The fortress of solitude

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Authors: Omar Keval and Catalin Stanculescu

We come a long way since our first day at IBM. We are now in week 9. What does this mean for extreme blue interns?  It means that the countless brainstorming sessions, the lengthy workshops, the very many client meetings, feedback sessions and of course exhilarating social activities are all in the past.

However, it also means being 3 weeks away from the end of the internship, it means we have to finish the prototype, the business plan and the technical documentation before the last client meeting. It also means we have to prepare a 7 minute pitch in Hursley, UK, where all European Extreme Blue teams will meet this year.

The number of social activities, networking and events have dwindled.  Laughter, loud jokes and the daily foosball match ups have become a rarity.  Sadly, no team found time to compete in the organized foosball tournament, not even one single match has been played to be precise. Now, desks and tables have transformed into messy battle stations with teams competing on who has the larger screens to work on.

Stress is in the air and loud discussions burst out every once in a while, on what is in the realms of possibility for each solution, and what will remain as “super cool” mockups.

Every team has made a lot of progress with their project and we have learned many things as individuals. This gives us the confidence that we can meet the deadlines and maybe even develop a great solution in the end. We do still have two weeks left, energy to burn, enthusiasm to keep us motivated and 24 hour lock-in in the IBM HQ to look forward to.

Looking back, we actually did have one social activity this week, an international potluck dinner where everyone brought some traditional dish from their country. Maybe hope is not lost after all.