Being a tech company setting its sights on the mental wellness market, it goes without saying that everyone on the team is constantly looking out for one another, recognising signs of mental exhaustion or burnout. My experience at Zoala was nothing short of amazing. Having worked in both the business and development aspects, I learned and helped in market analysis and research, as well as developing and designing our very own chatbot! Zoala has allowed me to grow in both my technical capabilities and intangible skills, from communication to the ability to follow up, empathise, and be kind. Everyone at Zoala has a lot to give and impart, and at the same time, all of them were also very welcoming to constructive feedback!

I was involved in building the scoring for users and testing and implementing chatbot APIs we could tap on for our mobile app. The most challenging part of the internship was the part I enjoyed: getting the chatbot up and running and implementing it into the app. The sense of satisfaction when I could see the work that the development team had done on the mobile app working well was unforgettable.

 

My favourite part about Zoala

Something I looked forward to during my time at Zoala was definitely lunch! Not just purely because it is a time when I can rest my eyes and mind but also the conversations and bonding that we have during lunches. Lunch allowed me to learn more about the team, and it might be advice from our founder, stories about NSF days (for guys), or even random talks about hiking. Regardless of what it was, lunch was always an enjoyable time.

 

Now that my internship has ended, I will miss the days of having lunch with the team as we talked about subjects outside of work and got to know each other better. It is heartwarming to see Zoala’s employee’s choosing to eat together by default and spend time with each other rather than eating alone. There will even be times when the team would bring us further out for lunch and allow us to try out food outside of Funan.

 

To future interns

To future/current interns, I had one hell of a ride by being open-minded and absorbing whatever I can, whenever I can, I suggest y’all do the same and your journey will definitely be as fruitful if not more than mine!

 

My advice to future interns is that at Zoala, projects are very volatile and it is important to be able to quickly adapt to changes and have the right mindset for the next task. At the same time, bring value to myself and make an effort to learn as much as possible before I leave the company.

 

To Zoala team

It was my honour to be working at Zoala during my university Year 1 summer. I am extremely grateful to Zoala for allowing me to learn and expose myself to understanding how one operates in a start-up environment.