Internship at Blibli
Tl;dr read it, it isn’t too long.
“We learned about gratitude and humility — that so many people had a hand in our success, from the teachers who inspired us to the janitors who kept our school clean. We were taught to value everyone’s contribution and treat everyone with respect.”
— Michelle Obama, DNC Speech in Charlotte, N.C.
As a customer.
Very desirable indeed, having an internship at one of Indonesia’s prominent e-commerce players. With all the banners and highway billboards standing firmly across and beyond Jakarta, Blibli is one of the most targeted internship sites for knowledge-hungry college students. I myself wasn’t an avid user of Blibli back then. It was always the default setting on my shopping spree that lower prices are above product quality. But being a regular human who doesn’t want to feel betrayed, there were various occasions where I spent hours rummaging through other C2C platforms and still couldn’t find a legit-looking shop for the item I so desperately want. That’s when I click the Smiling Blue Bag Icon on my phone. Only then did I realise that Blibli had a lot more to offer — starting from the seamless shopping experience, to the doorbell that signed the arrival of my packet.
Applying to Blibli.
On July 2017, I was a committee of the IT Career Day at my university, an event where IT company representatives are invited to attend talkshows and set up booths to engage with potential joiners. I didn’t snap any picture but believe me, Blibli’s booth was the most outstanding one in the hall. They had their own gloss white flooring and laptops for students to take a logically-challenging test, which turned out to be Blibli’s first round of interview process. Couldn’t help but take the test, no? And so I did.
The Interview.
One of the best thing about Blibli’s recruitment process is that they notify their applicants directly by phone. I was eating Padang food when Mba Rinty from Blibli’s HR Department called and told me that I passed the logical test and CV screening. Next up was the user interview. That’s where I met Mas Andi and Mas Dodo. Legs trembling, palms sweating, heaven forbid that I forgot everything I learned from the 1.5-year struggle in attending CS lectures and handling IT projects. Little did I know that it would turn out to be one of the most enjoyable interviews I’ve ever participated in.
Best practices.
What I like most about Blibli is their company culture. I had never had an internship before and I thought that working 9 to 5 would be such a boring routine. Blibli proved me wrong. Every day was a new set of challenges to be awaited for. Blibli’s office is an open office where everyone could literally walk and poke everyone else whenever they have something to discuss.
Problems are most often not to be faced alone. If we’re stuck at something and couldn’t resolve it, we could nudge our mentors and consult right away. My mentor, Pak Dayat (or Mas Febi, as he preferred to be addressed), was an exceptionally interesting person. Everyone in the office knows him. He’s funny and really thorough in reviewing our PRs (Pull Requests). We really had to consider the complexity of each and every function we write. This is to make sure that only required codes are delivered to the customers in order to minimise the loading time, especially for those who don’t have a lightning-fast access to The Internet. There were times when I had to let go of one of my favourite sayings — “If it works, it works”. Well here, everything has to work and it has to work well.
During my 3-month internship, I’ve had lots of ups and downs. From the days we spent just for debugging a few lines of code, to the ping-pong session we had after lunch with other interns. At the end of the day when I recap all the things that I’ve done, it was never ‘just another day at work’.
Values that I’ve learned.
- Contribution. When I asked my seniors about the recommended places for internships, they almost always reply with: ‘it depends’. It depends on what kind of experience you want to extract from the process. Do you want to create more substantial impact from your contribution by working in a sprouting startup, or do you want to connect with a diverse set of people by working for a prestigious company with millions of users? Blibli enabled me to get the best of both worlds. I learned that even though I was just a small fish in a vast ocean, my contribution did matter, and that it actually had an impact.
- Respect — is something you should give and receive without having to ask or being asked. It costs zero to pay someone your respect. Different levels of expertise do undeniably exist, but at Blibli, people are.. people. People work together to uphold the system, and opinions of the people are heard by people. Those with more experience pass on their knowledge to those who seek to learn. Our mentors (and basically everyone in the office) taught us with extra patience. They didn’t look down on our green lanyard, compared to their blue ones. We were all, nevertheless, a part of Blibli.
To apply or not to apply?
It is clear that I’d recommend you to apply. These people are the kind you’d regret not meeting.
Thank you.
Really, thank you.
To Gisel, my pair-programming partner for 3 months. Without you, lunch would’ve been less of an occasion, and no one would hold me back from over-snacking.
To our mentors, Mas Febi, Mas Andi, Mas Dodo, Mas Eko, Kak Yuna. For the free Antman ticket, the free meals, and the free wisdom you guys have bestowed upon us.
To Mba Rinty, Mba Mei, and Mba Clara, who took care of our administration and helped us land a spot at Blibli’s office.
To IT Support, for being the Fix-It Felix to my keyboard and UPS and whatnot.
To other interns too, for you know.. always being there.
