From photography to web design, my 80-hour internship with Harker has been an incredibly fun, yet fruitful experience.

A picture-perfect start

My internship kicked off with me attending Scapegoat 2025, Harker's annual company conference, where I received my first official task of being the designated photographer for the day – an interesting start to a software development internship! I got the opportunity to meet with both Harker and Jamescape teams, alongside attending a variety of workshops on everything from Harker’s Tone of Voice to seeing Harker in action during the Harker Demo. I was a little bit nervous as I wanted to make a good impression, but everyone was extremely welcoming, and I immediately felt part of the team, which was lovely.

What did I actually do?

The purpose of my internship was to redesign and transform the Harker website, which was built on Framer, to better showcase what Harker has to offer. When I first saw the website, it was simply a placeholder, a very vague explanation of the company and the product along with a few blog posts. As Framer was a new software to me, I spent the first couple days of my internship watching Framer tutorials and learning how to use frames and stacks before I started working on the Harker website itself.

After some trial and error, I started to get the hang of Framer, and I began producing a set of high-quality components that could be reused across the website including buttons, testimonial cards, forms, callouts, a cookie banner, and more. I created a new page template consisting of a banner, a footer with updated certifications, and an improved navigation bar with a flawless dropdown menu animation. I also improved the design of the blog pages, making links in the body text visible, applying appropriate font sizes for the mobile view, and adding an author section. Some of the work I started but got handed over included a 'People' page for staff and a redesigned landing page.

Using Framer for this internship has greatly enhanced my skills in UI/UX design and improved my understanding of web design practices. Moreover, I also got the opportunity to attend a couple Harker Tech meetings and observe how the highly-skilled software developers at Harker collaborate and work together to solve complex problems.

However, undoubtedly, the best part of this internship for me was working on-site at the new Harker office at CENTRAL TECH with the rest of the team to help achieve our common mission of solving homelessness with data. I have noticed that working on-site with other colleagues significantly motivates me to get more work done and procrastinate less (I definitely did not come in just for the new ice-maker machine).

All good things come to an end

Unfortunately, this 80-hour internship has come to an end sooner than expected. I really enjoyed my time working on the Harker website and helping the team towards their mission. Everyone working at Harker is incredibly talented and passionate about what they do, and I have learned a lot from them.

Finally, I would like to thank the incredibly hardworking Zack Walker and James Barber for making me aware of this internship opportunity and inviting me to apply, as well as always being ready to help me with any problem, big or small. I would also like to extend my thanks to the Careers & Employability department at the University of Liverpool who funded this internship through their Liverpool Interns scheme.

This internship was a fantastic first step in my career and I could not have asked for a better experience. Wishing Harker a successful launch soon, and I look forward to seeing the team again at the Christmas dinner in December.