Are you interested in health care? Do you enjoy working in a highly dynamic start-up environment? Then Siilo is the perfect internship host for you!
This vibrant, Amsterdam-based health IT start-up created a messenger app for medical professionals. Siilo’s application allows medical professionals and teams to communicate and share information in a secure, encrypted environment. Their vision is to create a future where medical professionals and patients practice medicine together.
I interned at Siilo from February to May 2020. In this blog, I’m going to share my 3 key learnings with you.
- Be brave – and don’t give up!
Finding an internship was a tough process for me. Since I was on exchange in Canada while looking for an internship, I felt that it was really difficult to convince a prospective internship host of my potential when I had to get up at 2 am for a Skype interview with them. After three unsuccessful interviews I felt daunted: Why does no one want me?
Finally, I found Siilo on a list of the “100 hottest start-ups in Amsterdam.” I checked their website, but they weren’t even hiring then. Without high expectations, I reached out to ask for the opportunity of an internship. A week later I was hired. So, if you see a cool company, be brave and reach out!
- Be a yes-man
Would you like to join this meeting? Would you like to grab a coffee? Would you like to work on this project? What really helped me in gaining lots of experience in the limited time period of 4 months was saying yes to every opportunity I was given. Although all these new impressions were overwhelming at first, taking in as much as possible helped me to understand which projects I really enjoy doing, so that I can now say “no” to things more comfortably because I know when something isn’t quite as interesting to me or exceeds my capacities.
- Be flexible, embrace the uncertain
At a dynamic start-up like Siilo, projects often come up spontaneously. Especially if a pandemic is sweeping the world outside, events, conferences, and plans can change within seconds. During my internship, I was responsible for preparing Siilo’s presence at the DMEA, the largest health IT conference in Germany. Originally, it was supposed to take place in Berlin, but got moved online due to the lockdown. The preparations for this event were messy and changed a lot, sometimes requiring me to work overtime in order to meet the changing deadlines. This is why flexibility was one of the most important skills I developed during my internship. Though it goes against our natural instincts to embrace the uncertain, I think this is a valuable skill to practice in today’s quickly changing work environment.
Conclusion
In sum, Siilo is an excellent employer that allowed me to work with an incredibly smart, driven, and visionary team. If you want to gain experience in the areas of marketing, sales, or corporate communications and are passionate about shaping the future of health care, I can highly recommend this internship host to you.