At Twipe each summer, we welcome a cohort of interns to join our teams. During our internship programme, students are able to get valuable experience in the working world and interns bring fresh perspectives to challenge existing processes. This summer, Dries de Kort joined our Backend team and Kobe Jacobs joined our Customer Success Management team. Read on to hear about their experiences and why they chose Twipe.
Why did you choose to do your summer internship at Twipe?
Dries: Together with my friends, I participated in the Twipe Hackathon. To me, it was immediately clear what a fun working environment Twipe offered. The team were very kind at the hackathon and gladly helped us with our questions. Before the hackathon started, a small presentation about Twipe was given and I decided I would really like to help with work on the Twipe products.
Kobe: The first time I came in contact with Twipe was at the Ekonomika IT fair. I was there gathering information on internships in IT oriented companies and after a few hours I saw the Twipe JAMES banner just before leaving. After talking with the team who explained about Twipe, I was so intrigued I immediately asked if there was a possibility to apply for a summer internship. The fact that Twipe was in the phase of going from a start-up to a scale-up, which is a very important moment in the life of a company, really caught my attention.
Which projects did you work on?
Dries: I worked on the Twipe Publishing Tools which are used for the management of customer installations. There, I made several improvements to help create a better experience for customers and the Twipe team. I also created a transformer for customers to use to provide their newspapers. These newspapers are parsed and transformed to a mobile version.
Kobe: I experienced the different phases of projects across different titles to get full exposure to all areas of Customer Success work at Twipe. The first thing I worked on was information gathering and sorting of the MAG’s who are migrating their apps to Twipe’s newest platform. I was able to learn all the kinds of different things necessary for such a migration and the templates in which they should be delivered. My next challenge was the follow up of styling and all the necessary tests that needed to be done before final approval to go live with the update. But the most important project I worked on during my internship was the update of the custom error messages of 56 apps. This was my very own project where I was responsible for the coordination, testing and submission of the apps.
How did you find the vibe being part of the dynamic Twipe team?
Dries: Being part of the Backend team was very pleasant. They were always open to help me and I could ask any questions I needed. I liked that all the different teams gave presentations to me about their responsibilities at Twipe so I could get a broad overview of the company. This gave a clear picture of how a company functions and how all the teams work together. I also really enjoyed the after-work activities with the awesome team.
Kobe: In a dynamic team you have to rely on your team members and ensure a smooth and efficient way of working in order to achieve your goals. From the second I joined the CSM team, I felt part of that group dynamic. Being assigned responsibilities and meaningful tasks at a very early stage as an intern ensured that my motivation to complete them was extremely high. I didn’t have much experience in the corporate world, but it is hard to imagine a place with a better working vibe than Twipe. The open and honest communication is in my opinion the main driver of this vibe. I started my internship in a company with a group of people unknown to me and I end my internship with hard-working fun-loving and ever-friendly Twipees.
What is the key thing you learnt during your internship?
Dries: I learned a lot by working with the API from the Tools Platform. I learned to intercept calls, change them and develop my own. I learned how real code is written. It is very interesting to work inside a large repository and see how developers ensure that the code is testable and maintainable. This was quite different from the theoretical, sometimes unrealistic, exercises at university.
Kobe: During my studies I learned a lot about the theoretical and technical side of companies, but this internship gave me real hands on experience. I learned a lot during my 6 weeks at Twipe, but the importance of clear documentation and communication is something that stood out. It is a skill that you can develop by listening to constructive feedback from colleagues and since something like this is not taught during your academic career, I would say this is “the key thing” I learned during my internship.
Would you recommend Twipe to future interns?
Dries: Yes, especially because you get some great practical experience. You can develop code from scratch and follow it up until it is fully deployed for clients. Plus, you get to work inside an awesome team of colleagues.
Kobe: Absolutely! You can learn a lot at Twipe, even in a small amount of time. If you make a mistake, you can expect constructive feedback. Of course listening carefully to that feedback in order not to make the same mistake twice is of the utmost importance, but if you are prepared to learn then Twipe is the ideal company for you as a future motivated intern.
