Yusr Alkurdi | Product Associate Internship Experience

Need An Internship! 🏃

Let’s go back to the time I completed my university credit hours in Computer Science with a concentration on Digital Media Systems. I was searching for an internship opportunity as part of my university requirements to graduate. At that time, I saw a job opening at Sabbar called “Marketing Internship”. I know it’s not related to my studies but I was desperate and applying EVERYWHERE just to catch any opportunity. After I applied, I received an email to do a challenge test which was about “Lead Nurturing” 🥲 Ha! What is this??! I knew nothing about this. But I need this opportunity, so I searched, learned, and completed the challenge test 👻

I Found A Loophole 👀

The challenge test presentation went well and I got a positive feedback (I brought 3 cactuses with me so maybe it was the cactus effect on them 🌝 🌵🌵🌵). After the last interview, I was in the car, I opened Sabbar’s website to see a new job opening called “Product Associate Internship” 😱 THIS IS IT!! I want this! Not that!! I reached our to them, and directly told them that I want this position. I opened for them a university project to show them that I know stuff about product and capable for that job!

What happened? See the email 👇🏻

I got accepted! 🌟

Is time travel possible? ⌛

Probably, you heard this question a lot. I can tell you, In Sabbar, it is possible!

In 7 months, I learned what a person can learn in maybe 3 years or more! I travelled in time in upscaling my knowledge, soft skills, and even in my personality. I was directly working with 3 awesome founders that are always ready to help and give feedback (They use the sh*t sandwich way for feedback 🥪🌝)

Numbers speak for themselves, so here’s what I am proud to achieve during my internship:

Usability Testing | As Real as it Gets 💀

Here is a short story, I went for a usability test meeting with the two big bosses (Moe T, the CEO, & Afnan, the Co-Founder and Product Growth person). It was with one of our partners. I was responsible for using my laptop to record the session and my mobile to show the screens (UI Prototype). At that moment, my laptop battery died 🥲 My phone kept getting notifications from the family group on WhatsApp 🥲 The mobile screen kept auto locking 🥲 I forgot my mobile-to-laptop adaptor in the car 🥲 When we met the partner’s manager, I introduced my self as an intern, so he spent the entire session ignoring me 🥲… Needless to say, I ended up that day sleeping more than 12 hours to forget what happened.

🔑 Usability Tests Key Learnings:

• Always charge your phone, laptop or any electronic device up to 200%.
• Check your stuff before going out from the office/car to the meeting.
• Set your phone to “Do Not Disturb” mode + set the screen Auto-Lock to Never.
• NEVER NEVER introduce yourself as an intern!

Every End Is A New Beginning

Months have passed so fast and it was the time to do my internship presentation to the university, and start searching for my first real job 💼 But, I got this email:

It’s a full time job offer!! I got an offer to continue learning, to continue giving, and to reach places I never went before! All because I worked hard and got mentored by the right people!

Actually, I am writing my Internship after 1 year of being in Sabbar. I looked back and said: Allah has chosen the best route for me. I am delightful to be here. Still learning, giving, and getting ready for a bright future 🚀