An intern’s story at Orxa Energies
A Mech Intern who learnt coding, teamwork, and a lot more at Orxa.
Back in July 2019, I had approached Ranjita for an internship opportunity at Orxa. I had been following them on their LinkedIn page for quite some time now. Multiple emails and a few calls later, I was asked to report at the office on the morning of 1st January 2020.
The Dreaded “First Day”
The first day at a “typical” internship is about introducing yourself to people, getting to know them and making yourself feel comfortable in the new setting. I definitely had my fair share of all of these. But unlike typical internships, I also found myself unloading multiple boxes of Lithium-ion cells, helping Prajwal stack them on the shelves. After all, the cells run the bike, and you’ve got to respect them sooner or later.
Coming from an m-BAJA background, electric mobility is considerably new to me.
However, since I had been following the Mantis for the past six months now, the bike and the experience was not as alien as I had thought. For a fresher coming out of university with numerous expectations like flashy office and fancy positions, startups are an eye-opener. No doubt they are a good place to learn, a good place to meet like-minded people, but the much more prominent awe of a startup is the energy that it brings to you. It is a well-knit community of people working together to bring out the “coolest” products for people like you and me.
But I didn’t come here to “CODE” !!
I was never into coding. As a naive first-year engineering student, my definition of mechanical engineering was restricted to kinematics, heat transfer and material science. I had been running away from coding all through my three and a half years of college, until Jan 2020, when I was asked to do a project at Orxa that required me to learn to code. The push and the support that I got helped me finish my project much ahead of the deadline.
The transition from student life to professional life is a big step in our career. The culture that a company promotes is an embodiment of the people that work in it. It is often that startups are glorified in the industry, primarily because their stories sell. They sell because as consumers of content, people often want to be motivated by external factors, and not the ones that lie inside us.
As individuals, we strive to grow in multiple ways. A community that exposes you to different ideas, different people, helps you grow as a much more polyvalent person. At Orxa, I have met people from all walks of life. Almost all of the “Benkis” (the mech team) share a common history of working in FSAE or BAJA. From competitors back in university to colleagues here at Orxa, we have come a long way. As someone coming out of university with minimal experience in mass manufacturing, the first few days were obviously scary. But the excitement that the discussions brought in was also huge. The support and guidance were tremendous. What matters is an environment that nurtures discussions and exchanging ideas.
Does a 6 Month Internship count with 3 Months of Lock-down?
One of the most important things I’ve learnt during the last six months is the importance of collaboration and teamwork.
At Orxa, I wasn’t restricted to working with a particular team. There were multiple instances when I found myself trying to understand the electronics involved in the motorcycle, and I would always find one of the “Sholders” (the electronics team) helping me figure it out. At multiple occasions when I’d get stuck with the code, I could easily approach either the Computers guy or the electronics team. I grew as an engineer.
My college taught me mechanical engineering, but the internship taught me that a great product is a merger of different fields of engineering.
I learnt that a great product is a merger of different fields of engineering.
We often find ourselves stuck at a particular problem, and an outsider’s approach is needed to solve it. This is where teamwork and reaching out to people helps. In times like these, I’ve had the opportunity to work alongside great engineers and designers.
Since late March, I’ve been working remotely 2000 km away from Bangalore, and boy, I’ve had to do a lot of work!
I’ve been using the same old laptop for the last 4 years now, and it isn’t powerful to run simulations or design models. Crisis calls for creativity. During the lockdown, the Benkis had remote access to the systems back in the office. We were literally on the mercy of our Wifi service provider. As for me personally, I’ve been pulling all-nighters since the last two months working for the office. A colleague and I share the same system. I work on it once he leaves. Discussions and reviews are done in the mornings.
Effective collaboration and teamwork. Simple!
I had read a famous quote somewhere that said:
“One man’s magic is another man’s engineering.”
Even though I’ve physically been present only for the first three months of my internship, the learnings I’ve taken home are huge.
For someone like me, who loves spending time behind the wheel, or on the bike, Orxa has been great. How can I forget the testing sessions? Or the lunch table discussion with Prajwal, trying to decode vehicle body roll?
As outsiders, we often tend to question the capabilities of a startup based on our prejudices. These prejudices could be driven by a successful software story or a rival product’s market appeal, but we often tend to forget what’s happening inside a company.
Over the course of my 4 years of experience in building and managing hardware, I’ve realized how hardware startups are much more challenging than software. The timelines, the lead time, and the cost are some of the very important factors that govern our product, and the outsider often fails to realize this.
As employees working for an electric vehicle manufacturer, we believe that EV’s will help change the world for the better. We are all aware of the enormous possibilities that they bring ( Or in case you aren’t, you should definitely read more of our stories here). But as ex-Baja or ex-FSAE, we can’t get over the adrenaline rush that a well-built vehicle brings. At Orxa, we work towards fulfilling both these wishes (And delivering them soon to you. )
Watch out for the Mantis.
- Read the cover article of this series here: You need unstoppable people in your team
- Read Akshay’s story here
- Read Tarun’s journey to Spain and Back via Vagator here
Do you want to help Shahzer and us build crazy, high-end electric motorcycles and rapidly electrify all transport? Join us by dropping a mail at careers@orxaenergies.com, or browse:
..and check which JD fits you the best!
We are excitedly looking forward to having more crazy enthusiasts on the team! Don’t make us wait!
Orxa Energies’ mission is to rapidly electrify all transport. We build performance Electric Vehicles & the associated Energy Ecosystem. We believe that battery swap will rapidly electrify shared & fleet mobility.
Our first vehicle is the Mantis — a fully-electric performance motorcycle, designed to fit seamlessly into your lifestyle.
We also build powerful Battery Packs that manage the specific challenges of performance vehicles — longevity, thermals, weight, and volume. Our battery packs are already in pilots with our customers.
We previously wrote about the issues faced by hardware startups in a software-obsessed startup ecosystem (link), and about our survival guide for other hardware startups getting into this space (link)
