How BloomThis Hired a Data Intern Who Delivers Results
Most companies don’t have a data problem. They have a structuring problem.
The raw data is there. The warehouse is full. But turning it into something useful — building dashboards that surface the right metrics, from angles the business hadn’t considered — takes someone who cares enough to go deep.
BloomThis found that person in Ray. A final-year student. A data intern they chose to hire through Kabel — and one of the better hiring decisions Giden says they’ve made. Someone they offered a full-time role before the internship ended.
Giden Lim, Co-Founder and CEO of BloomThis, shared the story. For companies figuring out how to hire interns who actually deliver, it’s worth reading carefully.
BloomThis Had the Data. They Needed Someone to Make Sense of It.
BloomThis is one of Malaysia’s most recognised gifting and flower delivery brands. Behind the product is significant data infrastructure — purchase history, delivery patterns, customer behaviour, operational metrics across multiple departments.
Data sitting in a warehouse doesn’t run a business. Insights do.
“Data is digital gold, but it’s no good if you cannot structure it and process it to get insights out of it.” – Giden
That was the gap Ray walked into. His job wasn’t to collect data. It was to stitch it together, structure it, and give the business something it could actually use. Not reports. Not exports. Dashboards built around what BloomThis was actually trying to understand.
That’s a different kind of task than most interns get handed. And it requires more than technical ability to do well.
What a Final-Year Student Built in 3 Months
Ray was still a student — not yet graduated — when he joined. Giden was measured in his expectations going in.
“I wouldn’t put the expectation too high, but because he went above the expectation — he was very, very interested in the work that he does.” – Giden
Ray built dashboards. Not standard ones. He approached the data from angles BloomThis hadn’t traditionally looked at — surfacing metrics and cross-functional views the team hadn’t thought to prioritise.
Example:
BloomThis runs across tech, marketing, operations, and logistics. Ray didn’t stay in his lane. He connected with different teams, understood what each one was trying to achieve, then built dashboards that spoke to each context. The result was a more complete picture of the business — structured insight, not a data dump.
“He works very well with team members. I see he connects very well cross-functionally with different teams. Cross-functional communication is key besides the hard skills that he brings.” – Giden
That instinct — understand the business first, then build toward it — is rare in someone pre-graduation. Most interns optimise for completing the assigned task. Ray optimised for the outcome behind the task.
What BloomThis Actually Looks for in an Intern
BloomThis moves interns through multiple departments every cycle. They see a lot of early talent. Ray stood out — and Giden was specific about why.
“He’s very talented in the work that he does. He worked around data, a lot on stitching data together and data engineering kind of work. Because of his passion, he goes very deep into creating all kinds of things.” – Giden
Technical ability was part of it. But Giden has a clear view on what actually separates good interns from forgettable ones — and it isn’t the skill set.
“Attitude is more important. Someone who is very passionate, willing to learn, willing to get their hands dirty — prioritising learning rather than what they can get out of this, but very much what they can contribute along the way.” – Giden
Ray showed up to meetings he didn’t have to. He asked questions beyond his brief. He went into areas of the data that weren’t explicitly assigned — not to show off, but because he wanted to understand the full picture.
That depth — the willingness to go further than required — is the signal most hiring processes aren’t built to find. A face-to-face interview would have missed it. Three months of real work made it visible.
BloomThis Made The Full-Time Offer
Before the end of the internship, BloomThis had seen enough. Ray was offered a full-time role.
For Giden, this wasn’t a difficult call. The internship had functioned as it should — a structured working trial. Three months of real output, real collaboration, real signal. By the time the offer came, there was nothing left to guess.
The internship-to-full-time conversion is the outcome most companies talk about wanting and few actually build toward. BloomThis got there because they set Ray up with meaningful work from the start, gave him access to the business, and let the output speak. No extended interview rounds. No second-guessing. The work had already made the case.
Why BloomThis Keeps Betting on Young Talent
This isn’t a one-off for BloomThis. They hire young people — a lot of them, intentionally.
Giden has a rationale that cuts against the default instinct most hiring managers fall back on.
“I believe even though inexperienced, a young person can supersede an experienced person. I’ve seen that over the years — simply because they learn fast, they acquire knowledge really quickly and they keep learning and they keep applying.” – Giden
The bet is on how fast someone will move once they’re in — not on what they already know coming through the door.
In a market where the tools and workflows relevant today can be obsolete within months, learning velocity matters more than accumulated experience. A candidate with five years on a method that’s been replaced is less useful than one who has never used it but will master the new one in a quarter.
“The world changed very fast. Being nimble, being adaptive, being fast is absolutely important. And young people are the most adaptive people.” – Giden
BloomThis sells flowers and gifts. Behind that, they’re running data infrastructure, operational logistics, and digital systems that require people who can learn and build as the environment shifts.
Young talent, for Giden, isn’t a budget decision. It’s a capability decision.
What Most Companies Get Wrong When They Hire Interns
The formula Giden described isn’t complicated. Most companies just aren’t applying it.
They screen for credentials first. Shortlist by GPA. Run interviews designed to test what candidates already know — not how fast they’ll learn, not whether they’ll go deeper than the brief, not how well they communicate across teams.
Ray wouldn’t have passed those filters on paper. He was a final-year student without a degree yet.
What he had were the signals Giden actually looks for:
- Competency — real technical ability to do the work
- Attitude — passion, learning orientation, contribution mindset
- Cross-functional instinct — the ability to connect with different teams and understand what the business is trying to achieve
When you hire for those signals, an internship stops being an obligation. It becomes a structured evaluation of someone you might want on your team for a decade.
Giden has seen it play out on a longer timeline too. He shared that a hire from a previous project-based programme joined years ago and is now leading a department — eight years in. The intern-to-full-time pipeline, built with real work and real criteria, compounds over time.
Why the Kabel Process Produces Quality Candidates
Giden was direct about what made the difference in finding an intern like Ray.
“Kabel filters those who are very hungry, very passionate about building things, coming together, showing leadership and actually taking action versus those that are maybe lukewarm. When we meet these candidates, we know they are already vetted through or filtered in some ways already.” – Giden
The signal problem in early talent hiring is real. Post a role on a job board and you get volume. CVs look the same. Most interviews are too short to separate genuine attitude from well-rehearsed answers.
What Kabel does is surface candidates who have already demonstrated the behaviours that matter — collaboration, initiative, execution under pressure — through structured, observable activity before the interview starts.
By the time Giden met Ray, a meaningful part of the vetting had already happened.
If you’re hiring interns this cycle and starting from a stack of CVs, you’re starting at the wrong signal.
Hire Interns Who Deliver Results
BloomThis didn’t find Ray by luck. They found him because they were looking in the right place, with the right criteria.
Attitude and competency. Cross-functional instinct. Willingness to go deeper than required.
Those signals exist in young talent. Most hiring processes just aren’t built to find them.
If you want to hire interns who actually move the business — start with candidates who’ve already shown what they’re made of.
