As temporary job displacements reached a record high during the pandemic due to business closures and movement control orders, flexible and remote working arrangements have become a critical enabler to ensure both business and economic continuity.

Now, a few months down the line, as we attempt to adapt to the increasing demands of the new normal and go virtual, these circumstances have opened up new opportunities not only for our existing team, but also university students looking to gain first-hand working exposure as well as try a hand at the current job market, especially in FinTech.

At Curlec, we offer university students and fresh graduates the opportunity to learn industry traits in a robust programme that applies classroom theory to real-world challenges. Thus, understanding the ecosystem and technology that powers our products and services are crucial, and this is heavily infused in our work environment.

Today, we caught up with our new set of interns to shed some light on the working arrangements post Covid-19 and what they have learnt on the job so far.

 

The Interns Behind Curlec’s Technology

“As a first year Computer Science student at Swansea University, it has been fun working and learning with the team at Curlec. Throughout the duration of the internship, I have learnt to code Javascript, HTML, CSS and PHP to develop plugins which allow businesses to add payment gateways on their website.”

“Currently based and working remotely from Kota Kinabalu, I joined Curlec because I’ve always been curious about how things work in a FinTech startup and also would like to take this opportunity to learn about web development.”

– Lawrence Ngu Ley Chun, Kota Kinabalu

 

Having had no previous experience in web development prior to joining Curlec, Brandon Ho, an undergraduate student pursuing Computer Science at Imperial College London has always been interested in startups and FinTech.

“I really enjoy working closely with Curlec’s Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Steve and Subbu. The past couple of weeks have been extremely rewarding, juggling the production of working demos as well as navigating a new framework I just learnt.”

“Although I have been working remotely from Kota Kinabalu, I am really enjoying the experience so far. People often misunderstood that a job in Tech is very easy going, even though it’s not as easy as it seems. Technology is evolving everyday and along with it, we ourselves have to constantly upgrade our toolbox to stay ahead.”

– Brandon Ho, Kota Kinabalu

 

Taking up A-Levels at Kolej Yayasan UEM prior to joining Curlec, Jonathan has assisted on a variety of tasks, including both production and upgrade works on the existing system.

“This internship experience has enabled and motivated me to learn new technical skills in the fastest way possible. Having supportive mentors and teammates, in addition to the flexible timetable, the experience has been a rewarding one so far, especially when the work that you produce is put into actual use.”

– Jonathan Foo Jen Ji, Kota Kinabalu

 “Adaptability, willingness to learn new things as well as being able to make quick decisions are some of the qualities that everyone needs to know about working in the startup scene,” says James, a current undergraduate student from UCL.

“I am currently working on upgrading the system together with the team, and I am glad that I have mentors that are very friendly and helpful who are willing to take the time to teach us the ropes of the job remotely. Here, I am able to work closely with my mentors and peers in an environment where we can easily collaborate and ask questions regarding the work we have done.”

– James Ong Lee Jie , Johor Bahru

 

An Imperial College fresh grad with a degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering degree, Yee Hong is currently assisting with the cyber security program at Curlec from Penang.

Speaking about his first working experience since graduating, he cites:

“Competition is strong regardless of the company being a corporate or a startup. It is all about finding your niche and standing out from the crowd. I enjoy taking ownership of the projects assigned to me, having to lead them as well as advise the team on what needs to be done.”

– Low Yee Hong, Penang

 

Taking up IB at International School Kuala Lumpur with ambitions to pursue Software Engineering in the future, Evan came to Curlec with the hopes to get hands-on working experience as well as learn more about how coding works in the real world.

“At the start of my internship, I was looking forward to focusing on back-end coding, so i didn’t expect to be assisting the marketing team with the front-end work as well. It was a good surprise though, and I would never have realised how important front-end coding is without this internship.”

– Loo Hsien Rong Evan, Kuala Lumpur

 

Stay tuned for Part 2 of the feature as we caught up with our Research & Analytics Interns, Min Qi and Andrew on how their work drives data driven decisions at Curlec.