There comes a point in every tech leader’s career where the pace of change feels less like a sprint and more like a blur.
We ship products/projects, we solve scaling problems, we have fought fires, sat through meetings, and I am sure, like me, we all carry the scars of a thousand “urgent” deadlines. With experience comes wisdom, but also a quiet risk. Fatigue and eventually burnout.
And then the interns walk in, and everything changes
For the past 12 weeks, we have been lucky at Tribal (the company I work for) to have a cohort of Interns join us in a variety of departments. One of which was in my Frontend Team.
Over that time, I have reflected on what it means when not only interns but individuals who are new to the industry come in and shake the place up (in a good way) and here are just some of my thoughts. Let me know in the comments at the end what you think.
Curiosity Without Baggage.
Interns don’t carry the weight of “we tried that in 2012 and it didn’t work.” They ask, “Why not?” with sincerity, and often it’s a question that exposes our blind spots. This always leads to good conversations on your reasoning and, more importantly, remembering why you did it in the first place, and do you know what I have learned?
If you can’t remember or can’t articulate the reason. It’s probably the right time to look into that problem again.
Naïve Optimism as an Asset
Every industry is jaded by failed launches, half-baked pivots, and corporate politics and the longer you are in those battles, the more the scars will start to show.
Interns bring with them a fresh optimism that borders on radical. They assume things can be done, and sometimes, that belief is contagious enough to rekindle our drive.
As a leader, a big part of my job is to encourage the team with optimism and faith. But sometimes this can be forgotten when you are working on a lot of moving pieces, and the Interns remind us that with the right attitude, truly anything can be done.
The Mirror Effect
This is something that is not just held by new interns but also by any new starter to a role, including Junior Devs.
Part of being a senior or lead dev is having to help teach and explain concepts, like an architecture decision, an API pattern, or a piece of contextual history.
However, when you do this, you realise how much of your knowledge has become instinctual, almost invisible. Teaching forces you to think clearly and compress knowledge into easy-to-digest chunks, and as we know, with clarity comes growth.
Culture Reset
Interns remind us that our culture is not just what you write down in a company handbook. It’s what people feel when they show up. It’s how we all work together.
Their fresh eyes catch the small cracks in team dynamics, processes, or communication, and if we listen, we can see where our organisations have drifted.
They also bring us an amazing new freshness of a younger generation. They teach us the new phrases. The new ways of thinking and all of this is great to pull back into the culture soup to generate the next phase of a company that makes it last another 10 years.
Yes, I learned what. ‘Bet’ and ‘Say Less’ mean now. Even if I kept saying it wrong on purpose to try and make the Interns laugh. I am not sure if they were actually laughing or just humouring me. Time will tell.
They remind us of our younger selves.
Perhaps the most powerful effect of everything above for me is that interns remind us of when we were the ones asking silly questions, pulling all-nighters, and believing tech could change everything.
They can reconnect us to the raw spark that first pulled us into this industry. The Interns have now left, but I am already feeling the wake they have left behind and the lessons I am going to take away to bring back into my team.
Lastly, it is about the people.
and sometimes, the biggest lesson isn’t about process or culture, it’s about people.
So if you are ready this Felix, Thanks for being an amazing Intern and sitting with me just to say Hi every time you came in. Your infectious energy and great work ethic will be missed, but as I said at the end. You’re welcome back anytime.
If you haven’t brought interns into your business yet, you’re missing out. Do it, and let them remind you why you fell in love with tech in the first place.”