MBKM Batch 6 gave me something coursework could not: six months of working inside a software team where incomplete requirements, unfamiliar code, and deadlines were normal parts of the job.
In 2024 I joined PT Bejana Investidata Globalindo (BIGIO) as a full-stack developer intern. I arrived expecting to improve my coding. I left with a much better understanding of how engineers learn inside a real project.
The first month: real-time communication
My first assignment was to build an application using WebSocket communication with PostgreSQL for persistence. The technology was new enough to be uncomfortable, which made the task useful.
The difficult part was not opening a socket. It was thinking about connection state, how data should be stored, and what the application should do when the happy path failed. That project taught me to look beyond a demo that merely works on my machine.
Debugging a .NET project for the first time
I later worked on an existing .NET codebase for Bio Farma's eCRF project. My task involved a bug related to patient status.
I had not worked professionally with .NET before. Instead of trying to understand the entire system at once, I traced the affected flow, reproduced the issue, read the surrounding code, and narrowed the change. That process became more valuable than memorizing framework syntax.
React, Spring Boot, and a three-day feature
In April I implemented a data-export feature in a React and Spring Boot application. Spring Boot felt verbose compared with the tools I knew, but the explicit structure also made responsibilities easier to locate once I understood the project.
I completed the feature in three days. The useful lesson was not the speed itself; it was learning how to enter an unfamiliar stack, find the relevant path, and deliver a bounded change without pretending to know everything first.
The habits around the code
Every Thursday the team held knowledge-sharing sessions. I also practiced LeetCode problems to improve how I broke down logic.
In May, work on the Info Pangan Jakarta admin and user applications gave me a clearer view of code organization: folder boundaries, naming, and readable structure matter because code is read by a team, not only executed by a computer.
Life outside the office
The internship was also six months of living and learning with other people. On weekends, friends and I explored Yogyakarta—cafés, street food, Malioboro, the hills to the south, and occasional trips outside the city.
Those breaks were not separate from doing good work. They helped us reset, talk about things other than tickets, and return with more energy.
On June 21, 2024, we celebrated BIGIO's anniversary together. It was a simple gathering with nasi kuning, but it remains one of the moments that makes the internship feel personal rather than just another line on a résumé.
What stayed with me
The internship improved my technical range—WebSocket, PostgreSQL, .NET, React, and Spring Boot—but the more durable lesson was how to work when the stack is unfamiliar.
Reproduce the problem. Read before changing. Ask focused questions. Keep the scope clear. Share what you learn. Leave the code easier for the next person to understand.
That is what I carried forward from MBKM Batch 6 and my time at BIGIO.
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