At some point, every student starts wondering how the freshly acquired knowledge could be put into practice. Even more – the overall idea of imagining life after graduation triggers fear. In such cases, an excellent solution is to have your eyes wide open and seek practical opportunities, such as an internship or a job.
Read this post about her experience with Feelingstream by our intern, Mari-Liis Korkus
Last summer I obtained a bachelor’s degree, and while holding my diploma, I was experiencing this what-will-become-of-me-kind of feeling. Shortly afterwards I started working as an intern at Feelingstream where I’ve been a team player up until today. So how did I end up here? During my first year as a humanities student, we were greeted with the words “Welcome to becoming unemployed”. As a Swedish philologist, I was sure that I could only choose between two paths: to work either as a translator or as a teacher. Around a month before graduation, I stumbled upon an email in our department’s mailing list.
The email invited students to apply for an internship at a small startup which I previously hadn’t heard of and the offer included working with language technology tools. The whole description seemed appealing for I was drawn to the aspect of learning something new, yet it took me a couple of weeks before I found the courage to apply. According to one Hewlett Packard report, women will apply for a position if they meet 100% of the required qualifications, while the percentage for men is much lower – only 60%. I could see myself fitting in this statistical frame due to not being sure if my rather literary background would cohere with the technological aspect of this internship. I was proven wrong. Whether it’s a book or an AI model, both can be connected through text analysis.
Two steps forward, one step back
You never know what the internship will be like. It wasn’t the first time I decided to spend the summer working alongside a team consisting of less than 10 people. I didn’t foresee what was expected of me nor how long will I remain in the team. Unlike previous experiences, at Feelingstream I was assigned with challenging tasks which made the work process more exciting. Every day I learned (and still learn!) something new and knowing that my university courses won’t teach me these things made me appreciate the freshly acquired knowledge even more.
My previous experiences either as an intern or a worker demanded that I gave immediate results while being assigned with a task. At Feelingstream the expectations were a bit different – you first learn the process before you begin presenting results. This learning method reminded me of math classes back from high school. You were given the exercise and you could find the answer at the back of a book, but the emphasis was placed on learning the solution which would result in a correct answer.
During the first week, I had no idea what I was doing, but I found solace in our team. People were telling me this confusion was normal, it may take time, but soon I will begin to understand what a neural network is or how to notice patterns in datasets. Each upcoming team member was treated similarly. It’s as if every time we greeted a new (slightly confused) worker, everyone released their inner Yoda and spoke the words “Patience you must have my young padawan”. As the months went by, I came to understand more and more of what I was doing.
Why become an intern (at Feelingstream)?
Internships are a great way of learning something new, stepping out of your comfort zone and seeing how to implement existing knowledge into something more practical. I encourage people not to fear to apply even if you aren’t 100% sure if you are a perfect fit. There are many reasons why joining Feelingstream will make you lift your cheek muscles. The office isn’t located at some random corner behind a warehouse, the tasks are diverse and the team is full of unique personalities. Settling in won’t be difficult thanks to different pieces of training and meetings, while any complex question will be answered with the help of a manual or an experienced worker.
Flexibility is also something characteristic to Feelingstream – you choose your own time when you work aka it’s not a typical 9-to-5 job. Since I continued with my studies and the university is located in another city, I also get to choose the place where I work at (although being in the office is a lot more efficient and fun!). Finally, the work itself is worth joining the team, because you may contribute to something that will make people happy in the long run!
Do you feel like this might be something for you? Come and meet us:
- at Delta Career Day on February 13th 2019
- at UT Career Day on February 14th 2019
Maybe it will be a match!
