My Blackbaud Experience

This is a guest post by Elaina Cole ’18.

The other day I had the opportunity to attend a talk by Tui Allen, the Director of Product Management at Blackbaud. The presentation titled “Surviving and Moving Up Using Innovation and Culture” detailed the important qualities that are required to succeed in today’s work environment, such as being adaptable, the pros and cons of new technologies like artificial intelligence, building a creative and diverse atmosphere, and more. While I learned many new things in the talk (like the differences among product, project, and program management), Tui Allen also reinforced the important skills and lessons I learned during my own time at Blackbaud as a Summer 2016 Software Quality Assurance Engineering Intern.

My internship at Blackbaud was my first real experience working in the tech industry. As a Software QA Engineer, I was responsible for building the automated integration tests for Blackbaud’s product Raiser’s Edge NXT, fundraising software that also helps facilitate relationship management between non-profits and their constituents. Since the product is relatively new, the work was much more exciting as I often got to write code from scratch rather than doing maintenance all day. In addition to my day-to-day responsibilities, I was given a long term project that I got to present it to all of the interns and managers at the end of the internship. Thus, I was able to take part in the ongoing innovation Tui Allen talked about, and I got to express the creativity she highlighted by participating in a company wide hackathon called Off the Grid. OTG is basically a 24 hour hacakthon where groups of no more than 10 can create something that can help Blackbaud’s customers based on their own ideas or a client-submitted idea. My all-intern team built an Android app that made signing petitions and receiving donations easier for a door to door canvasser. We ended up making the finals and finishing in the top 4!

It wasn’t just all work all the time though. HR always had fun activities planned, like volunteering at the Lowcountry Food Bank, doing a beach sweep, going to Riverdog games, and even kayaking up and down Shem Creek. Overall, it was one of the best experiences of my life. I met some of the smartest people I know and the most compassionate. I cannot wait to go back next summer and help Blackbaud create an ecosystem of good in the world.