Tech Cupid Tales: the power of FAANG internships with Ion Petcu

Inspired by February’s theme of love, we are celebrating the passionate people who make up Carbon’s vibrant tech community.

In this interview, Oana speaks to Ion Petcu, a senior software engineer with over 10 years of expertise, about how he fell in love with programming.

With a resume that impresses both recruiters and hiring managers, Ion’s career will take you through internships at FAANG and many years spent at startups. He is a generalist engineer (with a love for Python) who can build a product from the ground up.

Oana: Where did it all start? And how did you fall in love with coding/programming?

Ion: It happened in high school, during computer science classes, that was my first encounter with programming. I was, let's say, lucky, to reach the National Olympiad in Informatics in the 9th grade, and I discovered a whole new world there. Until then it was just a game, a few small coding challenges. It was fun, but when I got to the Olympiad, I saw that it was a whole different level and it motivated me to work hard and attend the national Olympiads every year. It was my entrance into the world of competitive programming and I loved it.

Oana: One of the things that stands out on your CV is the internships you’ve had. How did they happen?

Ion: This is somehow also thanks to the competitive programming community because, generally, you need to be very good with data structures and algorithms to get internships. All my friends were applying for internships at FAANG, and I thought why not?! It's worth a try, so I started applying to several companies, and the cool part is that I ended up at the ones I wanted the most: Google and Facebook. I was accepted at both companies in the same year. It was intense, but a very good experience! Besides the professional aspect, I had the opportunity to travel which meant a lot to me at that time.

Oana: So you had two internships, one after the other?

Ion: Yes, exactly. Four months in 2015 at Google in Zurich during the summer, and then I went directly to Facebook, in the USA, for the fall internship.

Oana: How important was it to put yourself out there in the tech community from the very beginning?

Ion: It mattered a lot during high school when I used to attend Olympiads and competitions, and that's when I formed a circle of friends around the competitive programming community. It was important to work on coding challenges on Infoarena or similar platforms. And, of course, I wanted to show that I was willing to put in the work and win. So it made a difference, especially in terms of internships because that kind of experience is required to get in.

Oana: You didn’t follow the “standard” path of going back abroad to one of the big companies. What made you stay in Romania?

Ion: Because I already had a plan with Traderion – the first company I worked for. I started in 2012 at Traderion (I was still a student). It was a Romanian trading startup and I became very attached to the project and the team. While I was an intern at Facebook the people from Traderion called me and said they had received funding and needed me to grow the team. I said "yes" on the spot. And when I heard that Traderion was on an upward trend, I said, "this is it". I finished my internship and came back home to join them.

Even though I went to those internships, I wasn’t a big fan of the corporate environment. I believe that in a startup, there’s a much cooler atmosphere, you have much more responsibility, and much more freedom in terms of development.

Oana: How did Traderion find out about you? Did you apply?

Ion: So, in my second year, they found me and my roommate through a mutual acquaintance from the competitive programming community. They wanted to start the business and needed a few programmers. We didn't have experience in web development but because of our background in competitive programming, we “sealed the deal”. We didn't even have interviews, they just trusted us.

Oana: How was it being part of the startup world at Traderion and then Blink? I know that in both places the tech team was very strong.

Ion: It was really great. I enjoy working with product startups versus outsourcing companies. Developing an in-house product is a whole different thing, and I liked it.

At Traderion, I matured as a developer because I started from scratch and had a lot to learn before leading a team. And still, Traderion remains the best experience in my professional career. I liked the product, I liked learning how the trading market works, I liked developing with simulators, and I liked developing the AI for the platform's robots. We were a small team, and communication was very tight. I worked directly with the CEO who was product-focused, and that helped me understand the product very well.

Then at Blink, it was a very interesting team. I was very excited because I knew that in the Blink team, there were many Olympiad-level informatics champions. Developers who were above my level with international medals and I was looking up to them. And I thought: yes, there will be something new for me to learn there. And it was something new. Besides that, the whole Blink team was ex-FAANG. The Blink founders knew me from high school, and programming competitions, so again that helped and was one of their criteria for choosing their team.

Oana: So after Blink, you decided to make the popular switch to contracting. How has that been for you?

Ion: The transition was very interesting because it forced me to be a bit more proactive in seeking projects. Until then, I admit, it had mostly been through recommendations. Before 2020, I hadn’t had interviews: people knew me, and I would sign contracts directly. I had to learn a bit about personal branding and reach out to clients or recruiters myself. It's a bit more challenging, but also a bit more liberating because it gives me more control and I can access a wider market. And indeed, in terms of compensation, there is a difference, especially since I now only work with companies from the UK.

Oana: At Carbon, we want to encourage students to get out of their comfort zones and get involved in the tech industry before they finish university. What advice would you give to students? Are internships important or not?

Ion: An internship at a FAANG company is absolutely a good start. Although not all students have the opportunity to do an internship, I would encourage them to do everything in their power to go for one.

Many may wonder why they should complicate their student life with an internship but, first of all, it's a very good life experience. You get to leave the country and travel, to see basically another world, another perspective, a different way of living compared to Romania. It truly is a unique experience. You're also paid, so it's a win-win.

And then, maybe I'm a little biased with this, but I recommend the startup experience. It's a more chaotic environment, but you can learn a lot. It's true that at the beginning, you may need a more structured environment or a mentor to teach you certain procedures/standards, but in a startup, you develop as a programmer and you are forced to mature professionally.

I try to stay away from corporate culture, but there are many things to learn even in a larger company, like seeing what a powerful and complex architecture is, what well-documented clean code looks like, and what it takes to get there. But this is something a student can learn in an internship as well.

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For students or those embarking on their first job, our advice is simple: take initiative, actively participate, and maintain a mindset of continuous learning. Do this and you'll find yourself already ahead of your peers.

Carbon is the go-to staffing specialist for Eastern European and North African technical talent. Trusted by the biggest names in technology and venture capital, Carbon’s hyperlocal expertise makes entering new talent markets for value-seeking global companies possible.

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