Internships

I run a small shop in West Lafayette that builds custom software, websites, and IT infrastructure for small businesses, nonprofits, and community organizations across west-central Indiana.

Between client work here and all of my other commitments, there's more stuff to do than there are hours in the week, and I'm actively seeking an intern or two to help get some stuff done. This is a real, paid, part-time job — not a coffee-fetching* internship.

*By "coffee-fetching internship," I mean the kind where you're mostly running errands and doing busywork instead of doing meaningful technical work. There will be some errand-running and the like, but the focus is on the good stuff. Also, I don't like coffee, so the only coffee you might be fetching is your own.

This isn't a corporate internship program

No cohort, no rotation schedule, no corporate bureaucracy, You’d work directly with me on real client and shop work — hosting and deploy rework, pack-and-ship software, website content updates, random small web, IT, and software projects — with direct feedback on your work, not sanitized performance reviews.

The work is highly dynamic. I’ve unracked a server, debugged an e-commerce shipping integration failure, and helped someone figure out why their printer wasn’t printing all in the same day. I don’t necessarily need a single person who I can throw at all of those things, but I do need someone who can handle a variety of tasks and learn quickly on the job.

Everything you build is real work that ships to real users, so you leave with a portfolio you can point at — plus a look at the business side (scoping, contracts, invoicing, hosting) most internships never show you.

This is a very flexible gig, in both good ways and… not so good ones. I’m happy to work around your schedule as long as you’re reasonably consistent when I need you to be. There will be times when the work piles up and deadlines are tight, but that’s part of the real-world experience. There will also probably be times when the work is slow - and I’m not inclined to pay you to sit around and do nothing. But that’s part of the ebb and flow of real agency work too.

Who this is for

College students who want to write software & build systems that actually get used instead of working through another problem set. People who are curious how a working technology business actually runs. People who’d rather be around other people figuring things out than work alone.

My ideal intern is someone who is curious, proactive, and eager to learn - and someone who understands full-stack web development but isn’t afraid to go throw some ethernet cables around or dive into sysadmin work when needed.

I’m not looking for a Ruby expert or a networking guru, but I am looking for people who can already do useful work on day one — put together a PC, make a simple HTML content update, chase down a quick bug fix in a Rails app. Ideally all of the above, but one of those is good enough to start. You don’t need to be an expert in any of this stuff, but you do need to be at least a little bit useful to me out of the gate.

Most of my software work is in Ruby & Javascript, so experience in either of those languages is a plus. I do occasionally dabble in or have clients that have existing systems in other languages, so familiarity with a broader range of technologies can be helpful. I also do a variety of tech support & sysadmin-type work, as well as manage my own web & application hosting infrastructure. Linux & Windows system administration experience is helpful, as are general PC troubleshooting and maintenance skills.

Straight up about pay

All internship hours are paid, starting at $18/hr, maybe more depending on your experience and skills.

No unpaid trial. You track your hours, you get paid for the hours you work.

This is part-time work built around your schedule — five to ten hours a week is usually perfect. You can adjust your hours as needed, and I may make adjustments from my side as well, but consistent availability is appreciated. I’d rather know I have you for 5 hours a week than think I have you for 20 and have you disappear half the time.

What I ask of you

• A real commitment: A couple hours that happen consistently once a week is worth a lot more than twenty that don't.
• Some time in the office in West Lafayette: It's way easier to connect & work together in person — especially when we don't have incredibly consistent schedules. On the IT side of things, there's some stuff that can be done remotely, but a lot of that work requires getting your hands on hardware either at the office or on-site at client locations. On the software end, once you're comfortable with a project you can do some of that work remotely too. In general, remote work is possible, but I still expect regular time in the office for collaboration and meetings.
• Communication: Tell me when you're stuck, and tell me early if you're going to miss something. Those aren't real problems, or they're problems we can work around. Disappearing for weeks at a time is a big problem.
• Be good to your colleagues and clients: They're real people trusting me with real work, and I'm trusting you to treat them with respect and professionalism.
• A little help around the office now and then: Take out the trash, run to Walmart, etc. This will be fairly minimal, but it is kind of important for keeping things running smoothly.

How to apply

1. Email brad@sledgehammerinfosystems.com with the subject line “Internship Interest”.
2. Write a short note about what you’re interested in, what you’ve built or tinkered with, and what you want to get out of this. A few sentences is plenty.
3. Attach or link a resume if you have one. If you don’t, skip it and tell me what you’ve done instead. Or do both.

If it seems like a fit, the next step is a short conversation in the office.

Common questions