Greetings, Junwei here! I was part of an epic startup: FoodRazor and had the opportunity to join the humble role of a UI/UX design intern to further my skill set and experience during the summer holidays as I felt that only through external experience can provide a genuine challenge. This is also possibly influenced by my predilection for adventure and formal experience in larger companies.
Throughout the hectic and turbulent journey, I was greatly supported by both the sales & marketing team and the tech team to progress the overall user experience for the product. As a newbie in a startup, everything can be daunting at first where sudden huge projects drop suddenly on you from time to time, to having to juggle multiple different projects from various fields. Every step I took had to be decisive and self-oriented as a smaller startup would require less handholding and more initiative, which I was trying to improve on.
As time progressed, I found myself learning new skills by attending online courses on the side while simultaneously implementing the tools that I have learned. This spurred me to think ahead and be resilient as I struggled with the tools. Despite the difficulties, I had a great sense of fulfilment after being able to create more engaging and newer prototypes, creative media for the team with the newer tools. This has developed my tenacity and the new knowledge in my arsenal will surely serve me well regardless of where I will progress to in the future.
Some would argue that it is unfavourable to compare past experiences, however, throughout my journey in FoodRazor, it felt like I was part of the picture as I was consistently involved in every aspect of the product, and not forgetting that everyone naturally receptive and sincere towards with each other. Naturally, it bridged us immediately and cultivated a warm working space where one would be more than welcomed to share his idea and aspirations without worries. With great chemistry to such an extent, it saddens me that I must eventually part ways to attend school again.
Despite having to leave after a few short enjoyable months, I must say that the extraordinary experience has imparted a collection of soft skills, like various coding languages, marketing aspects. Above all, I would like to mention the most significant takeaway would be the people-centred skill that was energetically encouraged and preached by our lovely CEO, Alf. He who has a jovial personality has inspired me to grow with a venturous spirit and to always move forward in a pack!
All in all, being an intern in FoodRazor was a great opportunity provided by Alf and his team, and for that, I would like to thank them for having me while constantly pushing my limits like putting me through various tasks and courses. This not only allowed me to better myself but to also find my weaknesses. With the typical learning experience aside, it is worth recognizing that the team is cohesive despite the ups and downs! As we plough through the difficult situations, we stood strong as a family and faced each situation together and that probably brought us closer together. We were not always physically near each other but every toast during each Friday's Zoom Catchups was heartfelt, which motivates me to explore and reach out to more people in my future endeavours.
