What it’s like to be an intern at GOJEK’s Business Intelligence Team
At GOJEK we believe that internship is an opportunity for you to get firsthand experience of the real world and a chance to apply your classroom knowledge in the dynamic culture of Indonesia’s first unicorn startup company.
GOJEK’s Business Intelligence (BI) internship program provides students with an opportunity to work directly with big data and learn from a handful of experienced mentors in the area.
I recently spoke with three former BI internship program participants who are now working for a full-time position in the division on how their internship with BI team helped them to bridge the gap between university and real life and how it played an important role in shaping their careers
Irene Yulinda, BI Growth Team, University of Indonesia Graduate
How did you get GOJEK internship?
I am the first intern at the GOJEK’s Business Intelligence (BI) Division. It was October 2015 and I was still at my fifth semester at the university when GOJEK booming started.
I think the best decision for me to get the first-hand experience to learn more about data and produce something out of it was to learn it from GOJEK.
Luckily, GOJEK had an opening and I decided to apply. I was called for an interview with the BI head Crystal Widjaja, but my interview was more like a conversation instead of a formal interview. Long story short I was accepted, but back then the team was not as large as it is now, there were only 5 people at the BI team at that time.
What did you learn from your internship period at GOJEK?
We might have learned many things when we were at the university, but when you are in a company you will notice that there are a lot of differences between textbook theory and the real world.
My internship period helped to bridge the gap between the two.
In my early internship days, I was amused to see how big GOJEK data warehouse is. The chance to learn directly from the pool of bright talents in GOJEK is also invaluable for me, there were a lot of smart people here and I was very lucky to pick their brains.
After graduated you joined a couple of other companies, so why did you return to GOJEK afterward?
True, I was graduated in January 2017 and I didn’t immediately apply to GOJEK because I wanted to get experience from other places as well. I worked at two different companies before I worked as a full-time employee at GOJEK in February this year.
I learned a lot of things before I returned to GOJEK, but somehow, I know that one day I must return here because if you want to learn more about big data this is the right place for you.
Nicholas “Nick” Sidjono, BI Growth Team, New York University Graduate
Tell me about your GOJEK internship experience
I joined as BI team intern in February. I was quite amused that in this company I get a lot of freedom and responsibility even though I was still an intern.
At the time I was only hoping to get more exposure in the big data area, but what I experienced in GOJEK is beyond that.
They trust me to do a lot of work, even I was given an important task sometimes. It was very an unusual experience for a company as big as GOJEK.
It’s not easy and sometimes can be very challenging, but it was the most effective way to be better on this
What do you like and dislike the most about the experience?
I met really cool people here and do important things during my internship and that was an experience that I did not really get from my previous internship at the U.S.
What I did not like is that sometimes you’ll find yourself overwhelmed by a lot of tasks. It’s like everything happens very quick here and you need to figure out a solution as soon as possible. But then again, it helps me to adapt to the job.
Why did you take the full-time position in GOJEK?
I just feel like at home here. I always love to work around data. One important thing that separate BI team in GOJEK and other companies’ is that instead of being told what to do, BI team here has the authority to give insight, so the management knows what to do.
Shilvia Silalahi, BI Drone Team, University of Indonesia Graduate
Tell us about your experience as a BI intern
I agree with Nick and Irene, in GOJEK we did things that normally isn’t done by interns. It was an eye-opening experience.
We did a lot of work beyond what we’ve learned at the university, not only we do business intelligence work, we learn directly from many experienced people in GOJEK.
I think the positive experience I got during the internship is what makes me want to go for a full-time position here.
What I like the most is I can use many tools that I have never know before. I involved in many types of interesting work during my internship.
What are you doing in GOJEK now?
I am in BI Drone (Driver Growth and Performance) team so my job revolves around data related to drivers. I analyze their data and their performance, so we can give a recommendation based on those to the company.
For example, we have a feature called driver care unit that gives us an idea about their situation and we will know if they have any complaint about the job. This is really important yet exciting at the same time.
