If the correlation is 100%, then an error has precisely crept in somewhere: the internship experience at the Rambler Group

Rambler Group is a big company that needs talented employees. One way to get the right specialist is to train him yourself. For this we have internship programs. After them, the intern has great chances to become a full member of the team. Internships in the company can be students and graduates of Russian universities. The internship place is chosen not only depending on the education of the candidates - the opportunities of the interns, their personal interests and hobbies are also taken into account.

For example, in the commercial department of the Rambler Group in 2017, 10 interns were trained. Three of them were able to show themselves so well that their mentors immediately offered them a permanent job.

Often, interns can immediately get a part-time job, as they simultaneously graduate from university. In this case, the guys have the opportunity to work 20 hours a week at a convenient time for them. Today we will acquaint you with the stories of several of our interns.

Olya Mukhoromova, Mathematics Developer at Rambler Group

How did you come to us for an internship?
- It happened in March 2016. A HR representative from Rambler & Co wrote to me, saying that a colleague from another company (Yandex) recommended me, since I had just recently had an interview with him. Then there were several interviews already in Rambler & Co, and that’s it, they took me.

Tell me about the internship, how did you do it, what tasks did you give, what schedule?
- In fact, the word “internship” turned out to be quite conditional, in fact, I got a part-time job, because I studied at the university and could not work full time. My position was called junior mathematician-developer. In February 2017, I already moved to full-time work.

During this time I worked 20 hours a week, it worked for 2.5 days, because on some days, when I had university classes, I could not come to work. At first I was assigned to a department that was engaged in advertising and analytics on Rambler & Co resources, and then to a project on recommendations.

I liked that even despite the fact that you are a new and rather young employee, in Rambler & Co you are still listened to, given the opportunity to make your own decisions and you can safely suggest ideas. There was an interesting case, we had a task related to the use of time series. I remembered my tasks from my previous job and suggested one algorithm that I had invented earlier. And the guys from my team just said - "Yes, cool, let's do it!". And this algorithm even worked for some time “in progress”, even if not for long. It was nice to get this experience almost immediately, because at that time I worked for only about 3 months.

When you came, what surprised you most?
- First of all, I was very surprised by the number of people in the company and the high level of professionalism, it is immediately clear that people are doing what they really like. My colleagues told me that even a former NASA employee works for us, and, of course, it immediately impressed me a lot. For me, this was some kind of a completely new level, a huge flow of information, people, everyone is doing something.

What difficulties did you have at first?
- In the Rambler Group, there is a practice of holding meetings for developers, when you tell every day what you will do and what you have already done. And I was terribly worried about how and what to say to me, because it was hard to formulate tasks in a language that everyone could understand. Plus, I hardly understood what other people say, any abbreviations, terms, it all fell on my head like a bucket. But after a rather short time, thanks to the help of colleagues and the desire to get into the details, I already understood thoroughly what was going on.

What has become completely unusual and new to you?
- I had to learn Ubuntu and bash. And I never used it at all, all my life on Windows. My eyes needed to be seen at the moment of setting the first task on them. But it turned out that this was also a small difficulty, of course, at first it was necessary to google, but then everything returned to normal.

Did you have any blunders during your internship?
- Of course, there were some mistakes. When I just started to learn Spark, I gave 10 times more resources to a single task in the cluster than I needed, simply because it did not work. The guys explained that it was not so, but for some time they made fun of it all the same, and if I had not lost my mind, and why did I do this?

What was interesting for you during the internship?
- First of all, I learned a simple truth: if the correlation is 100% correct, then an error has definitely crept in somewhere. Once I was given a data set and asked to see what could be interesting from this set. I began to look at the values ​​of the variables in order to find out how they correlate with each other. And on my chart I got a correlation - one. Those. the two vectors are lined up and correlated at 100 percent probability. I came to the joyful colleagues, boast how cool it all happened. But they said that it seems that something is not right there ... And they were right.

When did you realize that you are not just a part-time intern, but a full-time employee?
- There was a case when six months later I was given a real combat mission, I needed to make recommendations for a project with Ecco. Of course, it was necessary to do it from scratch, there was the source code, which remained from the experiments. But this was my first task, where I did everything myself, and then it grew into a cool project. And it was at this moment that I experienced those same indescribable feelings when you did something, and it really works, does something useful, brings money or something else.

Daniil Domrachev, Rambler Group Commercial Department Customer Relations Manager

How long have you become an employee of our company?
- My internship ended last summer, I have been working in my position for a year now.

Why did you decide to stay at the company?
- It was significant for me how actively my immediate supervisor and other colleagues involved me in the workflow. Of course, initially, like many interns, I was engaged in easy operational tasks: I made out reports, and I made a presentation. However, after I became better at media planning, I was entrusted with the independent preparation of proposals, and then speaking with them to clients. That one is still an experience.

How was your first day with the company as an intern?
- On the first day, all the colleagues who were sitting next to me met, asked how I was doing, whether I liked everything, whether I needed help. And before that, they almost immediately gave out a computer and showed the workplace. In general, they took it really warmly, and the first day flew in such a way that I did not even notice.

At what point in your internship did you worry the most?
- Probably the most exciting moment of the internship was not a meeting with future colleagues, but a first presentation to clients. Interestingly, at the first meeting, my supervisor took me with him as early as the second week of the internship. And I was able to fully perform somewhere after two months - everything comes with experience.

Do you think that your internship has become the most interesting?
- Of course, this is an opportunity to see the work of the commercial department from the inside, to understand the specifics of the adjacent departments of the company. It is also important that the process of engaging in the work takes place so naturally as if by itself, that after a while you do not notice how you began to better understand the internal processes and quickly understand these or other nuances.

In your opinion, do you need a mentor trainee?
- Yes, because the fact that I made the decision to stay was a great merit of my immediate supervisor. The mentor tried to inspire me with tasks, did not load exclusively with mechanical work, which, it seems to me, is given to most trainees in other companies, because there simply is no point. If you take yourself an intern, then you are responsible for it. Quickly learn something is possible only with full immersion in work.

Nadezhda Nedorezova, Rambler Group Recruitment Manager

- The internship program in our company is a truly working tool to attract and retain talented candidates. During the internship, colleagues have the opportunity to assess the potential of employees, their abilities, makings and skills. On the other hand, we in HR can close vacant positions with this tool. In the end, everyone wins. For my part, I would like to give potential interns several recommendations:

• Feel free to ask questions. The more you learn at the start, the less you have to catch up later.
• Ask again if something is not clear. Worst of all, when it comes to elementary misunderstanding.
• Look around. Do not be afraid to take the initiative and responsibility for yourself.
• Chat with colleagues. People are willing to share experiences and help newcomers.

If you are interested in the topic of internships in the Rambler Group , feel free to write in the comments, or respond here and here .