The BostonHacks Intern Life COVID-19 Edition: Jin Young (Alex) Bang, Omnious Intern

Hello there! Please introduce yourself, your role at BostonHacks.

Hi! I’m Jin Young (Alex) and I’m currently a rising junior majoring in Computer Science at Boston University. I’m also part of the technology team in BostonHacks, mainly helping to develop our open source registration portal, Cacioepepe!

Originally, I had planned to intern at Microsoft as a Software Engineering Intern at Garage. However, due to COVID-19, my internship had been cancelled/deferred and I decided to recruit in South Korea — currently, I am a Data Engineering Intern at a South Korean Fashion AI Startup, Omnious.

How did you get into Software Engineering?

I always knew I enjoyed mathematics, but when I thought of pursuing it further, I somewhat thought it would be dry. Thus, I wanted to find a major where I could apply mathematics instead and gave computer science a shot during my freshman year. I fell in love with the problem-solving aspect and also wanted to further learn more about Software Engineering. After building my first backend web app, I immediately knew that Software Engineering would be something that I could do for a really long time.

How did you get an internship at Microsoft?

I applied to Microsoft through a referral in July. However, they had not reached out to me for a while so I thought I had been rejected. A friend of mine who was a Microsoft intern last year had asked me for my resume and he sent it over to his Microsoft recruiter. Next day, I received an email and went through the interview process for the Garage internship.

For my first round, I went on-site to Microsoft’s Cambridge office (which is apparently unusual). I had a conversational behavioral interview and after that, I received a technical question emphasized on my thought process. For my final round, I headed back to the office, but this time, it consisted of two technical interviews and a presentation about projects I had previously done. Small tip — I also made sure to let the recruiter know that my previous offer’s deadline was the day after the final round interview, so immediately, I found out that I had received an offer the next day.

How did you prepare for the interview?

During the summer break, I bought a copy of Cracking the Coding Interview, but after completing half of the first chapter, I realized that I wasn’t really a “book-person”. I decided to give LeetCode a shot and went through the Easy Explore section. When approaching each question, I tried my best to approach the problem and solve it one by one. I also did a lot of mock interviews with my friend using a shared online code editor (Codeshare, Coderpad, etc) and that really helped improve my communication skills. Additionally, as I had been interviewing since July, doing more interviews one by one also helped me improve in many ways.

What was the hardest part or question of the interview?

The hardest part of the interview process for me was the technical aspect. There’s always a lot to consider and you also need to not only know how to solve problems, but know system design, OOP design, and SWE principles as well. For one of my interviews, I had a 45 minute discussion about open source development and its communities too!

What happened?

As COVID-19 had become really serious in the US during March, our school had announced that the campus would close down. As an international student, I had no options but to head back home to Korea. With plans to head back to the US in May, I made sure to let Microsoft know that I would be leaving to Korea and coming back with the approval that I would still be able to do my internship. Unfortunately, by mid-April, the company announced that the internship program would become virtual and I still wasn’t worried back then. However, late-April, I received an email saying that I was not eligible for my internship this year.

Where do you currently work and how did you get this job during COVID?

I’m currently working at a Series A Fashion AI Startup called Omnious. A bit about Omnious — the company’s aim is to “accelerate the digital transformation in fashion, and provide AI and data that companies need in their business.”

The moment I found out that my internship at Microsoft had been cancelled/deferred, I immediately decided to recruit in South Korea for an internship. Knowing that South Korean companies and startups usually only hire rising seniors and new graduates for an internship, I knew I didn’t have the advantage. Regardless, I cold applied to companies and personally emailed around 70 startups. I did some interviews and realized that they were totally different from interviews in the US so I had to prepare once again to become competent. I emailed Omnious’ recruitment team and luckily, they were hiring Data Engineering Interns by that week. They asked me for my resume and after passing the screening stage, I went through the process. Thankfully, Ominous’ AI and Development team extended an offer!

What are some tips you have for those who would like to get a job during these challenging times in regard to the application or interview process?

If you have the appropriate work authorization for where you currently are, start reaching out to companies and startups around you! The key to success in my opinion is to do as many interviews as possible and learn from your mistakes. Understand how the interview process works for your country/location and try your best during the process!

What is it like to work at Omnious?

I would say Omnious is a ‘work-hard’ type of place. As a startup, it’s important to create a lot of value for the company to see growth. During sprints, interns and employees spend a majority of their time working on their projects. However, every once in a while, the CEO posts a newsletter about Omnious or our customers in the Slack channel — it really makes me feel that the company as a whole is growing at a fast pace and I feel that I am contributing towards the company’s vision.

What are some of your responsibilities?

As a Data Engineering Intern, I’m currently working on creating a data pipeline, utilizing a lot of tools and technologies, to provide big data to Omnious’ Artificial Intelligence Research Team. Additionally, using the data the interns have collected, I’m also conducting a mini project on trying to group/cluster fashion hashtags together by leveraging word embedding/vectorization and NLP.

What are some of the perks of interning at Omnious?

• Free coffee, tea, and small snacks are always available
• Beer on tap that you can drink anytime (my personal favorite!)
• 24/7 discounted mini convenient store in the main lounge whenever you are craving snacks
• Stipend to attend conferences, lectures, and events related to work

Did you find anything surprising about interning at Omnious?

Personally, companies in South Korea do not give a lot of responsibility towards their interns and that was what I was expecting here. However, the projects and tasks I’ve been working on directly have impact towards the growth of the company. I’m able to see how the tools I create will be helpful for the company and its vision! This was probably the most surprising thing about interning at Omnious for me.

What is their culture like?

Ominous’ culture is very friendly, emphasizing on producing the best work while maintaining a friendly relationship with the co-workers. Every Friday, we have a “Smoothie Meeting” where a guest speaker (either an employee or an influencer/speaker) would talk about a specific topic (usually, Smoothie Meetings would be held at a cafe where employees and interns would be treated smoothies, but due to COVID-19, we are currently holding it through Google Meet).

Regarding the Engineering and Research Team, I could ask any questions and all the engineers would be super enthusiastic and helpful on tackling a problem that I was going through. Additionally, interns would join the Engineering Team’s meetings and I could definitely see the amount of commitment the team puts in order to produce the highest quality of code.

What do you think are some of the lessons that you have learned through this internship?

Although I’m still halfway through the internship, I’ve definitely learned to ask a lot of questions — as an intern, you’re expected to learn and apply them to help the company out. The only way you can improve and help out is by failing early on and learning by asking questions to those who have experienced those troubles.

Additionally, I’ve also learned a lot about the Software Development Lifecycle as well. Knowing how to segment your tasks and tackle them one by one helped me maintain and create better code.

Finally, I also learned that getting to know people outside of work is something important to do! As Omnious’ culture allows you to develop a personal relationship outside of work through activities, I’ve been able to meet a lot of people from different teams and learned a lot about unique hobbies, interests and more!

Do you have any advice for those who would like to intern at Omnious?

I’d highly recommend you know your resume inside out — a lot of Korean companies ask really detailed technical questions about pointers on your resume. If you’re planning to intern at a startup like Omnious (which I highly recommend!), definitely understand the company’s vision and learn how you could contribute to their products and help them grow as an intern. Always have the mindset that you’re willing to learn and absorb knowledge to give back to the company!

Any final thoughts?

Consider working at a startup where you can experience the fast-paced environment — even as an intern, you’re able to create so much value for the company and being part of the growth would be a huge intrinsic satisfaction. Personally, I can’t wait till Omnious becomes so much more successful and later tell myself that I was a part of the early team.

Just a final tip for the stressful recruiting process, I highly recommend you start applying early and experience a lot of interviews. Reach out to your friends to get your resume edited and do mock interviews. Feel free to reach out to me if you need any help or tips :)