As a software engineering intern on the YSQL team at Yugabyte, Tim Elgersma gained hands-on experience with implementing tablespaces on tablegroups, which allowed for co-locating multiple tables on a single tablet to increase the number of tables per node. He also worked on improving selectivity support in query planning, using Postgres's logic as a reference point. Additionally, he participated in biweekly "Wisdom Within" sessions with senior leaders to ask questions and gain insights about the company's ethics and growth. Tim's experience was marked by flexibility from Yugabyte, allowing him to extend his internship for an additional month after his initial plans were canceled. He reflected that his internship not only deepened his understanding of databases but also changed his perception of them from "magicly-fast blackboxes" to well-written code.