align-items-center justify-content-center d-flex">
<nav id="nav-menu-container">
<ul class="nav-menu adknown-menu">
<li><a href="#adknown_about">About</a></li>
<li><a href="#adknown_job_description">Job Description</a></li>
<li><a href="#adknown_goals">Work Term Goals</a></li>
<li><a href="#adknown_conclusion">Conclusion</a></li>
</ul>
</nav><!-- #nav-menu-container -->
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</section>
<!-- End banner Area -->
<!-- About Section -->
<section id="adknown_about" class="sml-section-gap">
<div class="container">
<div class="row justify-content-center">
<h1>About Adknown</h1>
<p>
<a href="https://www.adknown.com/">Adknown</a> is on the cutting edge of web media with a variety of different avenues of work. With an assortment of advertisement technology, traffic distribution management, targeted search portals, web publishing and game development to name a few. The company strives to achieve the highest level of greatness in their developers as possible. Innovative engineering is a very important concept at Adknown, all their technology is developed in house and used on very large scales. Adknown's targeted advertising uses their innovative technology as well as big data to analyse and understand how to engage a specific audience partition. Their in house marketing team is successful because of the broad understanding of different ad implementations to engage with different audiences.
<br><br>
The work environment at Adknown is highly demanding, technical abilities are tested and there is a lot to learn, that being said the company is a great place to work if you are looking for a challenge and to gain a sense of accomplishment. There is a string focus on accomplishing the goals set forth not creating the perfect solutions, this is key to a successful agile environment. Their continuous delivery allows quick changes to be made in production and demands hotfixes to be made on a weekly basis, which keeps the developers on their toes.
<br><br>
The Adknown team understands that all work and no play makes for miserable developers, so to lighten to mood in the office there is a fully stocked bar, a games room and a light comedic atmosphere on the internal messaging system. The various teams also go out for lunch once a week for a social meal where they are able to interact more with the other members and get to know each other, facilitating a friendly culture in the office.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</section>
<!-- End About Section -->
<!-- Job Description Section -->
<section id="adknown_job_description" class="section-gap">
<div class="container">
<div class="row justify-content-center">
<h1>Job Description</h1>
<p>
<strong>Official Title:</strong> Software Engineer
<br><br>
<strong>Description:</strong> <br>
We are looking for a co-op Software Engineer to help us expand and improve our portfolio of products and services which are used by tens of millions of users per month. We have been very diligent about assembling a team of people who are passionate about creating amazing web products in an agile environment. This is an unbeatable opportunity for a student who wants to work at a digital media company with great people and the latest tech.
<br><br>
<strong>Expectations:</strong><br>
* Work on our internal network that serves billions of requests producing tens of millions of users monthly<br>
* Utilize cutting edge technologies to combine relational database design methodologies with modern caching-based horizontally scaling systems<br>
* Contribute to existing as well as build new systems using elastic and high availability methodologies primarily using PHP<br>
* Excel in an agile environment overseeing multiple projects where the focus is getting the job done, not red tape
<br><br>
<strong>Essential Experience:</strong><br>
* We are language agnostic here so as long as you can code, you qualify<br>
* Familiar with HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Ajax, jQuery<br>
* Working knowledge of source control concepts using Git, SVN, TFS, CVS or equivalent<br>
* Great verbal and interpersonal communications skills to work with others who are less technical<br>
* Ability to perform multiple job tasks simultaneously
<br><br>
<strong>My Time at Adknown:</strong><br>
My experience with Adknown started out with the interview process, which very much enjoyed. After applying to the position I was promptly emailed an online test similar to many other companies in the same space. The in-person interview was very well organized in my opinion and I had a lot of fun with it. The interview was conducted in a room with a whiteboard where I was encouraged to display my solutions to technical questions and explain my thinking. After the first round of more theoretical technical questions, the interviewer handed me their laptop and told me that I was to use it during the next exercise to research any solutions to the problem they proposed. They began to go through a role-playing scenario where I was acting as a developer trying to help a businessman with their company website. This was a very interesting approach to a technical interview and gave me an opportunity to show that with a computer in hand I was able to find a solution to problems that may seem more difficult at first. The important part for a developer is that they can find a solution to a problem not memorize them all.
<br><br>
The orientation at Adknown was also very well organized, they came up with a way for the company and their coops to both benefit greatly during the onboarding process. They did this by creating a project idea for the coops to work on together that would eventually become an internal tool for the company to use in the future. In our case, we were building a Time Off Tracking Platform, where employees would be able to book time off for various reasons and they platform would handle reminding team members of absences as well as requesting approval from management. During the orientation period, the team of coops worked together on the project and had a project manager dev assigned to the project to oversee and help teach. This was much better than simply giving us a tutorial to follow or pdf to read through. There were many opportunities during the project to use different technologies and learn new tools. During this process, I was mainly responsible for creating the data model, building out a database schema, and creating the data access layer for the project. I also worked on setting up the Nginx configuration and routing for the site.
<br><br>
Once the orientation project was over each of the coops was placed with a mentor, my mentor was mainly responsible for working on all the internal tools used by employees throughout the company to aid in completing their work. This was an incredible opportunity for me because there were several different projects that I was tasked with updating, fixing, adding to or replacing. This provided a wide range of technologies that I was able to work with, and continued to provide me with different challenges.
<br><br>
This term I was able to work with a variety of technologies, sharpening my skills with some familiar to me and being introduced to new ones. I spent quite a bit of time learning new, more in-depth ways to use Docker and Docker Compose to host my local working environment. As well as honing my Php skills for both backend scripting and its powerful OOP capabilities. I had a lot of exposure to front-end programming as well, using HTML and javascript (jQuery and ajax) to accomplish complex tasks and improve the user experience.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</section>
<!-- End Job Description Section -->
<!-- Goal One Modal -->
<div class="modal fade goal-modal" id="goal_one_modal" role="dialog">
<div class="modal-dialog">
<div class="modal-content">
<div class="modal-header">
<h3 class="modal-title">Goal #1 - Develop My Communication Skills</h3>
<button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal">×</button>
</div>
<div class="modal-body">
<h4>Goal:</h4>
<p>
Communication is a life long learning opportunity and is something that as a coop student I can always improve upon. At Adknown there is a lot of emphasis on communicating with the team and with developers in more efficient ways, to be able to get effective help fast and an emphasis on asking "good" questions to the right people.
</p>
<h4>Action Plan:</h4>
<p>
I plan to be proficient in the way I ask questions and to be more accurate in who I choose to direct my questions to within the company. I will be more adamant about trying to find an answer to my question before I ask it and making sure that I am clear, concise and provide the appropriate examples or previously tested solutions within my question.
</p>
<h4>Measure of Success:</h4>
<p>
I feel as though if I have to repeat my question or rewrite it in different ways, I am not doing a good job in asking the question. If I have to be directed to ask my question to a different group then I am not effectively choosing my audience. The success of this goal can also be measured based on the feedback I receive from my manager, whether or not they think I am asking a good amount/quality of questions.
</p>
<h4>Reflection:</h4>
<p>
I believe that I have become a more effective communicator and that my questions have become much more efficient. I am able to more efficiently find the answers I need in order to solve my problem, and I am much better at targeting my questions at the right person. I also feel that because of this I am more often able to find the answers to my own questions through searching more effectively with online resources.
</p>
</div>
<div class="modal-footer">
<button type="button" class="btn btn-default" data-dismiss="modal">Close</button>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Goal Two Modal -->
<div class="modal fade goal-modal" id="goal_two_modal" role="dialog">
<div class="modal-dialog">
<div class="modal-content">
<div class="modal-header">
<h3 class="modal-title">Goal #2 - Improving My Time Management Skills</h3>
<button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal">×</button>
</div>
<div class="modal-body">
<h4>Goal:</h4>
<p>
Time management is an extremely important skill for software developers, at Adknown it is an important skill to practice in order to be able to complete tasks efficiently. My goal is to be able to complete tasks more efficiently in order to complete them as close to the estimated time of completion set out by my managers.
</p>
<h4>Action Plan:</h4>
<p>
In order to complete a task efficiently, I must first understand what the task is asking, the scope of work, and an example test case or reproduction steps. I will make an effort to read, understand and analyze the task first, making detailed notes about the aforementioned. If any parts are unclear I will reach out to the appropriate parties for clarification. I will also set up automatic reminders for myself to ensure I am up to date on my time tracking and hours logged each day. Making notes in the time logged about what I worked on / accomplished. I'll be sure to reach out to someone for help if I am stuck on a task for more than 15 minutes, as expected by managers at Adknown.
</p>
<h4>Measure of Success:</h4>
<p>
I think the best way to measure this goal will be to ask for feedback from my mentor and manager throughout the term.
</p>
<h4>Reflection:</h4>
<p>
I received feedback from my tech lead about my time management skills and how they have improved over the course of the term. I find that once I become comfortable with the technologies and processes being used at a company I am able to complete tasks much more quickly and effectively the first time.
</p>
</div>
<div class="modal-footer">
<button type="button" class="btn btn-default" data-dismiss="modal">Close</button>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Goal Three Modal -->
<div class="modal fade goal-modal" id="goal_three_modal" role="dialog">
<div class="modal-dialog">
<div class="modal-content">
<div class="modal-header">
<h3 class="modal-title">Goal #3 - Improving My Technical Literacy</h3>
<button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal">×</button>
</div>
<div class="modal-body">
<h4>Goal:</h4>
<p>
I would really like to become more masterful of the lingo within different domains of knowledge. In particular, this semester I have been asked to work with javascript in frontend development, something I have very little exposure to and do not understand well. I will strive to practice and learn as much as I can about using javascript.
</p>
<h4>Action Plan:</h4>
<p>
I think this comes a lot from communicating with people who know the domain better than myself and asking questions (or researching) about terms they talk to me about. In terms of becoming a better javascript programmer, there is a lot of practice involved in mastering a language, which I will make sure to seek out as many chances to work with js code as I possibly can during the semester.
</p>
<h4>Measure of Success:</h4>
<p>
By the end of the term, I think one way to measure how successful I am with this goal would be to have a conversation with my manager or another developer in a field I feel I have expanded my vernacular in and see how well I fare in a complex conversation with the domain lingo.
</p>
<h4>Reflection:</h4>
<p>
The abundant amount of work I had to do with frontend Javascript has made me much more confident with the scripting language. Before this term, I had very little exposure to JS and had no clue how website scripting worked but now I am comfortable with using JS to add dynamic functionality to any site.
</p>
</div>
<div class="modal-footer">
<button type="button" class="btn btn-default" data-dismiss="modal">Close</button>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Goal Four Modal -->
<div class="modal fade goal-modal" id="goal_four_modal" role="dialog">
<div class="modal-dialog">
<div class="modal-content">
<div class="modal-header">
<h3 class="modal-title">Goal #4 - Developing My Leadership Skills</h3>
<button type="button" class="close" data-dismiss="modal">×</button>
</div>
<div class="modal-body">
<h4>Goal:</h4>
<p>
I had a large leadership role in my previous coop and learned a lot from being in that position, I would like to strive to continue learning and developing as a leader during this term.
</p>
<h4>Action Plan:</h4>
<p>
Having a mentor during the term is an excellent opportunity to shadow another person in their day to day and be able to mimic their leadership behavior.
</p>
<h4>Measure of Success:</h4>
<p>
I think the best way to measure this goal will be to ask for feedback from my mentor and manager throughout the term.
</p>
<h4>Reflection:</h4>
<p>
During this term, I made sure to take mental notes about how various team leaders mentored their coop students. This gave me valuable insights into different techniques on how to be a leader.
</p>
</div>
<div class="modal-footer">
<button type="button" class="btn btn-default" data-dismiss="modal">Close</button>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<!-- Goals Section -->
<section id="adknown_goals" class="goals-area section-gap">
<div class="container">
<div class="row d-flex justify-content-center">
<h1>Work Term Goals</h1>
</div>
<div class="row">
<div class="col-lg-3 col-md-6 single-goal">
<div class="top-part">
<h2 class="package-no">01</h2>
<h4>Continue to Develop Communication Skills</h4>
</div>
<div class="package-list">
<ul>
<li>Oral communication during scrum meetings</li>
<li>Written communication on project management tools</li>
<li>Learning to write well commented code</li>
</ul>
</div>
<button type="button" class="btn btn-info btn-lg" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#goal_one_modal">Read More...</button>
</div>
<div class="col-lg-3 col-md-6 single-goal">
<div class="top-part">
<h2 class="package-no">02</h2>
<h4>Improving My Time Management Skills</h4>
</div>
<div class="package-list">
<ul>
<li>Practicing time estimates for various tasks</li>
<li>Improving my efficiency for testing my tasks</li>
<li>Building up my confidence for completing tasks independently</li>
</ul>
</div>
<button type="button" class="btn btn-info btn-lg" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#goal_two_modal">Read More...</button>
</div>
<div class="col-lg-3 col-md-6 single-goal">
<div class="top-part">
<h2 class="package-no">03</h2>
<h4>Improving My Technical Literacy</h4>
</div>
<div class="package-list">
<ul>
<li>Learning web development lingo</li>
<li>Understanding the difference between frontend and backend development</li>
<li>Using correct web technologies to accomplish tasks</li>
</ul>
</div>
<button type="button" class="btn btn-info btn-lg" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#goal_three_modal">Read More...</button>
</div>
<div class="col-lg-3 col-md-6 single-goal">
<div class="top-part">
<h2 class="package-no">04</h2>
<h4>Developing My Leadership Skills</h4>
</div>
<div class="package-list">
<ul>
<li>Learning from other leaders in the company</li>
<li>Being able to lead by example</li>
<li>Practicing coaching and supporting people to nurture productivity</li>
</ul>
</div>
<button type="button" class="btn btn-info btn-lg" data-toggle="modal" data-target="#goal_four_modal">Read More...</button>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</section>
<!-- End Goals Section -->
<!-- Conclusion Section -->
<section id="adknown_conclusion" class="conclusion-area section-gap">
<div class="container">
<div class="row justify-content-center">
<h1>Conclusion</h1>
<p>
Adknown was a very valuable work term for me, I learned a lot about web development, time management, and project planning. During my four months at Adknown, I spent a lot of time working on my solo development skills, although we worked in teams there was a lot of independent work to be done on tasks. This gave me the opportunity to expand on my research skills, being responsible to find my own solutions to issues I ran into. I was also forced to work on my own time management and organization skills, as I was given minimal day-to-day guidance and had to organize my daily tasks to get the current ticket accomplished before the deadline.
<br><br>
I learned a lot during my term at Adknown and I feel as though I made great progress towards all the goals I had set out for myself. The goal I made about learning how to be a leader was the most important one to me for this term because I was surrounded by leaders at Adknown. I had the opportunity to speak to my immediate tech lead as well as the team manager of all the tech leads and even the CEO of Adknown, which gave me the opportunity to learn by watching them. I was also able to have a personal conversation with these gentlemen about my career development and get tips on how to be a good leader.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</section>
<!-- End Conclusion Section -->
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