So the journey started with the first mail I got from CDC that I’ve been selected as an SDE intern at Warner Bros Discovery. I had my first meeting with my HR where he introduced us more about WBD. He told me that I’ll be allotted a manager, a buddy and one mentor. I got a call from my manager at WBD and he told me about my project. He also asked me to get myself up to speed on KMP so that as soon as I reach here, I can start with the project. I went through a number of videos on Kotlin, kotlin multiplatform and I went through other technologies which work similarly, flutter for example. I remember there were times when I was stuck and my manager made me meet my mentor and helped me resolve the issue. I’d a meeting with my buddy too where he told me about WBD, team player, how he is doing and how it is a great opportunity to make people know about you.
Time flies and it was my first day at WBD on the 15th of May. For the first week, we had an orientation program where a number of people came and made us know what all the teams do here and how it is like working at WBD.
On the Monday of the next week, I had a meeting with my manager where he told me about the project in brief and explained to me the way we’ll proceed with it. He explained to me how there are different codebases for different platforms. As there are a number of platforms for the OTT world WBD has, there is android phone, android TV, iOS, TVOS, fireTV, roku and many more. Our aim was to prove the concept of kotlin multi platform where we can have a common code which can be shared among different platforms - more of like dubbing a movie - just create it once and dub it for different regions.He made me meet my mentor under whose mentorship I was to proceed with the project. He got me a number of reference materials he had got ready for me so that I can go through them and brush up with the concepts I learnt about KMP. Along with that, he also helped me with materials that would help me in future. We used to have a meeting everyday around 6pm where he helped me with resources and issues that I was facing and explained to me. He is one of those people who have really made this journey more exciting and learnful for me.
There were good times when I was able to resolve the issues and there were times when I was stuck. I remember the high fives with my mentor when we used to overcome some bug. Sometimes, I used to go home disappointed And coming back the next day, the issue was resolved. It's good to take breaks I know.
I believe I'd got the best team with the best set of people, they were hardworking and made me work hard too, lol, though learnt a lot. Since I was working majorly on frontend, I got Samsung galaxy 23, iphone, apple tab and many more devices to flex. I was fun working on the project and finally coming up with the demonstration. I really enjoyed a lot. There's a lot more and I can just keep writing and it'll never end. So I'll stop here. I'm really grateful to every single person there at office for making it a memorable one.
What all I learnt during this journey?
- When you're stuck on an error, think from the base level. Try reproducing the same error on a small level, resolve it and then apply the solution to the actual project. In my case, I always had a small demo KMM project. I used to refer to that in case of any issue.
- It's okay to set breakpoints and attempt problem-solving independently, but if you're stuck for too long, don't hesitate to ask for help from colleagues or mentors.
- Do not hesitate in asking for help - I remember I kept trying on how to collect the flow in Kotlin for 3 hours. I went to seek help from Darshan and he did it in seconds literally.
- Sometimes, you need to take a break and think. It happened a lot of times that I stopped in the evening, came back the next morning and it happened. Darshan always says "Mornings are the best!"
- Keep your mentor and manager updated on what you're doing. You need to let them know where you're standing. Maintain a sheet for weekly updates.
- Documentation is really important. When I go through what all I've done, it gives me better learning.
- Embrace and enjoy resolving errors. Things that are done easily do not give that much learning which errors give you! In my case, I've literally solved more of my intern duration in resolving build, compile time and then runtime errors.
- Always maintain copies of your work. You never know when you gotta need them. I’ve maintained copies of almost every step - when the framework was built for the first time, android was working properly, iOS started working and so on.
- Always keep your code clean. It's always better to have a clean code than a code that works. It helps you in the long run.
- Kotlin Multiplatform
- Kotlin
- Swift
- Android Studio
- Xcode
- Json viewer
- Practiced Oops
- Charles Proxy
Here's how how I got the internship at Warner Bros. Discovery: Warner Bros Discovery | SDE Interview experience |
Oncampus
Also know about the behind the scenes of the internship:
Behind the scenes of my internship season