Speaker: Benjamin Lauze
Introduce yourself and tell us about your co-op this semester.
Benjamin Lauze: Hi, I'm Ben Lose. I'm a junior in computer science at Wentworth, and um I'm currently working as a full stack engineer at Boast, uh, which is a web development firm based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for my co op, um. Thus far, I've been using different coding languages and development tools, um, such as JavaScript, React, SQL, and, and many more in order to build and change components of client sites. Um, I've also been able to dive into some data science, data visualization oriented work, um, where I've been able to use tools like Big Query and Looker in order to um visualize data for clients.
While on co-op, what is a project that you've been a part of that has inspired you?
Benjamin Lauze: All right, so coming into college, I was um pretty torn between two different fields of work that I was, I was interested in, those being software engineering and data analysis. Um, I accepted this rollout post as a full stack engineer, so I was um expecting to fall in love with more of the software engineering side, um, but I have actually been enjoying my um data visualization oriented tasks, um, much more, which was a surprise to me. Um, the most recent of which was for a client called Hype where I was able to completely redesign their dashboard, um, by pulling data from their database and using it within, um, this Google service called Looker. Um, I was super proud of my work, and it has really made me rethink, like, what I want to be doing after college, which is kind of what this is all about.
What have you learned that you will use in your career?
Benjamin Lauze: Um, this question really kind of depends on what I end up doing as my future career. Ultimately, I am still deciding, um. Because both software engineering and data analysis are fields that I'm still very interested in, even while. Data analysis is kind of pushing ahead currently, um, but there could even be like a wild card of like graphic design, UX UI design, um, that I, I end up pursuing, um, as I'm, I'm fairly passionate about, um. All of the the previous um career paths that I've spoken about, but I think my greatest development has really come with my communication ability and having open lines of dialogue while even working in a hybrid system, um, where sometimes I'm at home, sometimes I'm in the office, and no matter what I've been able to um continuously update my co-workers on my progress. Um, continuously being able to ask questions, um, when I've run into things, um, and experiencing an environment where I'm, I'm able to reach out fairly often has allowed me to kind of grow my communication skills. Even though it's a soft skill, it's something that I'm gonna take, um, wherever I, I end up, um, bringing my career.
