Saad Elbeleidy: From web dev intern to product manager and strategist at RiteKit
It’s definitely a very strong learning environment. Everyone supports each other in learning more and that’s what helped me work my way up from just an intern to working with Michal and Saul when we were redefining RiteTag into RiteKit and transforming it into that. ~ Saad
I interviewed Saad on why he chose to apply for the web development internship at RiteTag (this was before we became RiteKit), what he got from working closely with the founders, and how he quickly climbed the ranks.
They will change course if you have a good enough argument to convince them of something that you think is a better direction or you propose something that is better, they will listen to that and give you the opportunity to grow through it and better the product and the team. ~ Saad
Saad Elbeleidy started with us in November, 2015 as an intern, having recently finished his B.S. in systems engineering and then his M.S. in operations research and two internships. He joined the team as a fulltime web developer at the end of his internship. From just weeks into his internship, he was already in nearly all of our short and long-term strategy meetings and shares how any of our interns can do as he did.
I started off doing tiny things and having tiny suggestions that improved the product and over time… I gained Michal and Saul’s respect enough where they would actually start asking for my opinion on things and then that led to joining on the product strategy meetings and figuring out the best way to move forward with things and offer my input there, and that was a great experience. ~ Saad
When he spoke with Michal and Saul about his interest in product management, we decided that Michal will continue to be our choice for this, for the web sites and applications. For mobile, though, we could entrust this to him, and for his remaining four months with us, Saad rebuilt the mobile team and projects, as well as identifying Camila and Joydeep as the people we should hire for iOS and Android leads (which we did), as well as José, who remains with us as an Android advisor.
“Saad changed us like no one has ever done before or since his time with us. Beyond building the built-in product tours in RiteTag and RitePush, it was Saad who explained the need for them and when Michal and I agreed, immediately created the tasks and did the work. From product dashboards and analytics page redesign, to rethinking our internship program and hiring and salary review practices, and finally, to conceiving new Rite family products and even a service, it was Saad who actually initiated much of what we owe our success to.
As in our manifesto: We encourage participation in all aspects of our businesses from all staff, all levels. We act on good ideas, regardless of seniority. Saad positively affected many aspects of our project, and even how we work and he did this before he had a title. He helped me become a better leader. The opportunity for any of our staff or interns to do this is always there. Those who invest the time to understand what we’re actually building and share their ideas on what we should do next can earn a place in our strategy meetings and will extract the most value from their time with us.” ~ Saul
The one-on-one problem-solving with Michal was a great experience and those meetings were a lot of fun. We would solve problems and still enjoy the conversation, try to figure out the best way to do things — one of the things I miss most is working with Michal.
Both Saul and Michal created all these opportunities for growth for me and whenever I shared an interest in wanting to do something, they created that opportunity right away. So, they definitely care about the team, they definitely care about every single individual as well as the team all put together, and they care about each person’s individual growth and career growth. ~ Saad
Questions I asked Saad:
- Talk about the timeline…
- What was appealing enough about the RiteTag project that made you consider an unpaid internship with us?
- What can you say about the web guys you worked with, mainly Pavel and Michal?
- Tell us about a really frustrating situation you faced, either with a tough task or in working with people or technologies new to you, and if Michal or others helped, can you tell us about that?
- What did you learn during the internship? Are you using some of the learnings in your current projects?
- Did the founders enable you to develop your leadership strengths? If so how?
- You started like any of the web development interns yet you were soon spending hours in project strategy meetings with Saul and Michal and proposed, then implemented, huge changes, like dividing RiteTag into the four products, planning the RiteTag dashboard and doing the RiteTag and RitePush built-in tours. Saul says you made an impact like no one ever had before. How can someone come in and very quickly become as seminal a force as you were?
- If you could highlight something that you miss from your time with RiteKit, something special or something that you have not found in other companies or projects, what would it be?
- A lot of people intern with RiteKit, while just a few are asked to join the staff near the end of their internships. Can you give advice to someone who is hoping for a job offer from us at the end of their internship? Tell them what they need to do. (Saad’s reply follow, below.)
Sure, so, work hard, definitely put in a lot of effort into getting things done properly. Pay attention to detail. Make sure you’re doing things the right way. Most importantly, have a conversation — communication is extremely important. So, have a conversation with Michal, have a conversation with Saul, and make sure you understand the big picture behind what you’re doing but also make sure you got the details working correctly. And the more effort you put in, the more you’ll get rewarded. ~ Saad
Aiming to build a career in data science, Saad resigned from his staff position at RiteKit after nine months with us and returned to the U.S. to do his second master’s degree in computer science, with a focus on data science. As of this this writing, he is in the second year of his M.S. at the Colorado School of Mines, having just successfully completed a summer position in data science, focusing on machine learning projects. He continues to participate on strategy at RiteKit as an advisor.
Looking for a career-making internship? We hope that you will learn more about the team, the internships, and what those who interned (and some who joined the RiteKit team) say about the career advancements they believe can be attributed to having helped in building our SaaS products.
To see what ten of our first interns have to say about the experience and how an internship at RiteKit opened doors for them, see this text post. (Back then we were just RiteTag.) If you’d like to hear what our interns from past years, in PR, web and mobile divisions have to say about the experience and how an internship at RiteTag opened doors — for scholarships and job offers, see the video in this post.
Are you ready to get solid experience on your resume and put your education to a real-world test?
We’re hiring! Experienced iOS, Android, Web Developers and PR/community/marketing people should apply through the RiteKit Angellist Jobs Page.
