My First Month Interning with First Circle’s Data Team
By: Michelle Michalowski
Tags: New Hire, Data In Fintech, Data Science

Hi! My name is Michelle, and I recently joined First Circle as a data analytics intern. This is the first data blog post we’re publishing, and I’m really excited to share the experience I’ve had so far as a new employee!

Tell me something about yourself

Probably the most interesting thing about me is that I’m from Germany, and the reason I came over to the Philippines is for my internship at First Circle. I just recently graduated from the University of Mannheim with a degree in economics specializing in statistics, but more than that, I plan to take further studies later this year, specifically for a master's degree in big data in Madrid. On a less serious note, I love to spend my free time running, traveling to different places, and meeting new people, and these could also be some of the reasons why I chose to spend a semester abroad in Japan and to work in an international start-up like First Circle in the Philippines. I am incredibly excited for my next three months here in Manila!

Why I joined First Circle

The first time I heard about First Circle was through a friend I met during a semester abroad in Japan. After casually searching about what First Circle does, I took a closer look and found that First Circle is addressing an important issue faced by small business owners in fast-growing emerging countries: short term cash flow gaps that hamper growth.

The combination of First Circle’s vision of advancing the Philippine economy and the internationality of the team convinced me to apply for a position in the data team. To me, there’s probably no better place to work than in a highly innovative, data-driven start-up.

The application process was hard but interesting. First I submitted my application documents, and after a while, I received a take-home challenge. Last but not least, I had my interview where I got to present the results of the challenge. The process was really different from what I experienced in Germany so far, and to be honest, I really liked it! It was amazing to get the chance of working on the data challenge because you get a preview of what working in the data team is like. Finally, I got my offer within three weeks of the interview and flew over to Manila.

My first month

In the first week, new employees like myself underwent different onboarding sessions. The data team onboarding was extremely helpful to familiarize me with different new tools and to get to know my team better.

In my second week, I started working on small tasks like querying in SQL or creating dashboards in Metabase. Furthermore, I had the freedom to choose which projects I’d be interested in working on. At First Circle, each team sets itself different targets for a certain time period, the so-called OKRs (objectives and key results). These OKRs comprise an objective which is a clearly defined goal combined with one or more key results — specific measures to track the success of the outcome. The OKRs of the data team can be divided into two main categories: data analytics and engineering. Finally, together with my advisor, we decided that I will work on a loan book dashboard combined with a risk forecasting model, and that’s what I’m currently working on. My OKR belongs to the analysis part since the final goal is to provide more certainty and better insights into the loan book of the firm. In the future, the dashboard and the model will serve mostly the risk team but also investors.

The best thing about First Circle

Definitely the company culture. I love that you really work in a team and that hierarchies are flat. Furthermore, the Townhall meetings on Fridays make you feel that everyone in the company works towards the same goal and that we are all aligned as a team!

Besides the company culture in general, I can say that the data team is deeply involved in the company. At First Circle, you will be working with different teams on different projects and really be part of the business. During my project, I will work together with our Chief Investment Officer and furthermore I have the freedom to think about which type of dashboard generates the highest value for the business.

In general, I feel very welcomed on the team. My buddy helps me a lot with many different questions and problems I encounter as a beginner on the job.

The hardest part

Personally, I found it difficult to understand the different tools that the data team uses and how these tools are integrated with one another. From the app to the data warehouse to the different services and sources of data that we had to understand, it can all get confusing to someone new. However, given that First Circle is a fin-tech, almost every process is documented and implemented digitally.

Why you will learn a lot at First Circle

I would describe the general working environment at First Circle as extremely dynamic and fast-paced. It is incredible what the data team achieved within one year and that’s why the company is a good place to get exposed to many different challenges/topics within a short time frame. Furthermore, I really liked the aspect that the team mainly uses open source tools like Metabase, Airflow or Docker.

Why you should join First Circle

I can think of three compelling reasons: