3 Things You Must Do To Design a Great Remote Internship
Q&A’s from the OLX Internship Program: Filipe, Junior Software Engineer. A new series with our trainees, now full time engineers.
“Build stuff for you to learn! I always go back to this Ken Thomspson quote, ‘UNIX was built for me.’ You can innovate in amazing ways when building stuff for yourself!”
“I was always inspired by Ken Thompson, one of the inventors of Go programming language,” says Filipe, now a Junior Software Engineer at OLX Car Parts. “There was a lot of innovation at Bell Labs in the 1960s and most of the big pillars of our civilization were made there. Bell Labs colleagues Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie developed UNIX, a multi-tasking, multi-user operating system alternative to the batch processing systems then dominating the computer industry.”
Such inspiration served Filipe well during his internship at OLX. After all, doing your internship in the middle of a pandemic presents its own set of unique challenges.
“I had to actively commit myself to learning and diving into the role.”
That’s a great attitude. During our talk with Filipe, we learned all about the OLX Internship Program and how he benefited from the opportunity. We hope his experience can inspire you.
And who knows? Maybe we’ll see you at OLX during the next internship!
Let’s begin the conversation…
The applications for this year internships are now open.
Discover HERE
The best cultures drive forward
What surprised you about OLX?
“I thought OLX Group was only one website. It was a surprise to find out OLX has 20 brands across more than 30 countries and 300 million users!” exclaims Filipe.
“I don’t know much about cars so it’s a new world. You don’t have to be an expert. You have to learn how to use your programming skills to get the job done within the Car Parts realm. There are thousands of parts in the car, so it’s a fun challenge!”
Why did OLX feel like a good fit?
“The culture! I noticed that the culture was incredible. So, I went to a meetup before the pandemic and got shown around the office. I was really interested in working at OLX at that point,” tells Filipe.
“The culture is very open and you get lots of responsibility from day one. There is a culture of continuous learning that you don’t find in other companies. You have space to learn, grow, and innovate here.”
The applications for this year internships are now open.
Discover HERE
Learn to network and have a mentor
What made your internship a success?
“First, remote onboarding went smoothly. The company adapted very well to remote work. There are a lot of people and we still managed to work without too many obstacles. I can compare it to the other company, and it was very good comparatively,” states Filipe.
“Second, every intern gets a mentor, and it’s a big reason why you can learn and accomplish so much during your OLX internship. They really show you how to add value. My mentor, Carlos, was the best. He’s the leader of my Pack and his background is mostly backend. He took the time to explain stuff to me that’s even outside the scope of OLX.”
What’s your advice for having success at OLX?
“Success depends on your ability to commit to learning and embed yourself in the culture. In OLX, you have Slack and people are very open to receiving messages and talking to you. It is very easy to reach people (at any level) and network, network, network. Build your skills and collaborate!”
The applications for this year internships are now open.
Discover HERE
View programming as a tool & Have side hustles
What’s the most important thing you’ve learned from your experience so far?
“I used to be very idealistic about technology. Now, I’m not so much like that. You can’t be a purist. I see programming as a tool to solve problems,” says Filipe.
“I have an entrepreneurial mindset so I’m constantly looking for ways to solve problems. Programming is the tool.”
What’s your advice to younger programmers?
“My advice to younger programmers is to be curious and go beyond your role. You should do side work and play a lot with different languages. This will give you something to talk about in interviews. Be knowledgeable and have small side hustles. You could create an educational course, build an API as a service, start a blog, and more. It will benefit you and people will see you have more to contribute,” explains Filipe.
“To land an internship or job, you have to learn what tech companies look for. I like the advice from this article from Make School.”
A few quotes from the Make School article on how to land your first internship:
- “You need to show that you are the kind of programmer who is sensitive to the needs of the end user, who can make good product decisions and who has a track record of following through and finishing projects.”
- “The first step is to make sure to be exposing yourself to as many opportunities to improve your portfolio as possible. This almost always means you have to look outside of class. Look for hackathons, clubs, and like-minded peers you can join to surround yourself with a community of people who build and finish projects”
- “The next step is documenting and showcasing your work in a way recruiters will appreciate. To showcase your projects effectively, you’ll need a resume, a personal website, and a presence on GitHub.
‘UNIX was built for me’
If you could give advice to your childhood self, what would you say?
“One, follow your passion and study programming earlier. Two, learn by doing. Our field is very fast and you learn more by doing. It’s hard for classes to keep up with education. The time you have to learn by yourself counts a lot. I learned a lot by practicing in my own time. Improve your self-learning capabilities. Don’t count on teaching systems or others. You need that because you can’t just study and master programming,” advises Filipe.
“Build stuff for you to learn! I always go back to this Ken Thomspson quote, ‘UNIX was built for me.’ You can innovate in amazing ways when building stuff for yourself!”
A walk along the Tagus River
Now a full-time Junior Software Engineer with OLX Car Parts, Filipe looks forward to building more great stuff. Along the way, he’s making sure to enjoy life.
“While at university, Fonte Luminosa was a place I liked to visit. I have a lot of fond memories there. When the weather is nice, I like to take walks in Parque das Nações along the river. Walking there is kind of therapeutic,” describes Filipe.
Well, that concludes our discussion with Filipe. We hope you learned a lot about the OLX Internship Program and make use of Filipe’s insights as you go about your journey.
Now, it may be time for a walk.
The applications for this year internships are now open.
Discover HERE
