My Redfin Internship Experience: Robert Gerdisch
What’s it like to intern at Redfin? We asked Robert some questions about his 12 weeks as a Redfintern this summer.
Why did you choose to work at Redfin?
I decided on Redfin because it’s the perfect size. It’s large enough to be stable, but still small enough to move fast and break things.
What’s a fun fact about yourself?
I was in the 2013 film Man of Steel. Although I played a small role, it was the biggest production I’ve ever been a part of as a professional actor, and getting to work with and meet so many incredibly accomplished people in the field was really exciting.
Where’s your dream home?
Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania.
What three words would you use to describe your experience at Redfin?
Fun, friendly, fast.
Redfin is large enough to do amazing things, but small enough that everyone can have a substantial impact — even the interns.
What’s been your favorite project assigned to you, and what did you accomplish?
My favorite project was revamping the map search filters. I learned a lot about how to write clean code — code that didn’t just work, but would work for a long time and be easily understood by other developers later on. I also learned how to really test my code. There are many steps involved in writing production-quality code that you won’t learn from working on smaller projects, and one of them is techniques for proving that your code works. By the time my feature shipped, I was very confident that the code I wrote would remain stable out in the open. Finally, my project was important to Redfin — about 35% of our map page users see the filters. The fact that I was in charge of making it more intuitive and aesthetically pleasing was really motivating. Like I said earlier, Redfin is large enough to do amazing things, but small enough that everyone can have a substantial impact — even the interns.
Describe a typical day as an intern at Redfin.
I would take the BART from Berkeley, get to work around 9:30, and stand up with my team at 10 to discuss project updates and look at performance metrics. After stand-up, I would spend the day coding, going to small meetings and periodically playing ping-pong with the other interns.
What was your mentorship experience like?
My mentor was great. He was always available to answer any question I had. I appreciated how he was always there to help, but was otherwise mostly hands-off. He let me learn on my own, but would still patiently guide me when I was lost.
What has been the most exciting thing you’ve done while at Redfin?
Shipping the new filters was incredible. Hitting “merge” on two and a half months of work was extremely satisfying, and I was excited to watch Redfin’s millions of home-seekers use my filters to find exactly what they were looking for.
What surprised you about being an intern at Redfin?
I was surprised by just how integrated the interns were with the rest of the team. Sure, I was younger than everyone, but we all still ate together, laughed together and listened to each other’s opinions on implementations. “Everybody sweeps the floors,” full-timers and interns shoulder to shoulder.
What was your favorite intern event this summer, and why?
My favorite event was visiting Alcatraz. We got a lot of fun pictures out of it, and I got to do something people often buy tickets for months in advance.
