I didn’t send an application to IamExpat Media hoping to snag an internship. My goals were simple: I needed a part-time job to cover my expenses. However, when the boss replied to my email offering me an internship position, I jumped at the opportunity. Being an expat myself in Amsterdam, IamExpat had been an extremely useful source of information for me and I was excited to pass this on to others.
My internship started off great. The commute was a long one (45 minutes), but I didn’t mind because it gave me time to learn some Dutch, plan my day and call my family. My colleagues were extremely nice and friendly; they made me feel welcome and included and I learnt a lot from them, even when it wasn’t related to my tasks.
The atmosphere at the office was casual, friendly and fun, and all the employees were close to each other and shared an easy banter. Every day, we had lunch together at the office and once a week after work, we got together for drinks. In the first month, my tasks did not require much effort or responsibility, but I used the time to get settled into my position, learn how the office works and get acquainted with the tasks. I began by writing around one or two articles a week and spent the rest of the time editing, uploading and proofreading.
And then came the coronavirus pandemic…..
The consequences caused by the coronavirus affected my internship drastically, although I’m thankful that I was still able to continue working. Even before the lockdown mandated working from home, tensions were rising among the team, where some people took the pandemic very seriously and were careful whereas others came to work sick with no regard to safety. Finally, sometime mid-March we were all told to work from home.
This changed the entire dynamic of my internship. I no longer had to commute, but that also meant that I was no longer interacting with my colleagues face-to-face, nor could I easily get guidance and advice. When working from the office, for example, I would hear the conversations of the marketing team, the housing team and other teams and learn from them, even if it wasn’t directly related to my tasks. Now, I was just assigned tasks by my supervisor (usually to write or upload an article) and once I finished, received feedback on it. I also had a hard time focusing on my tasks at home since I did not have a separate room where I could work or study.
However, it was not all bad, because the pandemic also meant that I was given more responsibility and assigned more serious tasks. Since events were cancelled all over Germany and the Netherlands, IamExpat Media let go of the freelancers who wrote these events, allowing me to take their place by writing articles. We needed content for the site, and I found my niche writing lifestyle articles about German history, culture and tradition. I also continued my older tasks of writing news and updating (online) events. Soon, I also got into a rhythm and became acquainted with the process of working from home.
In conclusion, I would say that I definitely learnt a lot (especially about self-organization when working from home) and that I enjoyed my time at IamExpat. I would also recommend it to anyone thinking about doing an internship here since the team is very friendly, helpful and easygoing. I feel prepared for a career in media and content writing, but I would have liked to also learn more about other aspects such as marketing, advertising and strategy (especially after Covid, my training was limited to content writing and editorial aspects). I love writing, but this is something that I will keep in mind when choosing a future internship or career path.