The following are tools and tips that you can use to be a better software engineering intern.

Notebook

Are you really going to remember that obscure command a week from now? The answer is no. Get a notebook (I prefer unlined) and write down anything new to you. That way you can ask your team members when you really need help, instead of bugging them for the syntax for restarting the server.

Chatroom for interns

Office chat rooms are intimidating. If you’re like me, you are probably trying not to look bad in front of your co-workers. You won’t ask all the questions you really should in the chatroom for fear of having documented proof of your idiocy. When you make an intern chat room, you can ask questions freely, and bond with your fellow interns. If one doesn’t exist already, go ahead and create one!

Online dotfiles

It would be super cool if you showed up on your first day and was able to start working with your new computer with ease. If you store your dotfiles online then it’s super easy. Check out this guide to make it happen.

Learn grep

You’ll be dealing with projects larger than you’ve ever seen in school and you’ll have to quickly navigate through lots of files. Grep was made for searching through files. Learn the basic flags and be comfortable with it and you’ll be cruising and searching through code. Consider making an alias for grep commands with flags, as they can get pretty long and gnarly.

Know your Version Control

Learn whatever version control your team uses. This is how they collaborate, and you want to be in on that. Branching is especially important when collaborating. Knowing merging and rebasing are corollaries to understanding branching. A great git tutorial is GitImmersion. Check it out!