The plan that changed
The original plan and starting point was a mostly finished MVP built by Claude. I was tasked with looking into the code to verify that everything was good enough to keep building on. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.
Why we scrapped it
Once I looked deeper into the project, two problems stood out:
- Security issues: There were a lot of these. A volunteer could simply access the admin dashboard by visiting a certain URL, and from there, almost anyone could do almost anything.
- Structural issues: Even though the code technically worked, it wasn't built to be extended. The structure was extremely chaotic, and Claude had used a different approach for almost everything.
Patching it would have meant building more on top of a fragile pile of slop, and it would have taken us even longer in the long run. That's why Ben and I decided to greenfield the project instead.
Starting from scratch with Laravel
To be honest, I'd only really worked with Laravel for about two weeks before this internship, since I originally come from a Symfony background. I think I underestimated that stack change a bit, because my code was (and still is) a bit chaotic and not all that pretty. That said, starting from scratch turned out to be a great learning opportunity for me.
Working on-site with Uilenspel
I spent most of my internship working directly at Uilenspel. That made it a lot easier to understand their workflow, their needs, and how they operate day to day. It also made it simpler for them to discuss ideas with me and check in on our progress. They were kind and treated me as one of their own, which really boosted my motivation to keep working on the project. I also worked at Ben's office sometimes, which was nice because I could ask for help directly, and it was especially welcome during the heatwave (temperatures reaching almost 40°C), since there was AC.
So far I haven't gotten as far as I would have liked, mostly because I underestimated Laravel, and partly because I'm still a junior and don't want to mess things up. Both of those are things I can keep working on, though, and I keep trying to learn. As long as there's visible progress, I'm happy.
The result
Honestly, I thought that would be the end of it: an internship where I never really got to show my full potential, just something to put on my CV before continuing to look elsewhere. But somehow, Ben decided to take a gamble on me and offered me an IBO contract (a Belgian training-to-hire arrangement, basically an extended trial run before a permanent offer). I'm still surprised, and I'm not entirely sure what he sees in me, but I trust he knows better than I do.
Now I get to keep working on this project for another six months, and, in a best-case scenario, even finish it and move on to the next one, and the next one, and so on, here at Dennenboom.
