---
title: "Journey Through a Dev Degree Intern’s First Placement"
description: "During her first 12-month Dev Degree placement, the author worked as a back-end developer on Shopify’s Docs & API Libraries team, which builds libraries, tools, and documentation for developers. She describes an initially steep learning curve through work on Shopify CLI, including a change allowing Rails flags such as --db=DB during project scaffolding, and a Shopify Admin API Library for Node written in TypeScript. To handle uncertainty, she kept an Achievement Log, learned by adapting existing code and tests, paired with colleagues, asked for help, and reviewed draft pull requests with teammates. The placement challenged stereotypes about “real” developers and showed that imposter syndrome can coexist with genuinely needing more knowledge. She concludes that learning is collaborative, representation can strengthen inclusion, and becoming comfortable with discomfort is part of development."
---

# Journey Through a Dev Degree Intern’s First Placement

[Shopify](https://yomu.fyi/company/shopify) · 2023-10-18 · Oct 1, 2021

**Type:** Explainer

## Summary

During her first 12-month Dev Degree placement, the author worked as a back-end developer on Shopify’s Docs & API Libraries team, which builds libraries, tools, and documentation for developers. She describes an initially steep learning curve through work on Shopify CLI, including a change allowing Rails flags such as --db=DB during project scaffolding, and a Shopify Admin API Library for Node written in TypeScript. To handle uncertainty, she kept an Achievement Log, learned by adapting existing code and tests, paired with colleagues, asked for help, and reviewed draft pull requests with teammates. The placement challenged stereotypes about “real” developers and showed that imposter syndrome can coexist with genuinely needing more knowledge. She concludes that learning is collaborative, representation can strengthen inclusion, and becoming comfortable with discomfort is part of development.

## Context

The author sought a supportive program as a high school student with disabilities and wanted work experience to help her navigate the workplace. During the placement, she faced a steep learning curve, doubts about her progress, uncertainty about asking for help, and concerns about representation and inclusion.

## Approach / What changed

She used an Achievement Log to track progress, learned from existing code and tests, paired with experienced developers and students, asked teammates for help, and shared draft pull requests for early feedback. The placement also provided supportive colleagues and an autism support Slack channel.

## Takeaways

- An Achievement Log helped the author recognize progress that felt invisible as her definition of foundational knowledge moved upward.
- Mimicking tests from an existing Rails project type was presented as a valid way to learn testing incrementally rather than as evidence of being an inadequate developer.
- Early pull-request reviews turned implementation into a collaborative learning process and helped catch mistakes before they became harder to correct.

**Tags:** [Developer Experience](https://yomu.fyi/topic/developer-experience), [Onboarding](https://yomu.fyi/topic/onboarding), [Testing](https://yomu.fyi/topic/testing), [TypeScript](https://yomu.fyi/topic/typescript)

- Source: [Shopify](https://shopify.engineering/dev-degree-intern-journey)
- Source URL: https://shopify.engineering/dev-degree-intern-journey
- Ingested by Yomu: 2026-08-30T15:29:06.081Z

[Read original post](https://shopify.engineering/dev-degree-intern-journey)