I spent 3 months as a marketing intern at Gojek. Here’s what I learnt.
My internship at Gojek was something new for both Gojek and I. The GoXplore internship program in Indonesia is a pilot roll-out by the company to introduce an enhanced, structured program for interns. The program aims to create a long-lasting learning experience for interns and prepare them towards becoming Indonesia’s next generation of young talent.
First impressions
The first day I entered Gojek’s head office in Jakarta as an intern was perhaps already a learning experience in its own right. From the office lobby all the way to my desk, I observed a multitude of interesting people brainstorming and tossing ideas around the meeting rooms.
At Gojek, I was fortunate to have met some very interesting people from a diverse range of academic and social backgrounds, all with stories to tell about where they started, to where they are now. I saw just how passionate they were in the work that they do, whether they are engineers from the tech team, data analysts, or marketers from my own team at GoPay. What I found similar about them however, was that they all had a unified yearning for something beyond themselves, and that was to touch the lives of people around them through the work they do.
My role as a marketing intern for GoPay
My own scope of work was centered around managing GoPay’s campaign and promotional initiatives. I spent my first few days as an intern helping my supervisors keep track of existing campaigns, following up on designs, media placements, and other marketing essentials with various teams.
What was really interesting for me was understanding the dynamics of each team, and adjusting myself to their expectations, communication styles, and working culture. Because ultimately, the value of what we are able to deliver would depend on the time and effort employees could give us on top of their existing responsibilities. My manager taught me that every interaction I have with my stakeholders is like an investment towards the projects that will come my way — and indeed, larger and more interesting projects did find their way to me.
Building my manager’s trust in me was both challenging and rewarding. I had never anticipated that I would be in charge of creating and executing my own marketing campaign. Prior to pitching the campaign to my team, among the first few things I did was to generate a concept for the campaign, gather sets of data, and conduct various analyses. After the presentation, I couldn’t have been more glad seeing how happy and enthusiastic the team was about setting the campaign in motion. All those long hours at work and peering through tabs and tabs of spreadsheets paid off, having earned my team’s trust and confidence. It was all a matter of being consistent and raising the bar for myself with each passing day.
Interacting with other GoXplore interns
I also had a lot of fun with the other GoXplorers through shared activities from the program. We had training sessions about knowing our impact and making use of problem solving techniques, where we were given cases to examine and solve together. We also had a TED Talk-style presentation where each of us was given the chance to present about our internship experience in front of our teams and other Gojek employees.
These activities really got the interns to connect and get to know each other, and served as an outlet for us to better ourselves in our respective roles, by sharing about the challenges we were facing in the internship and offering solutions and support to one another.
The end of my adventure as a GoXplore intern was marked by a final presentation that I had to deliver to my team and the head of the GoXplore program. It was essentially to wrap up everything that I had done over the course of the three-month program, and to deliver a final impression to the team, breaking down everything from the executional to the strategic implications of my work. It was hard to see the impact I had made when looking at things on a day-to-day basis, but going through everything that I had done in the span of a single presentation, I knew I had played my role in moving Gojek further as a part of people’s lives.
All I can say is that this is perhaps the best internship experience I have ever had. When I started writing this reflection, I considered sharing about the most prevalent learning experiences I had during my time with Gojek, but I realized that being at Gojek meant learning new things every single day. It was truly an experience of “breathing and living innovation”.
About me: Hey there! I’m Devara (Dev). I’m a 2016 undergrad business student from the University of Indonesia. As a marketing intern for GoPay I am responsible for helping the team conceptualize, manage, and execute cashback campaigns and promotions. I have a passion for building things, and a love for discovery.
Applications for the next run of GoXplore will open in early 2020. Meanwhile, find out more about the GoXplore internship program here!
