We live in a highly competitive world, and we all know that. Whether you’re a junior, an expert, a freelancer or a recruiter in big companies or innovative start-ups, things move pretty fast and you MUST be up for it, especially when it’s about your first job – or your dream job. But we also know those funny but sad memes about applying to your first entry-level job in your early 20s where you’re required to have 10+ years of experience, at the same time 😀
Well, DO NOT WORRY ANYMORE, things are not so bad if you choose your first job experiences wisely. In fact, recruiters are becoming more aware that internship programs and flexible jobs are critically important for both the company and the candidate – if these programs are seen from the start as real learning experiences that could provide fruitful collaborations.
Let’s take a look at the Romania’s recruiting trends for 2019, now. It appears that many companies will continue to hire more juniors and offer more internships to students – especially in the IT industry, as shown in the latest HIPO report on Labor Market. Their top recruiting criteria, though, are still: previous work experience (I) and internship experience (II). The latter ranked 1st place for three years in a row up until now.
If we take these into account, it’s clear internships really are important in landing your dream job. Of course, it may be also a faculty assignment, but no one can deny that it’s a great chance for you to be selected for a competitive position in the future. Luckily, gone are the days when an internship meant spending a month of menial tasks, filing papers and watching the real team of professionals working on the coolest projects in front of you. We know that this scenario is just a myth nowadays – at least that’s what other serious businesses and we agree on.
6 out of 10 interns have decided to officially become part of the eJump crew in the past two years (2017 and 2018)
In the past years, we’ve noticed that the interns were always smart and ambitious. Introvert, but still, eager to devour knowledge and focus even on the simplest project they had with all their power. That was REAL commitment! This, and the fact that we kept in touch with several interns we had, helped us improve the internship experience at eJump year after year. At least, that’s what we think and see: many of our interns have chosen to remain as part of the team or continued to talk with us and even come to our football games after work.
So, yes, we strive to offer a top notch environment to anyone who comes into our “home”. Having so many young people on board during the past years has helped us understand that, as a student, you need to balance work, family, friends and assignments – so why not have a flexible schedule and a positive and memorable experience during your internship (at least)?
We believe that many internship programs are great for helping you gain first-hand experience in the daily workflow of a company. Be wise enough to choose an internship at an organization that shows a steady interest in hiring and offering exciting and serious programs year after year.
Because we know how important it is for you, as a student, to find out what companies need from their employees and how you can learn what you want to do in the next years as a young professional, our eJump internships focus on you being in the “thick of the action” every day spent here. You get plenty of opportunities to contribute right from day one, to make sure you get to work in a real professional environment, with a specific organizational culture and workflow – the better the internship, the higher the chances of finding a great job (at eJump or somewhere else in the future).
This year, we talked with four of our first interns of 2019 – Andrei, Valentina, Vlad and Tudor – about their personal internship experiences and afterthoughts.
Andrei is a fast learner and a really sociable guy. Valentina is so enthusiastic and dedicated to her work, and her patience is clearly out of this world. As for Tudor and Vlad – they’re twins. Oh, and two of the most passionate interns we had, especially when it comes to the Unity game engine (which they excel at!). All of them are studying at the Faculty of Cybernetics, Statistics and Informatics – University of Economic Studies. Tudor and Vlad decided to answer together since their experience was pretty much similar.
Well, let’s see… What is it like to be an intern at eJump?
Andrei: My internship proved to be interesting and fun at the same time. I’ve learned new things at my own pace, without the pressure of a project deadline. It was an experience worth living at the beginning of anyone’s career.
“I can now confidently say I do not like the meticulous work in the Front-End development, but coding in JavaScript and PHP seems pretty interesting.”
Valentina: This was an experience lived with joy and keen interest. During my time spent at the office, I had the chance to learn plenty of new technical information and, at the same time, to observe the way my colleagues worked and interacted. I couldn’t but notice their work culture and style – which really sparked my interest during my research about eJump. I always appreciated their small, but meaningful gestures that made me feel part of a “family”. So these weeks spent on board are an amazing experience which I will always remember as part of my career start.
Tudor & Vlad: On short, the eJump internship was an enjoyable experience in which we certainly learned a few things and one that we’d like to gladly repeat. The colleagues were very kind and helped us with all the questions we had. Despite the fact that they had a lot of work, they made time for us too :). As for the practical part – we had three tasks, one of which was at our choice. Tasks were feasible and were given to help us learn something specifically. One advantage of this internship was the flexibility of the schedule, which allowed us to manage our time to our advantage.
Is there something you would wanted to know about eJump before starting the internship?
Andrei: Honestly, before I started the internship, I hadn’t known much about it, except that Radu (n.r. one of the managers and co-founders) loves to speak at presentations (n.r. the one held at the University)! After four weeks spent here, it was impossible not to notice that this company has only nice people on board and a super friendly environment.
Valentina: Not quite. I asked Bogdan about all of my curiosities during our interview – or simply on the eJump website.
Tudor & Vlad: We don’t think so. The information we got at the beginning was pretty clear and we could not say it was something that negatively surprised us and we wanted to know it from the beginning
After this time, do you feel like you’ve learned something new or helpful for your career plans? Was there something that might have changed your mind about the IT industry in any way?
Andrei: I’ve learned new things, yes, and found out what I wanted to. By reviewing HTML, CSS, JS and PHP, I could say I already have an idea of what I would like to do next. Having the basics of these languages, I can now confidently say I do not like the meticulous work in the Front-End development, but coding in JavaScript and PHP seems pretty interesting to me, thanks to the various results I can get with them.
“I’ve learned so much information that I wouldn’t have been able to learn in a whole semester.”
Valentina: Definitely! I’ve learned so much information that I wouldn’t have been able to learn in a whole semester if I had a course specialized on those programming languages. I’ve learned a lot of new things, and now I know better about my future plans and goals for the next three years! I really like the work environment and its challenges. I have plenty of patience as well, and these traits are perfectly fit for this web development field. Thanks to this internship, I am now more optimistic about this type of job – which is pretty important. Now I know what path I should follow – the next step is to achieve these goals, right?
Tudor & Vlad: We were more interested in the JavaScript language, and we certainly learned new things. We cannot say we have changed our minds about the programming field. We knew from the start that it was a “weirder” technology, and this is why it was our main interest.
What did you like doing most at the office?
Andrei: It was this project that involved extracting and manipulating some data, and displaying them in tabular representation. So out of nothing, I made a website with pretty many basic features and quite a decent layout.
Valentina: All the tasks were of interest to me because they involved new technologies and languages – and since I am pretty curious myself… Anyway, being for the first time at a company’s office, I was excited about everything I had to do. Both Front-End and PHP challenged me to complete a web theme accordingly. I loved these challenges, although they made time fly so fast!
“We liked the third task the most – one that we chose to do and that implied creating a web page game – Pac-Man, a replica of the original version. Although it sounds relatively trivial, the game has many hard to see details by the end user.”
Tudor & Vlad: We liked the third task the most – one that we chose to do and that implied creating a web page game. The chosen game was Pac-Man, a replica of the original version of the game. Although it sounds relatively trivial, the game has many hard to see details by the end user. An advantage was that we could use the technology we were familiar with, which allowed us to finish the task without exceeding the assumed deadline. During the implementation of both this task and the others, we received constant feedback, which helped us get a perspective of what was completed and what we had to do further in order to meet the deadline.
And finally, is there something you liked most about this place (the interaction, the team, the projects, the vibe)?
Andrei: Among the first things I noticed were the warmth you are welcomed with, and the friendly attitude of everyone in the team. This made my time here much more enjoyable.
“What did I like most? But I liked EVERYTHING!”
Valentina: What did I like most? But I liked everything! The interaction with the managers was friendly, which I enjoyed a lot. As for the colleagues, I have no words. Okay, I have a few: they’re passionate, very friendly, funny and smart. This team is like a family, which is hard to find. So I cannot say I didn’t regret my last day at eJump. The atmosphere – very relaxing, I loved the office music. Last but not least, the projects are exciting and challenging, and I enjoyed working on them. So, what I liked most… this organizational culture defined by all the things I previously mentioned liking.
Tudor and Vlad: What we liked most at eJump is the feeling you get there – everyone is so friendly – and the fact that we could actually learn something practical, not just some theoretical concepts.
If you are curious about an internship in our crew, take a look at the Careers page and see what fits you best – even if you’re a rookie. Just drop us a line and we’ll see it from there. We’re here to meet new ambitious people who want to learn about new IT territories and launch high-end projects all over the world.
