A first internship holds a special place in any student’s life. It’s that moment when you step beyond textbooks, eager to make an impact, yet still a bit naive about how things work in the real world. It’s also the first time you see how professionals operate and how your learnings can translate into real-world solutions.

So when I landed an internship at MasterCard, I was beyond excited!

I was a Data Science Intern in the Brighterion AI team at MasterCard. This team provides scalable AI solutions to credit card fraud detection, risk management, healthcare problems, and many more.

How It Started

Initially, I wasn’t even sure if we’d get summer internships due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Our semester schedule was a mess, with a delayed start and a compressed summer break. But luckily, the administration granted us seven weeks, and internships were back on the table.

What I Worked On

I focused on the credit risk management domain, specifically predicting credit delinquency—a fancy way of saying “Who might not pay their credit card bills in the future?”

To solve this, I designed a deep learning-based architecture that could capture patterns in delinquent customers, improving risk prediction.

Key Takeaways

  • The Power of Clarity in Problem Statements

If you and your manager have different interpretations of the problem, you’re setting yourself up for confusion and wasted effort. Always clarify, confirm, and align expectations early on.

  • Business Context Matters

Understanding the business impact of your work is just as important as the technical solution. I had the opportunity to attend client meetings, which gave me a fresh perspective on how to fine-tune solutions based on real-world needs.

The Funny Struggles of a Corporate Laptop 😆

If you’ve ever worked on a corporate machine, you know the struggle.

On your personal laptop, you’re the master: install, uninstall, tweak settings—do whatever you want. But on a corporate machine? No admin rights. No freedom. Just pain.

The real nightmare began when I couldn’t even access the VPN to enter MasterCard’s network. And since I wasn’t inside the “secure environment,” IT couldn’t remotely debug my issue. Stuck in a Catch-22.

Potterheads like me were crushed to realize that even magic wouldn’t help here:

sudo accio caffeine

Wow Moments 🤯

  • Fanboy moment: Attended a live webinar featuring Andrew Ng talking about AI ethics and fairness.
  • Networking gold: Got to interact with Michael Miebach (CEO of MasterCard) and other industry leaders.
  • First salary 💖: No words. Just pure happiness

Final Thoughts

This internship was an incredible learning experience, and I wanted to document it—so I can revisit this someday and smile. 😁

P.S. At the time of writing this, I have two pending assignments. Questionable life choices? Absolutely.