This is post number 5 of the remote Internship series during Covid-19 times. For a collection of all installments, click here.

Weeks 3 & 4

It is May 1st as I am writing this. Week number three of this internship has come to an end. It has been an intense one, probably the most intense it will get. I concluded the entire website redesign project by Sunday evening of week 3. This does not mean, however, that this project has been closed. It is still a work in progress, where iteration and constant improvements are to be made, particularly as dictated by my supervisor. I find it quite fulfilling, to redesign a website. Although I did not code it from scratch using HTML, which would have been much more complex as far as I can tell, especially due to my limited knowledge of this markup language. I did use a lot of CSS. I deeply enjoy CSS for some reason. It must be the ability to make elements look exactly like you envision them that makes me appreciate this markup language. I am not proficient in JavaScript, however, which would make the whole experience possibly even more satisfying. There is also an addictive-like part to using HTML and CSS for me: seeing elements change live, especially when the code you write is correct, is a feedback loop that sparks significant amounts of dopamine and keeps you going. This is merely my view on the topic, which is certainly anecdotal and coming from someone who does not have formal education in programming and coding.

Some other tasks done during the week included: uploading and launching new products on the e-commerce; job posting on Upwork to try and find freelancers to improve SEO; creating new pages for specific collections that have been added to the website; setting up the domain on Google Analytics and Search Console and similar services in order to better our SEO and make sure every page of the website is crawled correctly.

These same projects/tasks, which are composed of numerous steps, have been the foundation of the work done during week number 4 of the internship experience. There has been a heavy focus on the e-commerce redesign. E-commerce is a key part of the website of the company, which for the most part sells products and services online. So, making sure everything runs and feels smooth is fundamental there. There are different categories of products sold on the website, reason for which I decided to include a page for each category, nested in the main folder which is for the general shop. Squarespace is not that friendly when it comes to setting up efficient e-commerce sites, as far as I can tell. A lot of seemingly essential functionalities (e.g. shipping cost per item/multiple currencies support) are missing. However, the platform still appears to be good for small businesses or if you are merely starting selling stuff on the internet. This week I also accessed the company LinkedIn job posting for the SEO freelancer hiring process. It has been a nice feeling to sit on the other side of the table for once: the role of a hiring manager instead of being the applicant. Seeing applications come through and studying the profiles of the candidates to decide in the most optimal and unbiased manner is an intricate endeavor and one which is very interesting too. I have not started the complete screening process yet, but am definitely feeling somehow excited about it.

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