After five months, my internship at Urban Journalist has come to an end. The experience of a first internship, adjusting to a new environment, and expanding on my knowledge, has been an enlightening yet challenging adventure. In April I embarked on my journey as an intern at Urban Journalist. This social platform is an up-and-coming source for city discovery, that helps its users find the best hotspots in all the buzzing places worldwide. As it is a Dutch company, Amsterdam is its central city of focus, which allowed me to explore all of its hidden gems and discover what the city has to offer.
Going into my internship, I was not sure what exactly I will learn which was exciting but also frightening as it was my first experience working as a marketing and content creation intern. On my first day, I was welcomed with open arms by a small team. I immediately felt comfortable and knew I would enjoy my time at Urban Journalist. I was introduced to my tasks, where I would mainly create content for TikTok, Instagram, and the Urban Journalist app, following templates and using my creativity to continuously capture the attention of our audience and make them want to visit the hotspots we discover.
The dynamic at the office was something I quickly adjusted to, the atmosphere was filled with a group of positive and motivated people. With this easygoing atmosphere, I realized I have to set a boundary between my professional and personal life, as all of my colleagues became my friends. I had to maintain a mindset that would not allow me to get distracted from my tasks and have a proficient relationship at the office.
The team consisted of people from all over the world, with varying views, opinions, and visions, which helped me become more open-minded and developed my creativity. As I started my internship, Urban Journalist launched its sister company called Inside Membership. Inside Membership is an organization that allows content creators to unlock exclusive benefits in Amsterdam with the content they create on their social media. Inside Membership connects creators and restaurants in Amsterdam, creating mutually beneficial collaborations where hotspots are promoted by influencers with large amounts of followers.
Even though I was part of building up Inside Membership, Urban Journalist remained my priority. However, my tasks for Inside Membership were also extremely beneficial to my learning process and developing my skills as an intern for Urban Journalist. My main tasks for Inside Membership were to monitor the promotions created by influencers, maintain a positive relationship with the restaurants and creators, and update Instagram on a daily basis with the most recent promotions. I worked closely with Dutch content creators and restaurant owners, which improved my professional communication skills and helped me overcome a language barrier that I feared would be an issue. Being part of a start-up, that is now becoming more successful has given me a sense of pride, as I was doing something I truly enjoyed and can happily say I played a key role in Inside’s positive and ongoing development.
Overall, the main takeaway I have from my internship is that even over my fears of not having previous experience in a full-time job, I continuously pushed myself to develop and discovered a side of me that was motivated to overcome my doubts. I have learned new methods, was part of building a platform, made new friends, and lastly, I will be able to look back and be proud of how much I’ve grown both personally and professionally throughout the last few months.