Summer Intern Experience
Graduating early from college left me with four months of time to kick back and relax. The bucket list which had been augmenting for the past four years finally began to shrink. The beginning of the vacation saw me full of energy and enthusiasm. However, as weeks passed, boredom started seeping in. The fact that I had not been productive for weeks made me feel slightly guilty. Before the dilemma could have started torturing me, I got a wonderful email from Neha. Yup!!! I had cleared my interviews and was eligible to be a Wingtern. I was lucky enough to secure an internship at Wingify and decided to make the most of this opportunity. Feedback from ex-wingterns assured me of the perfect work life balance at Wingify. This meant that not only could I pacify the workaholic within me but also have a great time doing so. In short, I got both the things I wanted (FOMO solved). Wuhoo!!!
The journey begins
I pulled up my socks and began the ride as a Wingtern. Fortuitous meeting with the Director of Engineering, Ankit Jain, was pivotal in defining the course of the intern. Having assessed my profile and area of interests, Ankit gave me an opportunity to work on a project which stood at the confluence of my work in the past and what I wanted to pursue in future. I appreciated the immense faith he showed in me. I was given a research based project and was supposed to build it from ground up.
The project — Churn Prediction
After all the hype I have built around my project, let me not keep you in suspense any longer. The task at hand was to detect the churn probability. In other words, I was supposed to predict the chances of an account/customer to turn inactive and stop using the product. This high level description sounds overly simplistic. However, complexities arise when we consider the fact that we lacked structured data and that there were no defined parameters which determine the user’s on-line behavior. The end to end product fetches the data using appropriate crons. The collected data is cleaned and arranged in the desired format. The structured data is then analysed to find specific combination of parameters which can help determine the churn. Appropriate classification techniques are applied to generate the desired model which predicts the churn probability with satisfactory precision.
Well, the above mentioned project is just the minor one. My major feat was — Mission Table Tennis 😛
Mission Table Tennis
While some called me ‘TT — intern’, others preferred to call me a loafer. Well, they were not at fault, it sure appeared so 😜. A few rallies on the table and I was hooked to the game 😍. My TT sessions used to extend throughout the official working hours and the actual work began at 8 pm and extended into the wee hours. Weekends were utilized preparing for a few exams and chilling out with friends, exploring the amazing nightlife that Delhi has to offer.
In spite of the outlook of my peers and my skewed schedule, I did manage to get some work done 😜. I religiously fulfilled my weekly deliverables and kept my manager updated about my progress. The end result was that not only did I manage to hone my TT skills but also succeeded in delivering a product that went over and beyond the initial requirements. I hope my finished product would be actively used at Wingify even in the future and I look forward to the day when it’s true success shows up on the revenue sheets.
Quintessence of Wingify
This experience would have been hollow if not for the wonderful people that I met here .The essence of Wingify is its people who make it a truly remarkable place to work at. Tremendous help and support by my manager Vivek Kishore and mentor Siddharth Goyal made my work a breeze. When the obstacles seemed overpowering Gaurav and Venus helped me find the grit to keep at it. I bonded over Chai and snacks with my colleagues. Had it not been for Anubhav, Mission Table Tennis would have been impossible (will learn your Personalised Serve in future 🙌). The cake that Anubhav and Richa brought for me was the best surprise I got on my birthday and it truly made my day. VM the great (Vanshika) thanks for the farewell tea and much needed support. Whenever the week draws to a close I find myself longing for the Friday night chill scenes that I used to have with Aditya Bhaiya. All these anecdotes are indelibly edged in my memory and still make me feel a part of the Wingify family.
Thanks a lot for a wonderful summer!! ❤❤❤