InternTime Happiness in Pentalog Chisinau: Enhance Your University Experience with Internship Programs

As our economy constantly changes, your skills and experience are also part of the growth cycle. The competitive job market often comes with a steep learning curve for recent graduates and students. Internship programs and the applied learning approach are game-changers for both companies and young professionals.

For the past two years, Pentalog Chisinau has successfully led diverse internship programs as part of our partnerships and collaborations.

To give our students access to the real work environment, every summer, Pentalog heats up with brand new educational activities, trainings, and programs. During these internship programs, students have the awesome opportunity to challenge themselves and grow professionally

Going Back to the Roots of Pentalog’s Internship Programs

In May 2018, Pentalog launched the very first innovative educational project dedicated to French students enrolled in the school of Computers, Informatics and Microelectronics at Technical University of Moldova. This initiative laid the foundation for the program that allowed francophone university education to expand its presence to Moldovan companies.

Many government and university officials have highly praised this initiative, especially its main goal to modernize current courses, including Roxana Turcanu-Tolomey, coordinator of Antena AUF-Chisinau, Viorel Bostan, rector of TUM, Mohamed Ketata, regional director of AUF Central and Eastern Europe, and Pascal Le Deunff, French ambassador for the Republic of Moldova.

What are we trying to achieve with this program?

Some of our goals and objectives include:

• adapting courses and programs to the needs of the socio-economic environment
• increasing educational quality by using innovative methods of learning, based on student’s needs
• contributing space and high-performance equipment
• helping young professionals to enter the job market

Pentalog and our partners will ensure that the two-year project – active until May 2020 – benefits French students and professors. The project consortium includes many experienced and remarkable professionals, including Daniela Istrati, senior lecturer and Filière Francophone Informatique director, Mariana Rusu, national coordinator of this project, Elena Mutruc, manager of Pentalog’s Chisinau Delivery Center, Béatrice Patte-Rouland, director of Institut universitaire de technologie de Rouen, as well as Agence Universitaire Francophone (AUF) and Moldovan Association of ICT Companies (ATIC).

The project accomplishes several goals outlined in the “Moldova 2020” national development strategy:

• modernization of study programs
• collaboration between academics and entrepreneurs
• expanding the knowledge and skill of both students and professors

Need Experience to Get Experience? Don’t Give Up!

Sound familiar? It’s one of the most significant issues young people transitioning into the workforce currently face. Employers today heavily rely on resumes that illustrate relevant work history, whether from internships, volunteer work, actual job experience, or all three! And of course, you still need to be the “right” age – younger than 35. How ironic.

During Pentalog’s internship programs, young IT professionals and enthusiasts experience the labor force first-hand, and harness skills, knowledge, theoretical practice that they learned in college.

If our interns are not familiar with certain concepts from their college courses, they can easily learn them during their internship. One heroes-intern told us:

I believe that the internship that I have been doing for the last 4.5 months (in addition to my winter internship experience) helped me gain the knowledge of different tools, teamwork competencies, tips&tricks received from mentors, etc. It was really useful because I evolved as a specialist, I worked, and I found myself in a very good environment. People were always well-disposed towards us, we could ask questions & get feedback, which is highly appreciated. – Elena

During discussions about the project’s benefits and impact on their professional and personal development, students revealed several indisputable advantages:

• exposure to a new atmosphere is extremely attractive
• possibility to meet different people in a managed and stable environment
• encouragement of personal development and a greater understanding of themselves
• networking, which helps to advance in any career

Many interns definitely impressed us with their goals for the internship.

I decided to get involved in this project as I wanted to learn new things about programming and see how people really work in an IT company, such as how to work in a team, how different teams are organized, how to communicate correctly with clients and, finally, what the atmosphere of a large international francophone company feels like. – Adrian

I liked participating in this project a lot and would like to thank organizers for this awesome opportunity. Also, I am really grateful for our mentors who had a lot of patience with us and dedicated their efforts to teach us new technologies in a short period of time. – Arina

In expectation, there is happiness.

We don’t brag about our internship programs, but the feedback received from our participants speaks for itself:

• My expectations came true. Most of all, I liked learning Vue.js and felt like I evolved. Initially, I didn’t know much about programming, but now I can easily create some templates, write functions, make requests for the backend, etc. – Adrian
• We had the opportunity to be involved in a project simulation, during which we felt like a part of the company. Besides the technical skills, we learned to work in a real team, to have stand-ups, to solve some questions and problems together, to help each other and even to organize a teambuilding event. I am glad that I had such experience thanks to which I learned many new skills. – Arina
• It is an opportunity to learn new skills, which unfortunately are not taught in the university – Elena
• I aimed to develop technical skills, study new technologies, and, not in the least – develop the ability to work on a team. Pentalog seemed to be the right choice, and it was recommended by several friends. I was mostly impressed by the friendly team I had the opportunity to be a part of. Also, a very open community, always helpful in our personal and professional development. Overall, I am completely satisfied with the internship I attended. I had good mentors and a nice atmosphere, which helped me reach my goals. – Mihai
• At first, I wondered whether I was going to like it, or whether I could handle it. Or, what if the whole internship was going to be a waste of time? But the fear vanished after the first meeting with our mentors, who helped us not only with the technical part but also by encouraging and motivating us. I would say that they were quite transparent with us. – Maria

So, as you can see, in the beginning, some of our interns were a little nervous; some were afraid, and some made mistakes. But there is nothing wrong with messing up if you can overcome all challenges and move forward, just like our interns. They managed to accomplish all of their objectives! They did it alright, like a real PentaTeam!

The success of Pentalog’s Internship Programs is attributed to everyone involved – students, mentors, and supporters. One thing is clear: it’s our victory!

If you’re a young professional looking for a career, apply for one of our available job openings and unleash your potential with Pentalog!