Christoph Bogner and Michael Huber joined us as software engineering interns at our headquarters in Vienna this summer. For our blog they reflected on their experiences and learnings gained from their time at goUrban.
The both of us met at the beginning of our Software Engineering studies in a math course. After many successfully completed courses and projects we felt that we were lacking some real world experience and hands-on knowledge. As an effective team we wanted to try something novel and apply for an internship as a duo. During our initial planning we concluded that we wanted to contribute to a medium sized successful startup, since we wanted the combination of agile, fast and young talent and established corporate structures. Looking through the available companies in Vienna we soon took notice of goUrban, a software company that ticked all our boxes. Young, innovative, successful, sustainable and most importantly: a diverse and experienced team. Apparently they also fancied the idea of an autonomous intern duo and contacted us shortly after our letter of motivation was sent. The interview was conducted by a friendly guy in his late 20s, who turned out to be Head of Engineering. He told us more about the company and their vision to become the leading mobility provider, similar to an operating system of ride sharing. Their working environment, culture and ambitious goals instantly hooked us and strengthened our choice to conduct our internship at this company. And even though our expectations were already quite high back then, we could not imagine how much the two months would exceed our assumptions.
To prepare for our internship we dove into Kafka and React, two cutting edge technologies currently in use at goUrban. Inquisitive and ready for action we showed up on our first day. The goUrban main office is situated in the heart of Vienna, fittingly quite close to the technical university and well connected to the public transport system. Still inhibiting the young startup flair they are currently renting a full floor of a coworking space, featuring an inhouse gym, multiple spacious conference rooms and two well equipped kitchens, all air conditioned. In the entrance lounge we were seated on a comfortable sofa and had a short coffee chat. There we also went through the onboarding procedure and were introduced to the rest of the team.
After this first hour it was important for one of the two founders to set aside some time to personally introduce himself, the company and also answer all the questions we had. This warm, incredibly friendly and in our opinion quite unusual interaction would occur many more times during our internship and prove to be the gold standard at goUrban. The rest of the day we spent talking to different team members and reading the well structured and extensive internal knowledgebase.
On day two we already got our first project. Since goUrban is acquiring more and more shared mobility clients all across the globe, they needed to set up a statuspage to answer the flood of messages and relieve the workload of the support team. This task was a perfect starting point to getting to know the product, the technical architecture and internals, without overwhelming us at first. Our second project was proposed by both the sales and the technical department. The ever increasing amount of demo environments handed out to interested possible clients and partners were eating up too much of the valuable time of the engineers. For that reason we were given the task of automating this process, which combined becoming familiar with the APIs, creating a practical User Experience and solving some Challenges on the way.
Fast forward another week to our third piece of work. When integrating new IoT devices and vehicles the engineers at goUrban have to send different commands, which is usually done manually. We improved and streamlined this process by developing a handy user interface which was well received by all the colleagues affected by it.
These first three projects gave us enough knowledge and experience with the different relevant aspects to start our final and most extensive work. We were tasked with developing a load test that simulates up to a few million devices to prepare them for the incoming flood and stress test their systems. This was an interesting task, especially from a technical perspective. Our solution would need to open and hold thousands of connections, generate the meaningful data and send it fast enough towards their services.
What we enjoyed most was not only embodied in this last assignment, but pervades all of goUrban: the freedom in the way you tackle the problems in your own work, the trust in your personal strengths and abilities and the lack of micromanagement. No matter what we did, we always felt free to make our own choices and decisions but at the same time also had the team’s support and helpful advice when needed.
These flat hierarchies and familiar relationships can be felt no matter what you do, starting at the early morning coffee chats, continuing during the lunch (awesome motto days such as ‘Butter Chicken Day’ or ‘Burger Day’ ordered at some of the best restaurants in Vienna) and end at the occasional after work beer. To even one up these happenings, there is the ‘Monthly Office Gathering’ which is basically an after work beer(s) at bars and pubs in the area.
And the best of all on top of this awesome experience? It comes without the typical intern jobs. The dishwasher is emptied by whoever currently can spare some time and other small jobs include fun activities like fetching an electrical moped from the mechanic (and obviously driving it) or driving one of the kick scooters to run errands.
As if all those projects and challenges weren’t enough, the one thing that benefitted us most were the countless genuine and honest, down-to-earth talks with all of the different team members. From all of the conversations we had, we were able to drain lots of experience, information and knowledge of the insanely diverse team incorporating professionals from multiple fields.
We are unbelievably grateful for the last two months and this unique opportunity and hope that we contributed to their mission to become the leading ride sharing and mobility ecosystem.
by Christoph Bogner and Michael Huber
