Junior Playmaker: An Internship Program at Databox

Take the first step and launch your career through our Junior Playmaker Internship program in Ptuj, Slovenia. Solve real technical challenges by learning from experienced engineers in an environment with distributed systems and scalability opportunities that affect millions of users. 

What is the Junior Playmaker Internship Program all about?

Junior Playmaker is a 3-month internship program for graduates and students. It will give you a real taste of everyday operations in a fast-growing B2B/SaaS company with a global team of 100+ Playmakers that helps other companies monitor and improve their business performance. 

Our 6 Product and Engineering teams have over 35 members with extensive experience in UI/UX design, frontend/mobile/backend development, product growth, and analytics. We build our products and features from scratch using the latest technologies and juggle huge amounts of data daily.

As our needs evolve, we keep exploring new tools and ideas and love working alongside people who are willing to try new things. In addition to our partnership projects with the Informatics and Computer Science departments of the University of Ljubljana and the University of Maribor, we want to give young enthusiasts an opportunity to help scale our systems for millions of users. 

Mentoring, code reviews, and writing tests are only some of the core engineering principles you’ll be challenged with. If this piques your curiosity, keep reading.

Who is the internship program for?

The Junior Playmaker program is dedicated to graduates and students in the second half of their University programs (in the fields of computer science, information technologies, or informatics), with a desire to learn practical engineering skills and find a thriving environment in which they can start growing their careers. 

To be a bit more specific: we are looking for individuals with basic knowledge and experience in Node.js, .NET, TypeScript (backend), or JavaScript/HTML/CSS, React, Ember (frontend), and relational databases (preferably PostgreSQL) that are excited about the opportunity to develop those skills further. We know new programming languages can be learned quickly, but we care much more about your general engineering skills than your knowledge of a particular language or framework. You’ll grow and develop here. That’s a promise.

We’re especially excited to welcome young bright minds who would like to grow their engineering skills and have a strong sense of ownership, problem-solving abilities, and a goal-driven mentality, which makes them proactively seek opportunities that create value.

What can you expect when you join the Junior Playmaker internship?

We want to emphasize that this internship program is not separate from our normal stream of product development. We believe that the best way to become a good software engineer is to learn by doing. The program usually lasts 3 months, with the possibility of extension.

Here’s what you can expect from the internship:

• Access to first-class mentorship and support
  Every Databox intern is paired with a mentor who provides them with technical assistance. On top of that, you’ll receive support from your manager and have access to the entire Databox employee community to ensure your success.

Learn more about our team here and get familiar with the faces you’ll be potentially looking over your desk 😉

• A taste of what it feels like working in a real-life engineering team
  We consider our interns to be members of the Databox Playmakers team like any other employee. This means you’ll have the opportunity to contribute directly to real projects and the goals of our P&E teams and quarterly initiatives after your training and the first few weeks. The goal (for you and your mentors) is for you to learn new technologies and pick up professional engineering skills.

• Developing a diverse network
  Our interns have the opportunity to mingle and connect with the entire team of Databox Playmakers, not just fellow engineers. So you’ll be able to pick brains from different profiles and learn about the industry from multiple aspects. As long as you’re curious and not afraid to ask questions of course 😉 

• Having fun along the way 
  During their time in our program you’ll be a part of a team of fun-loving and mindset-driven individuals, and experience the real-life of a Databox Playmaker – think team events, coffee talks, debates, volleyball sessions, and more.

What kind of projects will you be working on?

Everyone starts with a formal onboarding. The first week is be dedicated to getting to know the team and familiarizing yourself with our work, processes, and culture. The next step is learning about our organizational structure, product, and engineering teams, and getting to know their responsibilities, followed by a deeper dive into understanding our product. 

Your work will be monitored by a senior team member who will also become your mentor. The role of your mentor will not only be to support and guide you, but also to carefully monitor your progress. Yes, this includes peer reviews and regular feedback. That’s how you learn after all, right?

After the initial week or two, you’ll start working on concrete projects for example: getting familiar with REST APIs and effective tackling of all their limitations, such as pagination, rate limits, error handling, data dumps, event hooks, etc. 

The 4-step application process 

1. Apply and submit your resume
   After the initial scan of applications, we select the most suitable candidates and send them an assignment.

2. Complete online assignment
   Because we have a limited number of intern positions (we only accept approx. 10% of applicants) we advise you to show off your skills and creativity.
   
3. Final interview
   After reviewing the assignments we invite the candidates to an interview to meet them in person and learn more about their passions.

4. Join the team!
   If the interview confirms we’re right for each other, we’ll send you an offer, and Voila! You are now a Databox intern.

We’re pretty sure you have more questions. We’re ready to answer all of them.

How long does the Junior Playmaker internship last?
The Junior Playmaker internship program usually lasts 3 months with the possibility of extending. As long as both parties are satisfied with the arrangement and you have your student status, time, and a desire to learn, you’re welcome to stay on the team. 

When is the right time to apply?
Junior Playmaker internship positions are always available but limited by open positions. Every year we invite 3-4 interns to join our midst so we advise you to move quickly with your application.

Ideally, internship candidates come from the Information technology and Computer science departments and are graduates or students in the second half of their University program with a desire to learn more practical engineering skills and find a thriving environment to start growing their careers. Other than that it’s really up to you to think about the right time to start gaining experience and the time you can dedicate to growing your skills. 

Who are we looking for?
We are looking for an individual with basic knowledge and experience in Node.js, .NET, TypeScript (backend), or JavaScript/HTML/CSS, React, Ember (frontend) that is excited at the opportunity to develop those skills further. 

We also appreciate individuals who are eager to learn, but most of all, we value an ownership mindset.

Is this a full-time internship? Will I be able to work during my school year?
Don’t worry, we understand your education is a priority for you at this time. That’s why we offer flexible working hours. It’s up to you to decide on your work schedule. All that aside, we wish to welcome individuals who are eager to learn and grow, which also requires dedication and ownership. For that reason, the ideal time to plan your internship might be during the summer, right after finishing your mandatory internship at the University.

How do you decide who joins the Junior Playmaker internship?
We open 3-4 internship positions a year and only invite a handful of candidates to join our midst. We start the process by reviewing all applications, finding the most appropriate candidates, and presenting them with an assignment designed to test their skills. We then review the task results and invite candidates to a more detailed interview to decide who to welcome as our new intern.

How can I stand out in my application?
Firstly, do your research and let us know why you are interested in joining the team. In addition to your resume, we love to see projects you’ve been working on to date. However, this doesn’t mean we prioritize candidates with more experience – it just helps us to get a better sense of who you are, where you’re already skilled, and what you are passionate about.

Will I receive feedback that will help me advance faster?
You can expect to get regular one-on-one feedback from your mentor, who will check up on your work, elaborate on your progress and strengths, and give you feedback on the skills you need to improve – not to create pressure, but give you a clear focus while moving forward.

If you’re up for the challenge, browse our open internships here and when you find the one, hit that apply button. We’ll ask you to upload your CV and share your LinkedIn profile. After that, give us some time and we’ll get back to you.

P.S. If you don’t see any open positions, don’t be shy and send us a message to tell us more about who you are, what you care about, and where you want to go. We’d be crazy not to recognize a driven young mind and invite you to an interview.