I am Kyle Desjardins and I participated in two internship positions and one part time role for PROMETRIKA, LLC! My first internship was a Statistical Programming Internship in the Summer of 2021. After graduating from Wentworth Institute of Technology (WIT) with a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics, I transitioned to a full time Statistical Programmer role for the company!
From the start, PROMETRIKA offered a professional, supportive, and challenging work environment. I started my internship fully remote (due to the pandemic), but the collaboration felt like I was working closely with a team. I have never felt more welcomed when joining any organization. I cannot speak more highly about the camaraderie PROMETRIKA provides. I credit my success and happiness to the Statistical Programming team and its director (to whom I reported) who took me under their wing.
Before starting my internship at PROMETRIKA, I had general programming knowledge from my classes at WIT, but no experience using SAS. PROMETRIKA’s training was easy to follow, but challenging and robust enough to efficiently learn the language. After training, I was put on the main study for my first internship, creating tables, listings and figures (TLFs) for a client whose drug for ulcerative colitis was in clinical trials. When I returned to school in the Fall of 2021, I continued to intern at PROMETRIKA on a part-time basis, focusing on the same client study I had been assigned during my Summer internship.
I was offered a second internship in the Spring of 2022. During this time, besides creating tables and listings, I expanded into programming ADaM and SDTM domains, as well as supporting the data management department. My work on SDTM and ADaM programming came from one of the major clients I was assigned whose drug is to be used as monotherapy in subjects with advanced solid tumors. The main lesson from my second internship was the correlation between ADaMs, SDTM, and TLFs. SDTM domains take raw data and standardize it so it is easier to work with. ADaMs are the analysis datasets built using SDTM domains. Finally, TLFs, the client deliverables, are generated from the ADaMs.
One important aspect of my internship that I sought was to be able to contribute to real studies and help the company. At no time did I feel like I was doing “intern” work. I was shown many different facets of the job including those shared above, and the work I contributed was used by the clients. Working with such a tight knit group made my experience enjoyable and allowed me to learn about the company as a whole. I was never afraid to reach out for help on any question that arose; everyone wants to see you learn and grow. If I couldn’t figure out something on my own, I would reach out to my coworkers and they would help me resolve the question.
In addition to the work, I was invited to all company events including a holiday party in December in the Seaport District of Boston, a daytrip to Kimball Farm to enjoy outdoor activities, and a trip to Austin, Texas in May 2022 for the PharmaSUG conference.
Overall, I had an exceedingly positive experience as an intern at PROMETRIKA, LLC. I couldn’t be more excited to have received an offer to join PROMETRIKA full time post-graduation and to continue my learning as a full-time employee!
