I am Uditi, a Singaporean and I’m in the midst of completing my degree at the National University of Singapore (NUS). I am also currently an intern working in the Marketing Department at Rewire (the picture above is of the team), a leading financial solution for internationals. So how did that happen? In November 2017, I had the wonderful opportunity to intern in a startup in Israel as part of my university’s entrepreneurship programme, the NUS Overseas Colleges. An internship at Rewire piqued my interest because it’s a fintech startup (my major is Finance) which is solving real financial problems that foreigners face when they migrate to other countries.
Fast forward to now, when I am nearing the end of my internship, I am glad I chose Rewire. I do not regret it at all. From the beautiful people I’ve met here, to the skills have picked up, my time at Rewire has been incredibly satisfying, and very memorable. This article will attempt to capture the learning I’ve had as well as describe what it is like to be part of the Rewire family.
Learning during the Internship
I started my internship in Jan 2018, without much prior experience in marketing, other than being part of some marketing committees at NUS. But those just touch one segment of marketing – business development and event planning.
In July 2018, I will leave with a much broader view of what marketing entails. I have worked on market research, website design, making guides, SEO, content marketing, google analytics, business development, projects such as the wire transfer project (a project to encourage users to open bank accounts so that they can enjoy the convenience of sending money overseas with their bank accounts from their homes), Ambassador’s Programme, and more during my time in Israel. I have been allowed to take charge of projects and given the opportunity to see things from the shoes of the Head of Marketing.
My learning has been a mix of independent learning, as well as a lot of guidance from my colleagues who are very approachable, very willing to help, and talented. What you learn depends on how much initiative you take to ask questions. And don’t worry, Israelis love to be asked questions and to be challenged. In fact, they feel that something is amiss if someone doesn’t ask any questions. So make sure to ask away all your doubts.
Well of course my learning is not just limited to marketing, I have been able to learn about how the Support, Operations, Development, and the Finance teams work as well. These are things you can’t really learn if you were to intern at a bigger company (including bigger startups).
It has also been exciting to see new changes going on in the company such as the game-changing opening up of deposit points at Super-Pharm, the largest pharmacy chain in Israel, which changes how people view traditional cash deposit inlets. This is because traditional depositing points in Israel are at exchange shops, and a pharmacy has never been thought of to be a place where one can send money abroad.
Nurturing and Open Culture at Rewire
“The secret to keeping employees is to make everyone feel that you can truly make a change in the organization.” This was said by one of the founders of IronSource, a leading startup in Israel that provides solutions for app developers.
Although I am just an intern, during my time in Israel at Rewire, I have truly felt this. People are always open to new ideas as long as they are feasible, and it aligns with what the company wants to achieve. In fact, I am expected to come up with new ideas, which I find challenging because even startups have restrictions given the ever-changing environment. Rewire embodies this startup culture of openness and it lets everyone feel that you can make a difference.
Another thing you will find though is that most people here are direct. But this is not just applicable to Rewire. This is just how Israelis are. While this did shock me a bit, after a while, I started to like it because it allows more room for self-improvement, and less room for hard feelings.
I am super grateful for having been part of the Rewire family and am already dreading the last day of work. There are so many good memories I have of Rewire, and I could only wish to stay longer. While it did take time for me to adjust in the beginning, very soon I felt at home. It is beyond just work here – people here are really caring, fun and inclusive and take a personal interest in your lives, and generously help you even with your school work and personal pursuits. Here’s a picture of all of us on Purim, the Israeli Halloween where everyone dresses up.
I’m going to miss Rewire!!!
Here are some experiences of other interns who have been lucky enough to be part of the Rewire family.
Roger – Software engineer Intern
Rewire is one of the most nurturing places for an NUS Overseas Colleges Singapore (NCIS) software engineer to be working at. Adi and Saar are both ex Microsoft and are extremely talented. What I feel sets them apart is their willingness to teach, the desire to mentor the next generation of Developers. All the mid-level software engineers at the company are also very talented- they write modular, functional code and test robustly. These are guys who’ve cut their teeth working on military projects for >3 years, and they’re all about imparting their knowledge too. I’ve learnt a lot about ES6, webpack, client server management, modular architecture, e2e testing, dockerization, reverse proxy, how large computer systems work, VCS, databases etc etc etc. As for job scopes, they are flexible.
Judy – Marketing and Business Development Intern
To me, Rewire was home; a place where I feel a sense of belonging and familiarity in a foreign land. Despite the cultural and linguistic differences between my colleagues and I, I have never felt left out in the company. They never fail to extend their love to me by asking me about my weekend, recommending me places to travel to, even to the extent of inviting me to their homes! In addition, Rewire also has the best company welfare; where everyone takes the initiative to organise company outings, bi-weekly game nights and weekly happy hours (with ice-cream or muffins!). Other than my lovely colleagues, I also had a very meaningful internship experience with Rewire. My amazing supervisor, Nitzan, not only guided me through my tasks with patience, but he also served as a great mentor by giving me advice on my startup idea(s). During my internship stint, I had the opportunity to learn and try out different functions – varying from graphic design, user interface prototyping, to business development and market research. In conclusion, I was very satisfied with my Rewire internship and I would definitely recommend you to intern here *inserts 100 emoji*
Ashlie – Marketing and Business Development Intern
Beyond being a company with a great product and a great mission, working with the up-to-now largely underserved community also creates a very different set of customer needs and approaches. My experience at Rewire not only allowed me to develop my skills in marketing, communications and design, but also gave me the opportunity to be introduced to new skills and business functions in a start-up. The company is a great place for you to learn and grow- the people at Rewire are extremely talented at what they do, but are also extremely nurturing and will not hesitate to go out of their way to teach you (They also helped me a lot with my Hebrew homework). As a result, I was introduced to the (amazing and beautiful) world of UI/UX, which I previously had not had any experience with before. As a whole, this experience has also given me a much stronger idea of the direction which I would like to take my start-up career in and the expectations of the kind of work environment that I want in the future. Apart from that, I got to learn and experience a lot about Israeli/Filipino/Indian life and culture with and from my co-workers who I am thankful to be able to call friends (I hope this is not unrequited). Rewire holds a special place in my heart- never would I have imagined to find a family out of an internship program that made me feel not so foreign in a fairly foreign land.
Jing – Software Engineer Intern
I was incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to learn from the best, Adi and Saar, who are incredibly good and have tons of experience, so there’s really so much that you can learn from them. During the internship, I built a Facebook Messenger chatbot which helps customers with their queries. Adi was my direct supervisor and really went all the way to teach me how to think about designing software, what considerations to have in mind, and more. One of the things I really appreciated was that whenever I went to him with questions, instead of giving an immediate answer, he would take the time to guide me through the problem, showing how to analyse the problem and eventually reach a solution. The proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” applies aptly, and my internship with Rewire helped me to set good foundations in software development, which I really appreciated when I did subsequent projects. Rewire is a wonderful place to intern in, and I hope you have as great of a time as I did.
Jessica – Business and Development Intern
Interning at Rewire has helped me sharpen my marketing skills and acquire other business skill sets through working for various departments. Also, the people at Rewire are smart, encouraging and very talented to work with. With such vast opportunities and great company culture within a fast-moving startup, I assure you - your experience in Rewire will be enriching and exciting!