As the official commercial arm of Cardano – the first third-generation blockchain to evolve out of a research-first driven approach, EMURGO is devoted to building a strong team to drive the adoption of Cardano and add value to ADA holders with EMURGO-developed products such as our highly acclaimed Yoroi Wallet and Seiza Cardano Blockchain Explorer. To create a truly international and decentralized workforce working to meet the needs of our global community and build a global Cardano, EMURGO has talented staff from all over the world – Japan, France, the US, India, Hong Kong, Korea, Russia, Ukraine, and more.
Over the summer, we have had a few interns at our new Tokyo office, working with our team to help drive the global adoption of Cardano. The benefits are two-fold as we have been able to mentor them while they have been able to assist and provide us with refreshing, new ideas on building the Cardano ecosystem. EMURGO and Cardano as a whole, benefits from having a wealthy diversity of thought and creativity that comes from people of different backgrounds.
In part two of the “EMURGO Internship Experience” series, the EMURGO interns will take you through a day in their lives as they showcase the EMURGO office and culture while depicting the projects and lessons that they have undertaken to add value to Cardano.
These are a few of their reflections as their time comes to a close.
Global Marketing Intern: Jeffrey Sun
My name is Jeffrey Sun and I am a student from the University of Texas at Austin. These past two months have flown by and it’s been amazing to see everything that we have been able to accomplish. Just a short while ago, I came through the entrance at the EMURGO office in Tokyo knowing just a fraction of what I do now. Most of what I have been able to learn here has gone beyond the scope of a classroom, such as improving upon interpersonal skills, managing time efficiently, and experiencing adaptability. Working with the team here has been a pleasure as the entire EMURGO office is so professional and friendly. Whether it be tips to improve our working efficiency, collect data more effectively, manage a project, or just simple food recommendations, I have picked up so many valuable skills in a short amount of time during my internship here.
Additionally, delving into the growing world of blockchain and cryptocurrency has shed light on a whole new world of exciting technology. As an intern, we were not only here to assist, but were given the freedom to tackle on our own projects. I worked with Venus – the Global Marketing Manager – to manage EMURGO’s website, blog articles, newsletters and give SEO/UX recommendations while drafting up a few to publish myself! Additionally, I worked with another EMURGO intern Chris, to release the intern video that you see above.
Video Production Intern: Christopher Mendez
My name is Christopher Mendez and I am a 4th year student at The University of Texas at Austin. Currently, I am interning at EMURGO in Japan as a Video Production intern, where I have spent the past two months learning from my supervisor, Kyle, about operating a studio camera, filmmaking, and video editing. I utilized these skills to help create content videos from EMURGO events such as the highly successful Charles Hoskinson @ EMURGO Meetup, EMURGO Q&A Series, and the video above! I have been able to garner thousands of views through creating video content and still have many projects on the way.
Interning at EMURGO is great due to its company culture – a work hard, play hard work ethic. The most surprising thing I have learned while working in blockchain is how passionate and large the blockchain and in particular, the Cardano ADA community is. For instance, I went to a meetup a couple of weeks ago and many people came up to me just because they noticed my Cardano T-shirt. These random interactions showcased the power and reach of Cardano and was something I had never experienced in any of my past jobs. Although my time here is about to come to an end, I will always look back at this EMURGO internship as a challenging yet incredible and rewarding experience.
Tech Engineer Intern: Shawn Punch
My name is Shawn Punch and I am a student from Texas Tech University. I am a Tech Engineer intern at EMURGO. I am currently building a social media dashboard using Python and Klipfolio. The compilation of this data can be extrapolated for trend analysis to improve our marketing efforts. EMURGO has completely revamped its global marketing and brand awareness through a strong rebranding and continues to gain an increased global following on social media. An efficient social media dashboard will be leveraged to market EMURGO’s products and latest developments to the global Cardano community in an even more dynamic way!
During my time at EMURGO, I have learned a lot about Python and programming which will help benefit me in my future endeavors. Also, I have learned a lot from my mentor and supervisor Zach. He has been a great help, giving me insight on programming and data science to better analyze metrics for marketing. It feels great to apply my knowledge in technical engineering to build a dashboard that helps them with on-going data analysis. I definitely credit Zach for making my transition to Japan easier. Lastly, with this internship, I have grown exponentially with career skills and knowledge that I can take forward into the future. I am thankful for my time at EMURGO and look forward to a bright Cardano future.
Tech Engineer Intern: Javier Ayala
My name is Javier Ayala, a Mechanical Engineering intern at EMURGO from the University of Houston. My time interning at EMURGO so far can be summed up with the application of technical skills such as conducting research for the development of an open-sourced guide on installing a Cardano Rust node on microcomputer systems. I work closely with Shin – an EMURGO R&D Engineer in the office.
As EMURGO has its own in-house R&D Tech team working hard to develop & deliver market-ready products such as Yoroi Wallet and Seiza Explorer, it’s been an awesome experience learning real world blockchain applicable skills under some of the best and brightest technical blockchain experts in the Cardano ecosystem.
This internship at EMURGO has taught me how to research effectively by using the situation at hand and document results for a later date. This process helped me organize my ideas and at the same time sync them with existing principles to create innovative designs. My greatest achievement in this internship would be the creation of an open-source document using GitHub because it was the lifeline of the project. Having access to reflect on my research helped me better understand coding in Rust and improve in Computer-Aided Design.
Conclusion From The Interns:
Although these two months have passed quickly, it has been a joy to work in a fast-paced and interesting work environment at EMURGO. Coming to Japan was a leap of faith that paid off in ways we couldn’t have imagined. The first lesson that we learned was that no one expects you to start off the bat knowing everything. If you come in with an insatiable curiosity and a penchant for learning, you will do just fine. Everything falls into place like a set puzzle as you ask more questions and progress along your time here. With good faith, we can say that though our internship is ending, it’s only the beginning of the lessons that we’ll take with us as we progress through the professional world. With diligent and passionate individuals at EMURGO working around the clock to build the Cardano ecosystem, there’s a bright future ahead for the progress of Cardano and ADA.
If you are interested in pursuing similar experiences and are committed to driving the adoption of Cardano for businesses and organizations, please reach out to us on social media, our website, or email us.
EMURGO drives the adoption of Cardano and adds value to ADA holders by building, investing in, and advising projects or organizations that adopt Cardano’s decentralized blockchain ecosystem. EMURGO leverages its expertise in blockchain R&D as well as its global network of related blockchain and industry partners to support ventures globally.
EMURGO is the official commercial and venture arm of the Cardano project, headquartered in Singapore, with a presence in Japan, the USA, India, and Indonesia. EMURGO works closely with IOHK and The Cardano Foundation to grow Cardano’s ecosystem globally, and promote its adoption. Learn more about the project at https://dev.emurgo.io
Follow EMURGO on Social Media
・Official Homepage: dev.emurgo.io
・Twitter (English): @emurgo_io
・Twitter (Japanese): @Emurgo_Japan
・Youtube: EMURGO
・Telegram: EMURGO Announcements
・Facebook: @dev.emurgo.io
・Instagram: @emurgo_io
・LinkedIn: @emurgo_io
About Yoroi Wallet
・Yoroi Twitter: @YoroiWallet
・Yoroi Homepage: https://yoroi-wallet.com/
About Cardano
・Cardano Forum: https://forum.cardano.org/
・Cardano Telegram: https://t.me/CardanoGeneral
・Cardano Reddit: https://i.reddit.com/r/cardano
