My name is Finn Doornweerd, and I am a rising sophomore majoring in computer science with a minor in systems engineering. This summer, I worked at Swipesum, which is a payments consulting company that works to reduce and eliminate credit card processing fees on behalf of merchants. When I first started I only had a vague sense of what Swipesum did. However, that all changed on my first day when my co-workers were kind enough to take time out of their days to spend hours explaining to me the complex credit card space and how the industry actually operates between the banks, processors, and independent sales organizations. This willingness of people going out of their way to help others continued for the entire summer, with everyone being more than happy to answer any questions I had or make time in their day to talk with me about something I may be confused about.

Working at Swipesum was the first time that I had a job in the field of my interest. Previously, I had worked in the restaurant industry bussing tables and delivering food, so I didn’t quite know what to expect when starting a 9-5 job. I had never worked on any large-scale applications before and was nervous that I wouldn’t be able to contribute to the company in a meaningful way. However, once I started, I was guided through how the code base worked and how the different components fit together. While I wasn’t able to contribute very much at first, as time went on, I slowly began pushing my updates to be used and was able to work more independently. After a few weeks at the company, I was able to be in a closed circle where I would get issues, identify what was going wrong, fix it, and push it to be reviewed. It felt great to be fully independent and contribute to the company, but none of that would’ve been possible without the support from others.

It was also amazing to see firsthand all that Swipesum has planned for the future and how they plan on expanding and growing the company, as well as seeing some outside recognition of the company’s success. Near the end of my internship, Swipesum was named #729 on the 2023 Inc. 5000 List, which is a list of the fastest-growing companies in the US, with 804% growth in the past 3 years. It was great to be there to witness Swipesum getting this recognition and seeing their hard work pay off. While I will miss not being in the office every day, I am excited to continue working there part-time during the school year!