How it all started
When I submitted my bachelor thesis, I knew there is not much time to relax – I had to start applying for internships. To be honest, I was a bit worried. Finding an internship in a foreign country is not an easy task and when you add the pandemic to the equation, it just doesn’t look that promising. I spent a few weeks applying for internships that I saw on LinkedIn with no positive outcome. Then, I talked to one of my friends who told me I should send an email to Shop Like You Give a Damn. Shout out to you, Roos!
Even though Shop Like You Give a Damn did not offer any vacancies, I saw that they did look for some interns in the past, so I reached out to them. We scheduled an interview and I sometimes can’t believe this myself – they hired me at the spot.
About Shop Like You Give a Damn
Shop Like You Give a Damn is a start-up – an online marketplace with plenty of brands and sellers that offer collections of clothes, shoes, cosmetics, homeware products and much more.
What makes this company unique is the fact that the products they offer are vegan, ethically and more sustainably produced. They have a selection of 14 criteria that the sellers have to meet in order to be featured on their website. And their mission is truly wonderful: “Buy as little as possible. But when you do buy something, make it a vegan, fair and sustainable purchase. That is kind to all beings on earth. Kind to our fellow animals, to our fellow people, to all future generations.”
My internship
I consider myself extremely lucky. As a vegan myself who is passionate about the slow fashion movement, I found myself surrounded by people who had the same values, were greatly educated about the topic (the things I learned!) and passionate about making a change in the world.
So, I can safely say, this was my dream internship that I did not even dream of. But maybe you are asking: but what were your tasks? Well, as a content & research intern, I was producing content for their website. The blogs I wrote were either brief and fun like shop-the-look blogs or went more in-depth. For these more in-depth blogs, I had to sit behind my laptop, get to the data and information I needed and critically scrutinize what I was reading. For instance, I wrote about the most common ethical & sustainable fashion certifications and looked at the exact impacts of the top Christmas gifts.
Next to writing blogs, my other tasks were designing visuals and graphics, working with our colleague from the UK on SEO-related tasks and simply helping my colleagues when they needed my help.
What I learned
During my 4.5-months-long internship, I learned that:
- The fast fashion industry is even worse than I thought
- Having a wonderful team and a job you are passionate about really makes a difference
- The combination of working at the office & working from home is the best (at least for me)
A few tips for my fellow students
I would like to end this blog with three tips that I wish I had known before starting my internship:
- You don’t have to have an internship at a large company to get “the real work experience”. Being an intern at a start-up can be so awesome: your work truly has an impact and it might feel like you are working with your friends on a passion project. Also, you learn a lot because there is no time to have an intern who just sits around – so you can count on having challenging tasks and improving your skills!
- Don’t be afraid to speak up and share your ideas with your colleagues. Really! I did and only great things came out of it.
- During your internship, you follow two courses and you also need to conduct research. If you also have a part-time job and some extracurricular activities (e.g., being a board member at a student association) and you’d like to still have some (corona-proof) social life and time for yourself – try to find a part-time internship. A full-time internship is still doable (I did survive!) but it can get stressful and too much for one’s plate.
I wish you good luck with finding the right internship!
