My Internship at HEINEKEN was part of the Corporate Affairs department. It is one of the smaller departments at the Head Office, but the team at the Head Office works to support the different operating companies around the world that HEINEKEN owns, and teams spread all around the world. Within the corporate affairs team, there are subteams; the sustainability team which oversees all projects, initiatives and communication centered around the sustainability efforts in the company, there is also the public affairs team which focuses on farious topics from government communication, press releases, and PR. And then there is my team, global communications. This team focuses on all external communications through social media, as well as all internal communications within the company. My work focused on the Digital and Technology department, which works to make HEINEKEN the “Best-Connected Brewer”.
9:00
My work day usually started around 9 in the morning. What was nice is there was no strictness when it came to when you wanted to come in to work, or if you wanted to work from home or the office. Of course for important meetings where the whole department got together for announcements, or specific brainstorming meetings where it would be more efficient to meet in person, I would come in to the office. The first meetings of the day usually were with my supervisor to discuss my work progress, any questions I had, and just a general personal update on how I am doing.
10:00
After my first morning meeting and some work done, for days I was at the office, I would meet a colleague or another intern for coffe at the bar downstairs. It was known that the coffee machines on every floor, although free, never tasted as good as from the bar downstairs.
12:00
After meetings with the greater team on updates and project alignment, we would all look out where we wanted to go for lunch. All the HEINEKEN office buildings are close together, and although in theory every building should have the same lunch menu, the menu at the Digital and Technology building was the best. I would often invite my friends who were also interns in other departments to come visit and have lunch together to catch up on what everyone was working on and how life was.
14:00
Afternoons were mostly focused around work. My main tasks were managing the internal website for Digital and Technology and creating content for the internal social media.
17:00
On Thursdays it was always office drinks at the bar downstairs, where members of the executive and leadership teams would be behind the bar, pouring everyone drinks. The interesting part was to find out that many people didn’t actually like beer, so there were many non-beer and non-alcholic options to choose from. After drinks and meeting different colleagues, my friends and I would jump on the F1 simulator to try set records for whichever race track was that weekend.
Everyone at HEINEKEN always says the famous quote of the founder, that they don’t sell beer, they sell good times, and that is very much imbedded in the culture. Everyone works very hard, but they balance it with very good times too.