I have been very excited about this one for quite some time! Back in December I gave an interview to intern with the Research team at Deezer, I was really anxious initially, as I am an engineer with no formal research background and I heard that these positions are mostly offered to PhD students. I was also in my first year of my master’s, just started a few months ago, so I naturally was being stoic but honestly I really wanted this, because Deezer was a really great fit for me, not only have they done some really cool research, they have also taken a clear stance on GenAI and are one of the very few artist first streaming platforms. So I really doubled down on the preparation when I got a message that I cleared the initial round.
After submitting the assignment which was to come up with a research proposal (big surprise) and having the interview to discuss the said proposal, I got an acceptance email from Darius to join the team for a 6-month internship in Paris just after New Year and that made me stupidly happy :) But I did not realize then that this was just the beginning and the hard part was getting work authorization before my start date from the French government. There was a long period of anxious waiting, fear of the offer getting cancelled or given to someone else but finally we were able to make do by cutting down my internship duration to less than 90 days and btw I still have not gotten any response from the French authorities 🫠.
I started my internship officially and for that I am glad but I am also now painfully aware of my status here. My passport matters more. The team at Deezer was incredibly nice and were really willing to go all the way to help me start the internship, whatever that took. ❤️ I am really happy about that.
I am super excited for the next 3 months and I did say I always want to be more than an engineer, so now I start for the very first time, as a researcher.
✨ C’est parti ✨
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