Before starting my internship at The Kingfish Company, I was skeptical – a tech/innovation aquaculture company that grows fish on land? How am I going to fit into this? To my surprise, it all fell into place quite quickly and this four month internship ended up being the highlight of getting this degree.
But first I have to introduce you to The Kingfish Company because I genuinely think the work they do is so cool and important for our planet! To protect marine biodiversity, in a nutshell, The Kingfish Company raises Dutch Yellowtail in a completely controlled environment. The whole production is based on recirculating aquaculture systems (known as RAS in the industry) which, as the name suggests, is an indoor, tank-based system. The fish are closely monitored 24/7 to ensure their wellbeing. The water used in the tanks is sea water so no fresh water gets wasted. And everything is run on renewable energy! Another amazing thing is that this production process ensures availability all year round. Now if you ever spot dutch yellowtail on a menu or in store you can be sure that it’s truly a perfect product – fully sustainable, raised with care and no vaccines or antibiotics, and sooo delicious.
Now that you’ve become acquainted with sustainable aquaculture I wanna share why The Kingfish Company was the perfect choice for doing an internship at! (well, at least for me)
- First thing first, the flexible work hours and being able to also work from home. As long as I got all of my tasks done on time, I didn’t have to stress about logging in at 9 am on the dot. I actually didn’t mind going to the office because that meant my supervisor and I got to hang out. We also ended up being super productive working in the office but having the option to be at home helped me balance all my life and work activities much easier.
- Second, the most important part for me was the amount of opportunities to be creative. Of course being a marketeer involves creativity but I was not expecting to be able to do so much. I was able to participate in several product shoots and filming with chefs for our social channels and either be the “director” behind the scenes or helping double the content by filming on my phone. I also got to design stickers to be used at exhibition events, write newsletters, edit videos, and take part in brainstorm sessions for future ad campaigns. Every step of the way, I truly felt that my input was taken seriously.
- Another aspect which I came to love was that the company is rather small. With around 140 employees total, the marketing department was my supervisor, head of marketing, the brand ambassador, and me. On a personal level, this was great for my anxiety and introvertedness – less people to interact with, the better. On a professional level however, I feel like those evaluating you are able to pay closer attention to you and give you better feedback. The impact and value of your work also feels much greater and you feel more appreciated.
- Lastly, a major factor was the product – what are we selling? Some time before, this became a bit of a moral dilemma for me – working in marketing essentially just trying to make a product as appealing as possible to sell as much of it as possible (consumerism and all…). But when I really thought about it I realised that this product is genuinely good and the amount of work that goes into growing the “perfect” fish is worth marketing for!
Shout out to the whole team and ESPECIALLY my supervisor for being the most awesome and fun people to work with. This was an unforgettable experience that made me feel that all the hard work I’ve been putting into this degree is worth it. If you’re looking for a dynamic internship with lots to learn, The Kingfish Company is THAT place 😉
