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Meet Timothy.

From a summer internship in Amsterdam to shipping code for millions of travellers, learn how he’s building for impact at Booking.com.

For many computer science students, the path from the classroom to the professional world is a leap into the unknown. But for Timothy, a Junior Software Engineer at Booking.com, the journey was fuelled by a desire to transition from solo problem-solving to building systems with a massive global impact. Growing up in England and moving to the Netherlands in 2022 to study Computer Science, Timothy always learned best by doing, which led him to start his own freelance business alongside his studies. However, discovering Booking.com’s Early Careers internship programme on LinkedIn during his second year of university opened the door to a summer in Amsterdam. He focused on learning and completing his intern project, which ultimately resulted in a return offer as a full-time Graduate Software Engineer.

While freelancing offered invaluable experience in taking full ownership of projects from idea to implementation, Timothy craved a larger challenge. “I wanted to join Booking.com for the chance to work at a scale and depth that you can’t easily find as a freelancer,” he explains. He was eager to evolve from simply writing code to learning how to build systems that operate on a global level. Working alongside top-tier software engineering teams provided the perfect environment to gain technical depth and rapidly improve the quality of his work, an opportunity that simply wasn’t possible when freelancing.

The transition from intern to full-time engineer brought a massive shift in responsibility. Timothy went from working on a contained intern project to owning production code used by millions of people. Today, his work directly enhances the trip inspiration and discovery experience for travelers, particularly those planning beach and ski holidays. By integrating new map features and contributing to a landing page for regional searches, he gets to see his ideas come to life. “Seeing my features live on the website for the first time is a massive highlight,” Timothy shares, noting how rewarding it is to watch his changes directly influence core metrics on high-traffic pages.

At Booking.com, the excitement of shipping code from day one is paired with a strong emphasis on learning and development. Timothy is supported by an assigned daily mentor who serves as his first point of contact for code reviews, mentorship, and informal advice. Furthermore, his manager actively collaborates with him to ensure his tasks align with his technical interests. This support system has empowered him to enroll in internal and external training sessions to up-skill in areas he is passionate about, such as A/B testing and developing architectures on AWS.

Beyond the technical growth, the transition was made seamless by his graduate cohort. Joining alongside peers in the exact same position provided an immediate, solid group of friends from his very first day. Through a hybrid work model that allows for focus time at home and team collaboration in the office, alongside social events organised by the Early Careers team, he has found a deep sense of community both inside and outside the office.

Looking back on his journey, Timothy highlights a crucial lesson: “When I was freelancing, I just needed my code to work, but at this scale I’ve learned the importance of making code clean and maintainable for other people”.

For students or freelancers considering an Early Careers programme, Timothy’s advice is straightforward: just go for it. He encourages aspiring engineers to not be afraid to ask lots of questions, noting that asking “how” and “why” things work is the quickest way to level up their skills. When it comes to interviews, he emphasises that interviewers are more interested in learning your thought process than seeing you create optimal solutions right away. By talking through different approaches to a problem and asking clarifying questions, candidates can demonstrate exactly how they tackle complex challenges, reminding them that interviewers ultimately want to see them succeed.

Applications for the Software Engineering Internship programme open in October 2026.

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