In the past six months, I have been going through an eye-opening experience for a twenty-one year old: my first professional job. My role was Head of Outgoing Global Exchanges in AIESEC in Amsterdam. AIESEC is a leadership youth-led organization that exists in over 108 countries and sends people abroad for volunteering projects or internships. As a young professional, I truly wanted to be part of an environment where I would be able to develop new skills while being challenged by those around me, and I believe that my time in this organization has truly taught me much more than I would have ever expected. Thus, in the next paragraph I will talk about how a typical Tuesday at the office looks like for me.
My work day starts at nine every day, so I make sure I am there on time. First, I get a coffee to go from the cafe on the ground floor of the office. When I get to the office, I start my day by making a to do list with all the tasks that I have for the day. I then use the Eisenhower Matrix to prioritize my tasks and decide what I will start with. My next step is opening WhatsApp business to answer my texts and check if there is anything urgent that needs to be done. After having everything in order, I have around half an hour to work on my team meeting and set the agenda for it.
As head of outgoing global exchanges, I led a team of nine people, and every Tuesday we would have a team meeting to align on our strategies and update each other on all stages of the customer flow. During the team meeting, I always start with a personal check in, where they can briefly mention how they are feeling or how their weekend was. Then, I ask everyone to give a one to two minute functional update, where they can mention what they have been working on, the status of their tasks and what they will be working on in the upcoming week. Then, depending on what is most important to discuss, we would assess our marketing strategies, the performance of our international relations partners or our own activities. The team meeting ends with a recap of the agenda, and of our objectives for the week.
Around one o’clock I have lunch with my colleagues, in the cafeteria from our office building. This is a beautiful moment since it brings us together, and we have created a rule for ourselves to try our best to not miss lunch, so we can have a moment of bonding together. After lunch, I get back to finishing up my tasks for the day. It could be that I still have meetings with certain international relations partners or with the marketing team, or I simply have to work on my individual tasks.
Lastly, every Tuesday we have drinks after work, which truly brings the teams together and makes the working environment much more enjoyable. It is also a great opportunity to connect with my colleagues and get to know them better.
Thus, this is how a day in the life of my internship at AIESEC in Amsterdam looked like. I hope you have a great experience with your professional careers!