Dear fellow students,
Since February this year I am completing my internship at SOFrank. SOFrank is a Dutch company that develops, designs and executes (inter)national event concepts and decors. However, since the Covid-19 pandemic and its disastrous effect on the event branch, the founder and CEO of SOFrank, decided to broaden the company’s horizon and now also focuses on real-estate projects, in addition to event concepts and decors. This additive branch is named RealConnectors, and will be announced to the target audience at the end of my internship.
As an intern my tasks vary from taking minutes to presenting concept to the board of a third party. During the first part of my internship, we mostly created and sold concepts, with the help of presentations I made. As my internship progressed, the importance of the announcement of RealConnectors began to play a bigger role. Sometimes this felt a bit overwhelming, as I had to put my other (daily) tasks aside in order to support the development of the additive branch.
The work environment could be chaotic, and at the beginning I did not feel like it was my task to organize the chaos since that would mean prioritizing one thing over another, and who I to do that? However, quickly I learned that structuring chaos is beneficial in every single way. For the process, for the outcome and for the ambiance. Even if it means that one project has to be put on the back burner for a while. I worked a lot in Excel, and created a tab for each project, and in each tab a clear to-do list with a deadline. I would highly recommend fellow interns to work with a complete overview of to-do’s and deadlines. Not only does it become clear what still to do, at the end you can look back and be proud of all you have done.
I was one of the few lucky ones that was allowed to go the office during the pandemic. Even though the office was located in the same street as my house and only a 3-minute bike ride away, this felt like a huge privilege. The company was located within a co-working space (Fosbury and Sons). At first, I found co-working to be a bit chaotic. Always people around you and half of them are in online meetings and are sometimes not aware of their volume while almost disappearing into their Zoom meeting. I was easily distracted and found it very interesting to listen to the sales of a to me unknown company next to me. However, you get used to it. Whether it are the voices that become familiar or I just became better at focusing, I got used to it. Even though I would not necessarily choose for co-working spaces myself, they are inspirational, bring people together and are very upcoming. When you are in doubt, I recommend you to come by Fosbury and Sons; the building is amazing and the aesthetics are wonderful (and you should try their avocado/poached egg sandwich!).
Nonetheless, my internship has taught me a lot. From co-working to presenting and from additive branch launches to structures.
My final tip might be a bit obvious for a communication science student, but communicate (and connect)! About progress, tips and tricks and do not be afraid to do something different than has been done so far. Connect with the people around you, and the people around them. Add them on LinkedIn so you can reach out for them, and vice versa. Also when your internship has ended. Right then.
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