Software Engineering Internship in Instamojo — An Experience Story

Instamojo is a leading platform in Fintech today. A front runner in the world of Digital payments, I had heard a lot about this new age payments startup from a friend. He interned at Instamojo and told me so many interesting things about it. Thanks to his overwhelmingly positive feedback, I chose this company as the starting point of my career. I spent over 6 months in this company, under the mentorship of several inspirational managers and team members, and here I share my Instamojo internship experience.

ONBOARDING AND ASSIMILATION PROCESS:

I joined Instamojo as a Software Engineering Intern and thought it’s not going to be easy. But the onboarding process, with 1.5 months of training in the technologies we use, made my 6 months way simpler than I thought. We were given 1.5 months of training about the technologies we use. We were given a deep dive into the leading technologies like Python, Django, Postgres SQL, Javascript, React. Teams here are called Pods. We were introduced to not only technical pod, but also sales pod, risk pod, marketing pod, and all the pods in Instamojo. This gave us an outlook of how the company works, and a more clear picture when coding.

WORK CULTURE:

The Instamojo work culture focuses on a balance. It centres around getting work done to get to the Xbox in the hall. It means having meetings and sharing a joke or two with the founders. Even better, the company timings are flexible, for a start. This is almost essential for poor Bangalorean commuters. Besides that, the company offers:

• Fully Stocked Pantry to keep hunger at bay. Casual Dress Code
• No hierarchy. Every team keeps a bandwidth to accomodate anyone.
• Recognition when you do something awesome.
• Festivals Celebrations. We celebrate each and every festival with so much energy, fun, and craziness.
• XBOX as a stress buster. (My Personal Favorite)
• Townhall. A quarterly event where we discuss how much we have grown followed by a party.

MENTORSHIP:

In the beginning stages of your career, it is important to have someone who guides you right. Luckily, this company has a bunch of those. Intelligent people with dad jokes aplenty up their sleeves, there are some talented folks in the house. I had very friendly and approachable mentors who are very knowledgable and have great experience in the industry.

OWNERSHIP:

Many companies, I have found, humour interns by getting them to create dummy projects. At Instamojo, we got to work on projects that go live on production. This gives us a sense of responsibility and exposure to the production environment. We are allowed to take our own decisions, about implement the solution of the given problem. The peer-to-peer code review process improves our coding style every time, and make sure that we are building the right product.

OFFSITE:

Work Hard, Play Harder. This is the principle that Instamojo lives upon. We have regular team dinners after we achieve our goals. This helps us to bond with the team even more. We interact with people to learn more about their experiences in the industry.

PERSONAL GROWTH:

3 months into the internship, I began to learn more about coding and improved my existing skills base. I was able to solve problems in an efficient and scalable manner. I used to love to code, but after knowing the industry practices, I love it even more. Getting exposed to a production environment gave a new experience.

Why would I recommend Instamojo to interns?

Because here, I actually learnt something they do not teach you in school. The fun-loving environment along with the endless possibilities of growth is only inside Instamojo. The learning curve is exponential. The value that we bring in to the company gives you a sense of satisfaction. There are daily stand up meetings, sessions with different team leaders about the workings of the company and well, great snacks.