Internships are exciting, but nevertheless; quite daunting. Throwing yourself into a corporate work environment at a young age may seem unnatural given that most other people are years ahead in experience and life. Nonetheless, I believe that it’s one of the most important experiences in my university career.
Diving in Early
I dived in quite early into my internship a the European Association for Biometrics, as my contract started a month earlier, when the Research Experiment course was still happening. Although I finished the course with good grades, that month was very challenging in terms of work/school/life balance. Having to constantly juggle a full-time job, schooling, and upkeeping my personal relationships took a toll on me early on, however, the notion that this way only the situation for a single month gave me the motivation to push forward
Unexpected Challenges
Once the Experiment course was done and I could proceed with completing the regular internship courses alongside the actual internship, I could put a lot more focus and energy into my work. I faced many challenges along the way, many of which I did not expect at all. One of them was having to face my problems with overlooking small mistakes that I would make in emails or briefs – usually typos or long links and finding a way to make sure that I would put extra effort in making sure these were right every time.
Furthermore, I was also tasked with creating graphics for the organisation, which significantly improved my graphic design skills along the way. Although I had used the Canva software for simple tasks previously, I was more adept at using more complicated software such as Photoshop, so learning how to transfer those skills into a more simple software was more difficult than I had initially expected. Thankfully, through having to create countless graphics for various events, I developed very good Canva skills, which I can now transfer into future internships, projects and jobs.
Another challenge that I faced was ridding myself of my previous mentality that I am significantly younger than many of my co-workers and hence if something is off or wrong, it is most likely my fault and I have no say in the matter regardless of what happened. This environment was very different – it was very open and respectful of everyone, and my opinion was valued amongst all the co-workers, which made me feel welcomed and respected.
Looking to the Future
In the future, I would say that I know what being a communications intern in the way of marketing and external communications entails. Although I would not want to work in a small work environment for a while in order to gain a broader corporate experience, I would say that I am very grateful for the experience that I had. Furthermore, I learned how to balance my work, life and schoolwork, and how to set healthy boundaries between the three.
Design Create for LinkedIn Marketing Two Consecutive Workshops
