It’s been a busy summer at Paribus, as we’ve been rolling out new, exciting features! Meet Ricky – one of the summer interns who’s been helping bring these ideas into reality.
What are three fun facts about Ricky?
I have my pilot’s license, which I got last year. So I fly planes by myself or with my friends. I have played on the Emirates football pitch before, which was really fun because I’m an Arsenal fan. And, let’s see… I like to horseback ride, and last year, I went to the most southern point of South America with my sister, and we did 10 days of horseback riding.
Where do you go to school?
I go to MIT and study computer science.
Why did you want to go to MIT?
I have three elder sisters, and they all went to the states [from the UK]. One was at Yale, one at Dartmouth, and the youngest was also MIT. And, I talked to them a lot about their experiences. The university experience in England just can’t compare to the one here. People in the states are just more life-smart, from being at college here.
Do you think you want to stay here after MIT?
Yeah. I mean I didn’t necessarily at first, but the world’s getting a little crazy and Europe is being hit first. So I would like to stay here after I’m done.
If you had to make, right now, a dating profile for yourself, how would you describe yourself?
Average height, nice Jewish boy, your parents will love me!
Switching gears a bit here, what’s been the coolest part of Paribus for you?
I’ve been developing this new feature – a pretty substantial feature, I might say. Which is close to being pushed to production, and it’s pretty cool having come here when there was absolutely no existing code for this feature and getting to own the entire project. So when it starts happening – I mean, its going to need years and years of development and progress – but in a few years, when I see what it has come to, I can always tell people that I started it off.
Sounds like an intense and challenging project – how do you blow off steam in your off time?
Well, love the office happy hour. I did a lot of sports watching this summer – the tennis and the football. But to be clear… I didn’t watch any sports during work time… only after work. And I’ve been going out for some very nice meals during the week. Again, not during work hours!… Well ok, maybe once or twice. I went to Long Island and Connecticut on the weekends, also went to Boston one weekend. There was a lot of stuff to do.
Are you looking forward to going back to MIT?
Yeah, I’m going to be the social chair of my fraternity next semester and have some really exciting and challenging courses lined up.
Parting shots then. What kind of music do you listen to while you work?
I like EDM, and classical music – I forgot to mention, I play violin.
Who is your favorite Paribus staff member?
Can I just go round and say something about everyone? First of all, Tony’s recently been coming in with these little tank tops – I think he wanted to before but didn’t really have the guts to do it, until Zach came in, in a tank top. So that was definitely a transformational time for Tony, when he saw Zach come in with his arms showing.
Then there’s the case of Karim, who’s just.. I’m looking at him right now, he’s just standing at his desk on this foam pad. And a few times a day, I’ll just be sitting peacefully at my desk working, and this figure will just rush by me – just sprinting down the office. Cause I think Karim wants to do exercise, so he does like these little sprints to try and keep his heart rate up, which is very interesting.
And then obviously there’s the very interesting brotherly dynamic, between Karim and Marc… very different people but they look similar. Then you have Lewis. Lewis just turns up, he’s just very late to work every day. He’s very cheeky, and he’s very tardy, a great combination.
Then we have Gene. Gene’s an absolute legend, just an overall great guy. Probably brings the best food into the office, also just outrageous typing skills. Types so fast. Plus he’s only been coding for a few years, so very impressed with his skills. His skill-set.
Then we have the intern table. Obviously, Ori, a great employee of mine. My intern. Great intern – recently he’s been a bit naughty, so I have to keep him on track from time to time and just remind him who’s the boss. That’s, that’s me, I’m the managing intern. And then, although he’s not directly my sub-intern, Veeral…
If you had to leave me with one word, what would it be?
One word?
It can be hyphenated.
Ping-pong (we need a ping-pong table here)!
