In time for the launch of Wix Grow, three of our engineers in Vilnius shared with us their experience as interns-turned-employees
This May, Wix will launch Wix Grow - a six-month long program for engineering students, graduates and self learners in Lithuania.
Ahead of the upcoming program, we spoke with people who started as interns in Wix Lithuania to hear from them how the experience helped them develop their skills and what they do today at Wix.
Mantas Sakalauskas first heard of Wix way before he started as an intern at Wix. A few years earlier, when he was a high school student, he attended a professional conference in Vilnius, heard Wix’s CEO, Avishai Abrahami, talk about Wix’s vision, and was very inspired. Back then, Wix didn’t have any presence in Lithuania.
“A few years afterwards, when I was a student at Nottingham University in the U.K and was studying computer science. I was looking for a way to start my career after my first semester, and I searched job ads in Lithuania. I noticed that the company I knew from that conference was now looking for interns. I applied and flew to Vilnius for an interview and then I was accepted for a three-month program during the summer of 2015. There were six of us and we formed two small teams of interns, all of us not knowing much about programming. We had a really cool mentor and we were building projects for the Wix App Market. It was a really great experience. Basically, I came in the beginning of the summer knowing barely anything about programming, and after those three months I knew how to do Frontend coding and a bit of Backend coding as well. That summer was a serious kickstart to my career because this entry in my CV helped me land a job in Amazon in the U.K., and I worked there for 2 years”.
When Mantas realized that he wanted to go back home to Lithuania in 2019, he immediately checked out the roles Wix was offering at the time. “It was my best work experience until then, and here I am today - back at Wix for over two years, working as a Backend Developer at the Site Search team, feeling very happy and going strong”.
Professionalism and responsibility
Arnoldas Šeščila, a Frontend team leader at the Wix Events team at Wix Vilnius, joined us as an intern almost six years ago. “I was in the U.S for the summer working there as a lifeguard and was about to come back to Lithuania to study computer science and thought to myself that I need to have a normal job. I scrolled through the job ads, applied to five companies, but after the third interview - at Wix - I decided to skip the other two interviews.
What made you choose Wix?
“The interview was different then the ones I had at the other companies and I understood the nature of the work I’ll be doing and that it was all about technology. On top of that, the compensation was great”.
And how did the internship turn into a regular job?
“The internship was part-time for six months. After three months I was given the option to turn the part-time internship into a full-time one. I didn’t have to attend classes anymore and because I was already staying many many hours at work since I really liked what I did. When those six months were over, I asked what was next for me and the answer I got was ‘We want you to join Wix’. It may sound like I didn’t have to fight for it, but I worked very hard doing these months and tried to show my best features”, he smiles.
What was the best thing about that internship?
“For me, it was that fact that we worked with real professionals and learned a lot from them. The people you work with are very important and they speed up your learning process. Besides that, the internship taught me a lot about responsibility. You have lots of freedom here, but also responsibilities. In my case I was given many many responsibilities and that increased our learning speed. When you know that no one will do a task for you, you have to learn to do it by yourself. And one last thing: Wix is fun! I’ve made friends here who aren’t only work friends”.
Learning to work independently
Povilas Tamošauskas became a Wix Intern in September and spoke with us during his final week of the internship, just before he started a full-time job at Wix.
“A colleague of mine told me that Wix had a Frontend Developer internship available. Since I had some Frontend experience and knew that Wix was the best place to learn such a thing, it really appealed to me”, he explains how it started for him.
What did you gain from the last six months at Wix?
“The most important thing that I learned at Wix was how to find the places in which something may not be working. Let’s say you have a product and you don’t want to bug your mentor too much asking her where’s this or where’s that. My mentor would give us tips on how to find where the kind of functionality issues we’d be looking for might be and this was really helpful.
What should candidates for Wix Grow know about us?
“Wix is a very friendly place to work and learn in. The mentors are great and you have every opportunity to grow and to learn. On top of that the benefits are great and so is the location - in the middle of the old town of Vilnius, right next to where I live”, he laughs.
