The whole internship process can be found to be pretty stressful or challenging. This year though the stress and the challenge heightened as we all try to find our way in the unusual circumstances, namely the pandemic. This is the new “normal” to which we have to adapt. I decided to share my struggles in hope that it may comfort those who are seeking an internship and are faced with difficulties (hopefully I won’t discourage you) or those who didn’t get much joy out of it.
The coronavirus ruined all my plans for the final year. I moved back home leaving my Amsterdam life and friends behind. I felt motivated to find an exciting and interesting internship that’ll compensate for all the negativity. I applied early on to PR agencies and international corporations in the beauty, fashion or food industry. Time passed and nothing happened. Why wasn’t I even invited for one job interview? I have an international education at number one university in the field, I completed an Honours Programme, am proficient in english language. I thought it was enough for me to be at least noticed by recruiters and distinguish me from other candidates from my home country. Apparently not, so my dream internship quickly became a stressful nightmare. I was scared that I won’t find anything. Fortunately, here is where good old-fashioned nepotism came in. I shared my worries with my uncle and he asked if they didn’t need an intern in Deceuninck’s marketing department. Perspective of working in the construction industry was far from perfect but I was desperate. My main project was supposed to be working on customer satisfaction survey got cancelled due to a pandemic so my supervisor had to improvise with finding tasks to fill out my time at the company. For those wondering what a marketing intern in a company that produces window profiles can do I’ll provide a short description. I handled market research, created databases with window producers, I did inventory, gathered marketing materials for customers, did research on social media of our competition and joined in on meetings with PR agency that handled social and traditional media. Halfway through my internship the number of coronavirus cases heightened and I switched to home office successfully robbing me of any human interaction.
My internship made me wonder if maybe we expect too much from it. Our peers seem to often portray and talk about their internships like they are almost perfect. This creates a pressure to enjoy your internship making you feel bad or unsuccessful if you don’t. But your first professional experiences don’t define you or your future career. You can take what you can get from your time at the company and then move on. It’s not healthy to dwell on the negatives, as a pessimist I know.
To sump up, I ended up working in the industry I didn’t want to and doing research which I find I didn’t enjoy as much as I thought. It was borish, it was tiring and this was not how I envisioned working in communications. From my description one can assume that my internship experience was a total DISASTER. Which I thought so too, for a while. However, I chose to look at this experience from another, more healthy perspective. I looked at what I learned and what I gained. I know more about corporate culture and internal communication, I know more about what services PR Agency provide and want to explore this profesional field, I formed a good relationship with my supervisor and most importantly I learned what I don’t like. I do not want to work as a marketing researcher or in the construction industry and most importantly I don’t want to spend my professional career doing tables in Excel. I suppose the moral of this story is quite cliche – each experience,even the most unpleasat ones, can help you grow and learn more about yourself.