Interning in Research and Development
Oke, oke, bisa nih. — Kak Andi at the end of my interview at the beginning of March 2017.
That statement brought me to Grha Niaga Thamrin as I did my internship there to spend my summer holiday (even though it’s because I have to, due to academic regulation). I chose Blibli as the first company to apply for an internship, over any other company because I am a badminton-enthusiast and Blibli.com always shows there on the Indo players’ shirt so it might be great if I could intern there and here I am. I met new friends, friends as fellow interns, friends as mentors for my internship and friends as colleagues as well and lots of lessons learned.
Tech Life
Maybe some of you are wondering what my internship is all about. In summary, it’s about using Machine Learning for a new approach in recommendation system. My internship is based on research instead of project. Thus we are not given a strict due date and we are just trying to make it work.
What is machine learning? In my definition, machine learning is a method using some algorithm to learn from data then use the learning result to classify a new data or do something useful about it. So why are we using machine learning for recommendation system? It’s common to know that recommendation is all about Artificial Intelligence and machine learning is an implementation of AI so the machine will learn from users’ behavior on browsing and buying product to think what might be the best products to show on their list.
We (me and my team, Kak Ando and Kak Hendri also Kenneth, a fellow intern who left early at the end of July) are doing this research to develop a new recommendation system for Blibli.com. Why does it need to change? Since the old recommendation system doesn’t provide distinct recommendations based on user behavior, we are doing it. By implementing Dynamic Collaborative Filtering using Hidden Markov Model, we slowly but sure are creating a new better recommendation system. Imagine how lovely it is to see recommendation based on your browsing and purchase history instead of random product showed because of its popularity.
So weeks by weeks we are exploring the methods and developing the codes. Every Friday our beloved manager (Kak Andi) will ask me to present what I’ve achieved the whole week to RnD team and also people who have interest in this research. Unfortunately, since I only intern until mid-August, I haven’t finished the research. It’s due to my lack of knowledge about splitting the process using Actor in Scala and my lack of experience doing AI project. So in the end, my research wasn’t finished by the time I left and Kak Ando has to clean the mess I’ve made.
Social Life
As an intern, my working cycle isn’t really different to those full-time employees. I woke up early in the morning, dressed up, and came to the office by 8.00 a.m. Sometimes I come early and sometimes really late. We (the intern) are supposed to spend 9 hours working in the office (including the 1-hour rest for noon-prayer and lunch).
Blibli culture doesn’t force me to be really smart to do my internship because there is always someone to ask and without any hesitation help me to go through the problem I face. I as an intern also doesn’t work apart from other employees.
My intern story won’t be complete without RnD team. Here I was placed into Division of Research and Development. We are doing research and develop the research result to build a better system. At RnD I was told to do the research I’ve mentioned above. Well, I don’t do it alone because Kak Ando, colleague who has been working here at least 1.5 years and have experiences with AI, and Kak Hendri, my official intern mentor who is an expert on AI and anything related and holds a master degree from my alma mater, accompany me as long as I did the research.
Well thanks to Blibli for providing us, the starving interns, good meals every noon so that we don’t have to order food by ourself to feed our hungry stomach like maybe some companies do. I always remember that Monday’s dine is fancier than any other day.
One of the perks I got by interning at Blibli is that I can play badminton every week as Kak Ando always asked me to join every Friday night. We play at Gor Djarum which is located near to Blibli’s other office at Tubun. It’s such a nice opportunity for me to be able to play the sport I like with people at Blibli.
On the last days interning, I had the opportunity to join the Blibli anniversary party. We call it STARLI6HT since Blibli has been serving customer for 6 long years. There, I played many joyful games, ate tasty free foods and beverages, and also watched really cool music bands while hunting for free door prizes thrown by the officials. Thanks to Blibli for making my last week interning wonderful and unforgettable.
Closing
In the end, there are perks and loss I got by interning at Blibli.com. The perks are I got knowledge, experience, friends, sweet memories, satisfying stipend, a place to live, grade for my academic, career opportunity, etc. And the loss is me lacking enough nap in the noon.
