From intern to full-time rebel – Filip’s love story for coffee and technology

Some might wonder why a love story. Because Filip has a passion for coffee as he

Some might wonder why a love story. Because Filip has a passion for coffee as he has for technology.

He just ordered a new espresso machine, right before our talk. 😊

Filip is a Software Developer who started as an intern in RebelDot 4 months ago.

Since many of you are considering applying for an internship position as part of our team, we figured he might have some useful insights to share with you – behind-the-scenes details about life as an intern here and how to eventually land a permanent job.

Let’s start from the beginning. How did it all start?

It was all there before I even knew it. Joggling around medicine and architecture made me understand that I cannot see myself doing anything else besides technology and everything that comes with it.

During high school, where I had a primary focus on mathematics and computer science, I understood that, and yes, I was delighted by it.

You might ask, why technology? I was deeply passionate and curious about the “hidden mystery” everyone was talking about. Being able to create programs, video games, solving puzzles for different industries and their business, was beyond me, and because of that I was eager to learn more.

Why choosing an internship?

To be honest, looking back now, I am connecting the dots. It’s funny how this (connecting the dots) has been a recurring theme in RebelDot for a while now, and we keep referring to Steve Job’s speech.

Being in my second year at the university, the year you are supposed to find an internship, they organized some sort of a workshop for all the students, where different IT organizations were enrolled.

All you had to do was to choose one from that list and go for it.

As you can imagine, it was an entire list full of startups as well as enterprise companies, so it was a bit hard to limit myself to choose only one name from there. You might wonder how I did it?

First, I analyzed their websites, from a user experience point of view, to more narrowed in colors, texts and visuals. What mattered the most to me was the feeling I was getting after scrolling through the company.

Second, I let myself inspired by the initial impression and I made the final decision based on how effectively they managed to communicate with you, via one simple website.

That’s how I chose RebelDot. Their storytelling was centered around people and their values had a loud resonance to what I believe in.

Why us? How was the entire experience for you?  

At a glance, I had the feeling that the focus of the organization is narrowed around people and nothing else. People who help you succeed. So yes, I followed my intuition, and I am super excited about my decision.

If I would have to describe how the entire experience was for me, I would sum up my feelings about it: togetherness & care.

Imagine how one day of an intern’s life was at RebelDot.

What really impressed me is that whenever we would start off a call in the morning – a stand-up meeting, we weren’t just having a small talk for the sake of it to then move on to “more serious” topics.

I remember that our Team Leader was genuinely interested in how my weekend was like, for example, or what places I have visited. Essentially, everyone wanted to make sure that we feel good personally and appreciated. This definitely helped in improving my performance on those particular days, but also overall.

At the same time, I felt that I was learning something new, day by day. We were assigned in different teams, as I was not the only intern at that time, and each team had its own mentor.

So, for the first 3 weeks of the internship, we had training workshops in which we covered different topics and based on those intuitive discussions, we cut down on individual tasks for the week in progress.

Overall, for me, it was a learning experience.

What was the most challenging part of this internship?

I’d say working with a team.

I know, it might sound unfamiliar, but during my university days, we always received projects individually. Coming to this internship and discovering that I need to synchronize with the members of my team, and most importantly counting on them to do their own part, was new for me.

At the same time, it helped me understand that it’s ok to count on someone else, it’s ok to ask for something you haven’t heard or know anything about.

At the end of it, this means being part of a team.

What’s your advice to the next generation of interns?  

Keep in mind that attitude beats knowledge.

No matter how much knowledge you acquire in time, the way you maintain your attitude once you’re on a learning curve is detrimental to your progress both personally and professionally.

For example: during this internship, I felt respected and appreciated for who I am, which gave me the confidence I needed.

I do believe that this level of confidence came also from our Leads and Mentors because you were able to ask any questions, as dumb as they were, without feeling stupid. You were appreciated for asking first because it showed your interest and desire to learn.

The other advice would be to allow yourself to make mistakes now, once you’re in an internship, because it’s supposed to be that way, as it’s supposed to help you grow.

It’s safe to make mistakes while you’re still an intern. And it’s safe to make mistakes and learn from them even after being an intern at RebelDot.

What’s your plan for the future you?  

At this very moment I see myself becoming a full stack developer, rather than being oriented only towards front-end or back-end. I want to have the full picture of it, knowing that I would be able to create, develop and maintain everything from scratch. Alongside this comes the opportunity to discover new technologies which could help me achieve extraordinary things in the future.

I am thankful for this opportunity of being an intern first, then switching to a full-time position, because it helped me grow personally and succeed professionally.

If this article made you curious about how being an intern at RebelDot feels like, keep an eye on our careers page, as we are going to announce a new internship for Spring 2022!

Mara Crisan

Marketing

I am a marketing enthusiast and a photographer. To be honest, I never dreamt of a better profession, as these two go hand in hand perfectly. A few words for you my dears - be yourself, speak your mind and share your soul.

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