At the start of 2020, I was lucky to have the experience to have started my internship at one of the best tech companies in Indonesia. For over half a year, I have gained an amazing experience and knowledge that might not be available anywhere else. I believe that deciding to join Garena was a great decision and I feel really lucky to be part of them for a while.

In this article, I’m going to share my journey as an Intern Frontend Web Developer at Garena. After reading this, you will also know the reason why you should take a chance at joining Garena.

How did everything start?

Everything started when I was looking for a company to do my internship program. There was a job fair at my university that invites a lot of companies and help students to find their place to do their internship. There were a lot of big companies there, however, I had a bigger ambition. So, I tried to inquire to the HR of Garena to know whether there was an intern opening or not. Luckily, there was and I immediately applied as an intern web developer.

How was the hiring process?

The hiring process started when I sent an email with my curriculum vitae attached, sent to the Human Resource team of Garena. A few days later, I got my invitation to the Web Developer Intern interview process which was scheduled the very next day. The online interview started with the manager asking me about my experience in the web developing world and the projects that I have done. The next stage was about solving some backend-related code problems which revolve around the understanding of Git, Algorithm, Data Structures, and SQL. I felt confident that I could do it well and my confidence turns out to be right, in less than 3 days I got an email saying that I was welcomed to be part of the Garena’s Web Developer team. I was overflowed with joyfulness, it was one of my favorite moments in that year.

Why you should join Garena?

There are so many reasons why I said joining Garena was a great decision, these paragraphs below will help you to know why.

It Just Feels Incredible

Do you know what is the best feeling in the world you can ever experience apart from taking off your socks after a long day of using it? Yes, it is doing something that you love to do while getting paid well, it’s especially true when you work for a very prestigious company. Working here just felt so incredible because of the feeling that you know that you had made it to one of the biggest tech companies in Indonesia. That’s what I felt everyday, happiness, pride, and also determined. Why determined? This brings us to the next topic very well.

At Garena, Your Work is Used by Users from All Over The World.

Yes, you read it right. This is one of the reasons why I was so determined was because of this, that the product, which in my case the website that I built from the ground-up was used by millions of people throughout the world. This is a unique experience that not many interns from other companies have, this is something for Garena interns to be proud of. However, this also gave me pressure to create a flawless and responsive website, luckily there is something that eases up the pressure well, and that is…

A Great Working Culture

Here, although coming from different universities, everyone blends well. I especially adore the willingness of seniors to share knowledge and experiences, and everyone’s desire to learn from each other. I also love the fact that everyone, including the manager, tries to make the working condition as fun and enjoyable as possible. pssst…we also have a group dedicated to sharing memes.

Garena Web Developer Team

Besides all the amusement that working there gave, they also made sure that you learn well. For every one or two interns, they have provided an experienced mentor that helps you grow. Their help means a lot especially when you have tried to solve a problem yourself and even stack-overflowed it but still, you can’t seem to find the solution.

These things make you know that…

You Are Valuable Here

As an intern, you will be treated in the same regard as to the full-timer. Which means, your opinion stands too in the meeting. And of course, you will also get facilities and benefits that full-timers have.

The first benefit that most of the other companies don’t have is free lunch and dinner, in every meal, they also provide you with some additional supplementary food such as ice cream and assorted fruits. To make your days more delightful, they also provide you with an unlimited supply of milo, either hot or cold one (yum!), and of course unlimited snacks. This is especially important because Garena Indonesia’s office is located in Jakarta’s one of the most expensive areas.

Garena’s Office is Inside of FWD Tower

Secondly, they make sure of your well-being. Whenever you are feeling drowsy, you can rest for a while at one of the bean bags available in the office. There are even pool tables available that you can use outside the working time.

Third, they organized some great internal activities frequently. During my 7 months internship, I had experienced so many interesting activities. Starting from a treat to All U Can Eat restaurant by the manager, and then twice of virtual dinner where we got a 100k voucher to be spent on food that we would eat it together while we were talking together in a virtual room. We also had something called “WebDev Day”, it was an online event where every member of the Web Developer team shared their idea or technique that would make Web Developing easier.

Last, you will get a sizeable amount of salary for the internship level, higher than the other internship positions at other companies. All of these things make sure that you feel appreciated and you can work at your highest level of performance.

So What Did I Do There?

All of that seems fun, but you still don’t have an idea what I did right? Alright, even though, in the interview I applied as a Backend Web Developer, my manager moved me to Frontend Web Developer to help the team temporarily, luckily I got the skills needed to thrive.

One of my project: Voting System of an Online Competition

In the beginning, my first project is to create SEA Scholarship Website which is used as a website to give information on the SEA Undergraduate Scholarship. Then, I have two more projects done in the office before COVID-19 forces us to work from home. A few months later, I have done several other projects that took my Frontend and Problem Solving skills to the next level. Some of those projects are used as a means to promote users the newest event or gives the users ability to buy in-game items at a discounted price of one of the games of Garena. Speaking of which, the tech stack for Frontend Web Developer that Garena uses are HTML, CSS, and ReactJS. For the full detail on my projects for Garena, look up here: my-Garena-portfolio.

Cherry On Top

Finally, these last 7 months have been a real treat for me. I feel thankful for Garena to give me this opportunity. This internship has given me great experiences and knowledge that will certainly be helpful for my future.

Check out the original artile here : https://medium.com/@alpharex123/my-journey-as-an-intern-web-developer-at-garena-c9aeb965bfbe