Navigating your internship in Amsterdam: expert advice from Data and Applied Science Leaders

Tell us about yourselves.

Claire: I moved from the US to the Netherlands 5 years ago to join Uber’s Payments Data team. Today, I manage a team of data scientists focused on making the payment experience seamless for users in our Rides and Uber Eats apps.  

Okke: I joined Uber 5 years ago in Amsterdam as part of our Payments Data team. Two years ago I started managing the Machine Learning team within Payments where we focus on personalizing and optimizing payment experiences. 

Describe the office vibe in the Amsterdam office in 3 words.

Claire: International. Social. Motivating.

Okke: International. Ambitious. Fun! 

Tell us more about your team and where it sits within Uber.

Claire: Our Payments Data team primarily guides product decision-making processes, enhancing the payment experiences for users on Uber’s platforms. We help size opportunities, come up with metrics to measure success, and design experiments. That means we’re working with cross functional teams every day including product managers, engineers, designers, and others.

Okke: Our Payments team ensures seamless transaction processes for all users, guaranteeing that everyone who earns with Uber gets paid. At this scale, we apply ML to ensure that transactions are processed successfully and that we’re able to build a personalized payment experience across 70+ markets. 

Both of you have hosted Data Science interns, can you tell us what unique value interns bring to your team?

Claire: Interns bring a fresh outside perspective and new ideas. We get thoughtful questions from interns and it helps us to rethink our current ways of working and find opportunities to improve.

Okke: In a rapidly changing field like data science, interns can provide a truly unique experience on the latest developments within the field. They can help us leverage the latest learnings from academia in how we build and design products at Uber.

What are the qualities you look for in an intern?

Claire: Aside from the competencies for the role, I always look for candidates who are proactive and willing to take initiative to find the best solutions for the problems they work on.

Okke: Eagerness to learn is the most important quality we look for! Of course, we do not expect that when an intern joins us they’ll know everything there is to know in the field, but we do expect that they are willing to put in the work to learn anything. 

Can you describe a standout moment where an intern significantly impacted a project or solved a critical problem?

Claire: We always try to ensure that interns have projects that are impactful for our organization. For example, we had an intern once work on a project tied to the launch of a payment method and we still reference the learnings from that project today. 

Okke: We genuinely see an intern as a full-time member of the team, so the projects they work on are truly impactful. I recall a project that an intern worked on that was related to payments fraud, and within only 3 months, the intern was able to build an MVP MLmodel, put it in production, and help Uber prevent this specific fraud going forward!    

Can you share some effective strategies for interns to maximize their learning experience during their Data Science internship at Uber?

Claire: Network and ask questions. Uber is full of bright minds eager to support you and I encourage interns to leverage that network to get the most learning and different perspectives they can. Asking questions also helps with learning and making sure interns have as much business and technical context as possible to help them on their projects. 

Okke: Within Uber there are so many smart, ambitious and fun people that you’ll get the chance to work with, and interns especially should make use of that network to gain a broad perspective on what types of products we work on. Everyone here will always be open for a coffee chat, so I always highly encourage interns to reach out to people and expand their horizons this way! 

How do you tailor your feedback and coaching methods to suit the different learning styles of interns?

Claire: I try to pay attention to what works with each individual or sometimes I will even ask them what they prefer. Every intern also has regular one on ones with their manager to check in on how things are going. We also try to make sure interns get exposure to a few different stakeholders so they can learn not only from their manager, but from individuals with different styles as well. 

Okke: An internship at Uber is often their first experience in working within a large company, which may be quite different from what they’re used to in school. As a manager, you also want to help them in understanding these differences and what will be expected of them in the workplace. So I think being aware that they might miss specific context and thus take extra time to explain certain processes or behaviors really is crucial for a successful internship! 

Lastly, what valuable lessons have you learned from your interns?

Claire: Go after hard problems with a ‘can do’ mindset . I’ve seen our interns in the past try to solve challenges we’ve had for a while on the team and it’s really motivating for us to see how creative and ambitious they can be. 

Okke: Interns provide a truly unique perspective on the latest developments within the field, which makes these experiences really valuable for us. New machine learning techniques and new ways of working, but in general just a different perspective on things are things I have learned from the wonderful interns we’ve had, they always add a new energy to the team!  

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