Internship experience – experienced by an Intern abroad

Hi, my name is Justyna and I want to share my experience that I had with this internship. I am a junior in secondary school from Prague, and I joined the Erasmus+ programme to have an internship in a different country. I’m going to tell you everything that I had to do to be accepted, how did my first days go, what I did for the whole month and some special tasks I was a part of.

I attend a Business Academy. And one of our school’s policy is being away from school for one month, typically May, when seniors are graduating. For this whole month, we need to have internships. Mainly in Czechia but when some students don’t feel like it, they can join the Erasmus+ and become an intern in a different country. The choices are Malta, Ireland, Spain and Germany. Because of our second language, it’s better to choose a country where we can speak at least a little bit of their language. That’s why I chose Germany. But it wasn’t a free ticket. We needed to prove ourselves that we are the best choice. First we had to write a CV and CL, in English and the other language. Then we had to do a smaller presentation about us, where the teachers judge how we present, speak, and how hardworking we can be. We could be put in 3 cities, the teachers picked it for us but when there’s a free position, and we are already accepted, we could just ask to be moved. So that’s how I ended up in Würzburg!🏰

Once we arrived, the teachers from the partner school immediately welcomed us and showed us the way. We had a little language course, a welcome dinner, basically supervision for the whole month and in general, such a firendly atmosphere was created from the start! ❤️

When I started my internship in the company Region Mainfranken, the first few days were kind of awkward for me. I was being introduced to the rules, to the people, and the programme itself. Thankfully, the workers here are so nice, friendly and welcoming. We spoke in English and German, and the tasks were never too hard. I applied for the position of marketing, so yeah, creating posters, website texts, blogs, videos and posts on social media, etc. And that’s what I did! I worked with Canva, Word, editing programmes for websites and occasionally, I did a small amount of chores. Like going to the post office, returning plastic bottles and shredding papers. Nothing too difficult.

Together with the social media team, we created short Q&A videos on Instagram, few posts about my experience as a student abroad and letting me have a free imagination for posts inspiration. The teamwork was so lovely 😊

I also joined them on a little trip to Schweinfurt for giving college students posters with an online course they could join. We always gathered for lunch together, I immediatelly got a space in the office, and sometimes we went to the supermarket to buy food. They really treated me well, and I am forever grateful for that 🥰

My work hours weren’t something much of a deal. I arrived around 8:45, asked for something to do, started my work, finished it, sometimes I recieved some smaller tasks and then I was free to go. In my free time I mainly did grocery shopping, sightseeing and shopping. The weather was very nice almost every single day, so I had a lot of time to enjoy it.

I’m happy that I learned with Canva more, practiced my German, had a proper introduction of working in a company and yes. If you’re a student reading this, don’t be afraid to try it out yourself! It sounds scary, lonely even, but trust me, everything is going to turn into a wonderful experience and a huge opportunity.

Thank you for reading my internship experience!🤗