I have been trying to figure out what I want to work with for the longest time. The only things that I was sure of was that I wanted an office job and the ability to frequently interact with other people. I decided to combine the two and figured Human Resources might be a good match.
In my first week as an HR and talent acquisition intern, I was requested to draft a job description for a new marketing position. I scheduled a meeting with the marketing manager to discuss the details of the position. Upon asking him what the interview process he intended for the position he said “You are the specialist in this, you can decide”. I thought he was joking, but I soon realised he was serious. That phrase surprised me, as I was a new intern in an area that I never worked in. From that interaction I noticed that I would have a lot more responsibility than I previously entailed in my internship.
I have now completed one year as an intern at Fixico, an automotive-tech startup in Amsterdam, and I can say that ownership over processes continued until the very end of my internship. As you can tell by my interaction with the marketing manager, Fixico is a very informal company with a flat hierarchy. During my time in the company I wore many different hats, creating Instagram campaigns, leading internship recruitment processes and assisting my manager in administration of employee data and payroll. These tasks are completely different from each other, but share one communality: I chose to do them.
From week one I was given the opportunity to shape what my internship would look like. At first I was extremely anxious about the responsibility, but little by little I learnt to appreciate the trust that managers gave me. In Fixico I have been able to greatly develop, both professionally and personally. Because of this freedom, I got to learn what I like and don’t like in a job by testing things out regularly, and it allowed me to become a better communicator, since I had to voice my ideas and opinions to my manager regularly in order to figure out what my next task would be.
By talking to co-workers and job applicants I realised that this ownership was not a special characteristic of Fixico, but a big selling point of startups in general. Although it can be a bit overwhelming to not have a lot of direction in the beginning of your career, this freedom can allow for exponential growth right out of the gate. So if you feel like me 12 months ago and do not know what you would like to do professionally, I would highly recommend joining a startup as your first experience. And of course, I can vouch for Fixico as a good employer for this initial boost in your career