Ever since choosing to study Business Administration during my International Baccalaureate, I have always had an interest in Human Resources. This interest in the subject encouraged me to study Communication Science at the UvA. Moreover, during an internship last summer, I had the opportunity to work in the Human Resource department of a large luxury distributer in Asia. During this internship, I learnt and witnessed first-hand the recruitment and hiring process. This internship allowed me to better understand what I want to do in the future, which encouraged me to find an internship for our course that would be well suited to my interests.
When searching for an internship, I tried to find a job that would help expand my knowledge in the recruitment and human resource sector. This led me to finding an Italian marketing and recruitment internship at Working Adventures. Working Adventures is a start-up that focuses on international recruitment. The main aim of the company is to help combine both the recruitment and travel industries to help job seekers grow their careers abroad.
During my interview, I realised that the company was very friendly and open and everyone working there seemed like they were enjoying their time. Luckily, after two days, I got a phone call telling me that they would offer me the position, and I started as an Italian recruitment and marketing intern in February.
My day at Working Adventures started at 09:00am where we would come into the office and start with a coffee meeting with all co-workers. After the meeting and catch up was done, we would all go back to our desks and start working.
I would start the day with checking my email to see if I had missed any messages from the day before. Once I had replied to the emails, I would check Airtable to see which interviews I had scheduled for the day and whether new applicants had come in. Airtable is a cloud spreadsheet database which is shared with all recruitment employees of the company. Usually, the day before, I would schedule three or four 30 minute interviews with potential candidates. Once all interviews were completed, I would start calling new applicants.
I would first start with my ‘Application Complete’ candidates, meaning that all boxes were filled out and a curriculum vitae was attached, and would schedule a date and time for an interview if they weren’t available at that instance. Moreover, I would explain to them how the interview would work and tell them that I would explain more about the job when the interview was scheduled. I would then move on to ‘Application Failed’ candidates, ones that might not have an adequate level of English or cannot begin on the start dates proposed by our clients, and see if they were also available for an interview.
During the interview with my candidates, I would start by explaining how the interview would work, and tell them that I would ask them one or two questions in English. I would then start with general questions about themselves, their work ethic, work experience in the customer service field, and education. I would then ask them two simple questions in English about their hobbies and why they thought they would be a good fit for the job, to understand their level of English. Once all questions were answered, I would then move on to explain what the job entailed, company benefits and answer any question they had about the company or the city they would be moving to. I would then move on to telling them if I believed they would be a good candidate for the job, and ask them to send me their documents in order for me to propose them to our clients. Once all documents would be sent by the candidate, I would email our client with the documents and some background information about them.
As I was working for a start-up, everyone was very friendly and talkative. Because of this, we would eat lunch together every day and, sometimes, even go for a walk around the neighbourhood.
Once lunch was over, I would go back to calling my Italian candidates for their interviews. If no interviews were scheduled, I would start on my marketing tasks, such as setting up the Italian website or translating the relocation packages or job vacancies into Italian.
Overall, I have really enjoyed my internship at Working Adventures, and would suggest working for a start up. This is because the teams are very small and make you feel at home very quickly. Everyone is very helpful and available all of the time. I have also realised how much I like recruitment and the Human Resource sector, which is helping me understand more what I would like to do in the future. Although I’m not entirely sure I am still ready to work a 9 to 5 job, I think that my internship has prepared me enough to get ready for the working world.