‘’I’m doing my internship at Nationale Nederlanden… a financial services company… but it’s a lot of fun!’

‘’I’m doing my internship at Nationale Nederlanden… a financial services company… but it’s a lot of fun!’’

That it the first thing I tell to everyone that asks me about my internship. And although I frequently feel the need to explain that doing an internship at a big corporate is still fun, I shouldn’t have to. Why is there such a negative and boring stigma for financial services company? Or better said, big corporates? And why is that the last thing anyone wants to think about when applying for internships? Exactly this is what I questioned during my time at Nationale Nederlanden: a big finance corporate that is active in more than 11 countries, and with more than 16 thousand colleagues. I got my current position as employer branding intern by applying through someone that was already working at NN, and although I was quite scared I would not be able to learn enough or have enough fun at my internship, now, five months later, I can confirm the exact opposite.

First of all: not everyone working at those corporates have the goal of selling the company’s products. What I mean by this, is that there are tons of possibilities when it comes to jobs. It is not just the boring administration job, or the boring (fill in the blank). It is different departments with different goal settings, and different challenges for every job. Creating a website, building a game for event visitors to play or designing a magazine advertisement for a job are not the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a big corporate, but it’s exactly what I did.

Second of all: your colleagues matter, and make a world of a difference. Personally I matched really well with my team, which increased the motivation to come to the office, and to work together. Of course beforehand you will not now whether you will match with your team, however, especially those bigger corporates they try to match you with the team, and a recruiter checks whether your personality traits are a fit with the job and the company. Moreover, you’ll most likely apply for a position that suits you as a person, therefore others that are in your team will most likely have the same personality type as you!

And lastly, in most cases, big corporates over the smaller companies offer possibilities. Whereas at the smaller companies you’ll likely get the boring intern tasks, at a big corporate, they acknowledge that you’re there to learn. For me, I was able to decide and pick tasks myself! Of course there will still be the typical intern tasks, however, there are always tasks left undone, and often corporates are open for you to pick up more work if you want to.

So, to conclude, go out there, and apply at those big corporates! Dare to be different than your peers, and if you’re still not sure, most companies are open to more phone calls or interviews, and will only appreciate it if you’re not sure you’ll get the most out of it. It makes you come across as a motivated and eager student! Worst case scenario it doesn’t work out in the end, and you’ll just have more confirmation on what you don’t want to as a future job.