Internship: My story at Tengu

Posted on 5-jan-2021 15:46:15

Let’s start by mentioning that this is not going to be your typical, technical, data(ops) related Tengu blog. This is going to be my story, the story about my internship at Tengu and how I dealt with the data part of my job as an intern, not knowing a thing about data. Oh, and also about how I’m living this pandemic situation, working from home…

Who am I?

Before starting my story, I will shortly introduce myself. I am Sandrine Reguig, a student international business management. In order to finish my bachelor’s degree, I'm doing my internship at Tengu. Did I ever see myself doing an internship at a dataops start-up? No, not at all. Because first of all, data isn’t my cup of tea and I didn’t know a thing about it. Second, I was supposed to be doing my internship abroad, but oh well, corona had other plans, better plans in my case.

Internship

After months of searching for an internship on my own initiative, I turned back to my college’s database. This is where I found the offer for my current workplace. I ask myself a lot how I got this lucky, finding this internship (last minute!). I was planning on doing my internship abroad, but finding one during these difficult times was very hard. I’m not saying that it was impossible, because nothing is impossible, but I’m saying that reaching out to over 20 companies and only getting one answer, that doesn’t even fit your school’s objectives, is really nerve-wracking.

But, you know, I live by the saying that everything happens for a reason, and I couldn’t have been luckier than I was. Because I ended up with an amazing internship, at a growing start-up with a marvellous team. People who support each other, help each other, care for each other, a team that wants to grow together and not compete with each other.

As an intern, it is important to end up in such a supportive environment, this way you can learn new things and grow in what you do and who you are. This is my luck, having a team that is there every step of the way, whenever I need them. Now, let’s not get cheesy. But I just want to show how important it is to take your time to choose your internship, even though you don’t know a lot about what they are doing, if you choose right, they will teach you everything you need to know. Of course, you can get lucky, as I did, but that will not always be the case.   Supportive team

As a sales and marketing intern, I can tell you that doing both sales and marketing, is a powerful combination. You get sucked into two worlds that help the company grow because of cohesion. Besides that, you learn two different professions and how you can excel in both.

Tengu?

The question you may be asking yourself is why I chose to do my internship at a dataops start-up, when I know nothing about data. That’s a good question, and the answer to that question is actually very simple. I love to learn new things, I love a good challenge and data is the future, so better learn new things about it.

Did you know that:

Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data — so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone." (source)

School only taught us basic data knowledge, in my eyes not enough to understand what a dataops start-up does. So, as you can imagine, it wasn’t easy. I tried to keep up, by reading documents they handed me at the beginning of my internship. This certainly helped, but a lot of things still confused me. I’m not going to lie, 3 months in, and I still don’t understand everything, not even close. But I try to understand what is happening, and when you have a team that wants to help you, it all gets so much easier.

This experience only made me realize I want to get to know more about data, and everything concerning it. Because as I already mentioned, data is the future and companies are getting drowned in it, not knowing what to do with that data.

Working from home

I started my internship at the office, which I enjoyed a lot. Having people around me that work for the same goal and seeing them work made it easier to work myself. But then corona made us work from home. I’m still grateful, even though it has not been easy for me. But just as everything in life, I got used to it. The thing is, I always got excited thinking about an internship, entering the office, greeting everyone while I’m holding my coffee and bag (Yes, I’m THAT girl). But oh well…

The hardest part is, that I'm the only one at home working from home. But obviously I'm not the only one from my colleagues (and the rest of the world) having a hard time, so that’s when my mentor came up with the idea to work together with team members on certain tasks via Google Meet. My competence, flexibility, comes in very handy. We also have “Kaffeetjes” (coffee in Dutch dialect), where everyone comes together, just to talk or play games.

 

Working from home

The important thing during these times is to realize that you’re not alone and that other people are going through the same hard times. So, being there for each other (having a chat, playing a game or even just working together in silence with your camera on) and trying to understand one another are a must.
 
No negativity, this has been a crazy experience so far, because I'm having the best of both worlds. I worked a few weeks from the office, and I'm learning how to work fully remote. Another experience I can take with me to a future job.

A little motivation for future interns

Embrace this chapter of your professional career and make the best of it. Because even though we don’t always get paid with money, we get paid with knowledge and experience. And that's what I’m most grateful for. A team that helped me learn as much as possible. A team that helped me in knowledge and experience.

Don't forget to always stay positive and to always think positive, because positivity makes hard times less hard.

I hope you enjoyed my short story. For now, stay safe, wash your hands, wear your mask, keep your distance. Take care of yourself and your surroundings. Together we will make it. £ù€% corona!

 

Topics: Tengu

Sandrine Reguig

Written by Sandrine Reguig

Sales and Marketing intern at tengu.io | Student international business management

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