Apr 3, 2023
In the summer of 2022, a group of highly motivated legal interns spent eight weeks with Bolt. It’s the second time that Bolt’s Legal team has invited young people to put their knowledge of law into practice and gain relevant commercial experience.
At the beginning of 2022, we started our legal internship with only three interns. In the summer of 2022, we had seven motivated interns who spent two exciting months at Bolt.
We’re happy to announce that the Summer Legal Internship at Bolt is returning! We’re inviting Master in Law students or post-grads, who are willing to put their knowledge into practice, to apply for an eight-week-long internship that will take place in Tallinn at Bolt HQ. The internship will last from July until August 2023.
But, before you apply, let’s hear what our interns from last year have shared.
Katie’s internship at Bolt has been especially memorable — she celebrated her birthday around her fellow interns and Bolt’s Legal team.
Katie says the internship has been impressive: she never expected the internship to be filled with so many real-life tasks and responsibilities. Instead of just observing what colleagues were doing, Katie jumped into work straight away.
However, there were also some challenging moments: “The most challenging part was being in several fields of law simultaneously — employment law, IP law, contract law and marketing tasks,” says Katie. “You get to experience working in a legal team for such a big and fast-growing company. It can be chaotic but, at the same time, you learn something new every day.”
“I was looking for an internship for summer and the second I saw Bolt’s ad, I felt like it was exactly what I was looking for! Also, the fact that it’s a big, homegrown company with a mission that I identify with made this decision easy,” Taavi shared. He studies in Amsterdam, so the topic of micromobility and pedestrian and bike-friendly cities is close to his heart. He wishes that one day his home city of Tallinn would become more like this.
“It was great to get this hands-on experience in a huge local tech company, being around cool people and in a nice office. At the same time, it was a lot of work — the company is constantly growing, so there is always something to do,” Taavi says.
In the beginning, Taavi was nervous before coming to the office. However, everyone was friendly to him: “I didn’t feel inferior just because I was an intern. That already left a great first impression on me, and, as we know, first impressions are the most important.”
Milana was already well-acquainted with Bolt’s services long before her internship — she’s been a frequent ride-hailing app user, especially when visiting Estonia. “Getting an opportunity to work at the core of the company I love was a deciding factor when choosing an internship,” says Milana.
Milana was happy that, as an in-house counsel, she could apply the skills she’d acquired at law school in practice. “Each task had its difficulties. The most challenging and enriching experience was learning how to think not only like a lawyer but how to make business decisions,” says Milana.
“I was pleasantly surprised by how exceptionally top-tier and kind Bolt’s employees are. Lawyers are stereotypically associated with aggressive competitiveness; in Bolt, that’s the opposite,” Milana shared.
Milana also shared that, on her first day, her supervisors and the head of the department met her at the office to discuss the expectations and agreed on the communication format. “This instantly showed me that it’s not just another internship. I felt welcomed here,” says Milana.
“This is a top-tier technology company, where you must understand the product you’re working with to contribute legally. Strong legal research skills, high punctuality, a meticulous eye, intuition, and flexibility are big pluses,” says Milana. “As an intern, how much experience you will get here is up to you. This place will teach you much if you’re willing to learn!”
Growing up in Estonia, Veera had been a loyal customer to Taxify, and is now to Bolt — in fact, Bolt Food was her go-to app during the lockdown. “I am proud that Bolt was founded in Estonia and is now the world’s fastest-growing tech company. I wanted to join the company and contribute to Bolt’s further success,” shared Veera.
Veera says that there haven’t been average days at Bolt. The first five weeks she spent working from the office and the rest of the internship, she worked from home and thus experienced ‘work from home’ for the very first time.
Among the fascinating things to have at Bolt, Veera named office snacks and people: “Having free snacks, coffee and other drinks at the office is amazing! But, on a more serious note, I was amazed by how approachable and down-to-earth everyone is at Bolt.”
Veera was also surprised by how much freedom everyone has at Bolt — it’s okay to take a break and have a doctor’s appointment in the middle of the day, or work from home without getting prior approval from your manager. What matters is that you get your work done on time.
Regarding tasks, Veera was given responsibility from day one: she recalls, “We were given real tasks that had an actual impact on the company. There was no micromanagement and my manager trusted and treated me respectfully.”
Veera mentioned that managing several projects at once was challenging: “It could get chaotic and I’d start getting stressed and worried about whether or not I can get everything done in time. Noticing when you’re putting too much pressure on yourself was also a good learning experience. It also taught me to ask for help when necessary and to delegate tasks.”
Veera says that if you want to develop legal skills, see how the fastest-growing tech company works on the inside — Bolt is the place for you!
From day one, Namık felt welcomed and was amazed by how much everyone trusted his expertise: “I was treated like an actual team member and had total freedom and ownership over the projects assigned to me. Nobody was micromanaging but, at the same time, the team was always there in case I needed help.”
Namık said his days were always filled with surprises — you could never know what would happen. This was one of the things that he liked about his internship at Bolt — the work was never monotonous and there was always something new on everyone’s plate.
Another great thing that Namık enjoyed was the freedom — as long as work is done, nobody tracks what you do, when you start your working day, or when you leave the office.
“Internship was great!” Namık recalls. “It allowed me to learn about day-to-day processes at Bolt and observe the issues from the perspective of both the data controller and the processor, which is a unique opportunity.”
Maris went to university in the Netherlands — the nation where people cycle even through rain and snow.
“Many cities worldwide suffer from endless traffic jams and pollution, which is a sad reality,” says Maris, “Bolt’s mission, to make cities for people not cars, is something I support and would like to see becoming a reality one day.”
Maris recalls being pretty nervous on her first day, but there was no reason for that! Everybody at Bolt was friendly and welcoming and she quickly became familiar with the surroundings. Maris says it’s difficult to describe a routine workday, as such a thing doesn’t exist at Bolt: “Every day brings new challenges, and no two days are alike!”
Maris highlighted the international environment at Bolt, a fantastic workplace with lots of freedom in terms of how you approach your work and organise your day, with endless snacks and office dogs. In addition, Bolt offers challenging projects to work on and gives freedom to arrange your schedule and work from wherever and whenever.
“The most challenging thing during my internship was the multitude of parallel projects. Sometimes the projects and tasks change so quickly that you have to make an effort to keep up with the pace,” says Maris. “But, despite any challenges, I had a great time, and I’m beyond grateful for the experience!”
“What inspired me for an internship at Bolt was the chance to put the knowledge I gained at school into practice and gain invaluable experience,” says Mose.
The beauty of the internship at Bolt is that it’s not simply shadowing employees; it’s about doing actual work. Mose was assigned a project for which she’d been conducting interviews to obtain information. She was in charge of managing the project’s Confluence page and keeping everyone up to date with the progress.
“The level of professionalism among the employees really struck me and I highly recommend this internship to everyone looking to gain new knowledge and experience,” says Mose.
If our eight-week-long paid legal internship speaks to you, apply now! The application period will last from 27 April until 26 May.
When the application period ends, we’ll review all the submitted forms and will conduct interviews with selected applicants. After the interviews are done, we’ll send offers to eight successful candidates.
If this internship opportunity doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, but you know someone who can benefit from it, please share our application form with them.
Help your friend, a fellow law student, or a dear family member to gain more hands-on experience in one of the hottest scale-up companies in Europe!
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