Hi everyone.
My name is Daniel. I live in Madrid and I study telecommunications engineering.
As a student soon ending his university studies, I was wondering: Should I get a job?
I sent many emails to many companies in order to find an internship. I then received an answer from a company called JOT Internet Media which said: “We would like to arrange a meeting with you about joining our Research Lab for an internship”. I was really excited about the opportunity. I immediately called my parents to tell them everything.
The next day, I put on my best suit and went to the interview. I’m not going to lie, I was quite nervous. It was my first job interview ever and I wasn’t sure what to expect. Fernando, the interviewer (JOT’s Strategic Funding Manager), was so kind that my nervousness faded away quickly. After 25 minutes and a good feeling, he told me that he would be in touch in order to give me an answer as soon as possible. And he was not lying. The very next day, I got the good news: YOU ARE HIRED!
On my first day, they showed me the office, introduced me to everyone, lots of new faces and names to remember. The day was intense and went by really fast. I left work with a smile on my face and eager to come back the next day to learn more.
The next few days were equally intense. I attended many meetings with various members of the company (IT, Finance, Operations, etc) who told me more about the business from various points of view. I learnt more about the different departments, the business in general, and one word kept coming back: Keyword. (JOT Internet Media has a database of 3.8 billion keywords). I had a lot to learn and study and completed two online courses in a month in order to understand how the company works.
At JOT, I am part of the JOT Research Lab, a specific business unit dedicated to innovation and research. We are taking part & leading innovative digital marketing projects on and looking for financial support to conduct innovative research. We are currently participating in various projects supported by the European Union (H2020) and the Spanish Ministry.
A couple examples of European projects we are involved in – EW-SHOPP and TOREADOR.
- The TOREADOR project aims at overcoming some major hurdles that until now have prevented many European companies from reaping the full benefits of Big Data analytics.
- The EW-SHOPP project aims at deploying and hosting a data integrator platform to ease these data integration tasks, by embedding shared data models, robust data management techniques and semantic reconciliation methods.
A couple examples of Spanish projects we are involved in – RIGA and SOLOMON.
- The RIGA project aims to develop an innovative marketing tool enabling the automation of the tagging process in content galleries and the selection of the most adequate audience for impact maximization according to the client criteria.
- The SOLOMON project works on an open innovative shop operations & experience platform that connects different technologies and information sources for seamless services that can be interacted with by retailers, shop personnel and consumers.
In parallel, we are also working in a project called YODA, a digital advertising tool for SMEs with a very simple and powerful vision: Giving SMEs access to digital marketing with a high-quality solution at the lowest possible price and where no technical skills are required.
After getting involved in all these various projects mentioned above, I realized that two months had already passed.
Really good experience so far, I am looking forward to keep learning and getting involved in more projects.
Here is my little article on my experience at JOT. I hope you liked it as much as I liked writing it!
Daniel de la Torre, Intern at JOT Research Lab