Nellow completed a 10 week internship as a Software Engineer from November 2025 to end of January 2026. During his time here, he made significant contributions to RouteVN.
He was asked to write a reflection on his internship experience so that it can be helpful for future interns considering the position.
When I started this internship, I thought I would mostly be writing code, but it was not just writing code like you do in most internships where you're assigned something to work on, and you do that task.
I joined Yuusoft as an intern while still in high school. I already loved visual novels and light novels, and I also loved making games. I thought that would be enough, but what I did not expect was how much of the work would be about thinking before touching the code and explaining my thinking to other people.
On my previous workplace or internships, the project manager came up with something, and my work used to just execute what they had already mapped out properly, so everything I learned there was not from my thought process but someone else's.
I thought it would be similar, I would be given a sort of 'roadmap' for solving every problem, but this internship helped me move away from that kind of thinking. I had almost become a zombie. I hadn't done research about how the code you write will affect things in the future, because for me the thinking was already done by somebody else.
But on Yuusoft it's different, it's NOT your average internship, the way you think and solve problems matter, because you cannot just add a quick fix to fix a problem now for it to become another problem later. Here your thought process matters because the code you write will power visual novels, will help people make visual novels in an easy way. You will write code that will render someone's website.
I worked on Route Engine, on Kanbatte, and mostly on RouteVn Creator Client.
I helped make creator more stable and usable, and I spent a lot of time there fixing bugs and improving behavior, because if something broke it affected real users.
I did not do backend work. That part of the product had not reached that stage yet. Most of my work was on the engine and client side behavior. I was fine with that because the product itself was close to what I already cared about as a game developer.
The programming was not difficult, because mostly we use JavaScript and I know JavaScript. That was not the problem; it was debugging.
I come from strongly typed languages like C#. I was used to strong IDE support and stepping through code with a debugger. Writing pure JavaScript everywhere felt slower at first, and I often felt behind.
Another problem was my habit of jumping into implementation. I would see a bug or a task and start coding immediately. Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it created more confusion. Over time I learned that this codebase needed planning more than speed.
There were also moments where I misunderstood requirements. Not because they were unclear but because I assumed instead of asking. That mistake repeated enough times that I could not ignore it anymore. TvT
I listened to the feedback and they will not sugarcoat the feedback. If there is something wrong, it's told to you. Don't take it negatively; it will help you become better. >"<
One of the biggest changes for me was how I communicate.
Early on my messages were messy. I would explain halfway ideas and jump between thoughts. During one task I confused both Nghia and Luciano just by how I explained my idea.
After feedback I started slowing down. I learned when to message and what to include.
I learned to use Claude Code during this internship. It is useful. But I also learned how easy it is to misuse it.
At one point I relied on it even when I already knew the fix. I tried to explain the problem to the tool instead of doing what I knew had to be done.
There was no micromanagement. Time was flexible. That made the work feel safe.
I also learned that code does not create value. Deployment does. Shipping matters more than perfect fixes sitting locally.
This internship helped me see two weaknesses clearly.
I am not done improving either of those, but I am no longer blind to them.
If you are an intern who likes thinking, who is okay with being confused, who wants to learn how real products are built and changed over time, this internship will fit you.