Internship experience of Laura Maes
Curious about Laura Maes’ internship experience? Read Laura’s findings here.
1: How did you experience the internship at Convident (general)?
During a period of 14 weeks, I did my graduation internship and thesis for my school international internship and bachelor thesis at Convident. This for the International Entrepreneurship track in the business management program at Artevelde University College in Ghent. I was very happy when Convident gave me the opportunity as an international student to do my internship here. Convident is a company that offers students a supportive and instructive internship. I actually experienced this as such. In addition, there is also a pleasant atmosphere due to the rather informal organizational culture. So it is the perfect place to do your graduate internship!
2: Were you well received by our colleagues (work atmosphere)?
Definitely, right from the beginning I was given the option to join them for a day to get to know everything and everyone. So I had less stress during my first internship day, because I had already met some colleagues. There is also a good working atmosphere, which makes it a pleasant place to do an internship. It is also no problem when you have questions, because they are always more than welcome. In addition, you are also well supported with your school work, so both obtain a favorable outcome.
3: Would you recommend future interns to do an internship at Convident?
Absolutely! At Convident, you are listened to as an intern and receive excellent guidance. It is also nice that I was not the only student doing an internship at Convident. That does help with feeling comfortable because you have peers around you who are in the same stage of their lives. And they are also very attuned to interns and those tasks they can do because of this. So they appreciate when you give some input yourself about the tasks that you are good at and enjoy doing. All of this goes along with feedback moments about the work you did.
4: What grade would you give your internship at Convident and why?
I would rate my internship with an 8/10. The reason for this is that of course there is always room for improvement, although I enjoyed my internship at Convident incredibly. It was a learning and useful experience within my studies and they also supported me well in delineating my thesis. Overall, I am very happy with how my internship period went. It was also nice that I could sometimes work from home, especially since I had to travel to Groningen for a fairly long time and that daily usually took 3 hours. So it was definitely a plus, when I could do my schoolwork or internship assignments from home.
5: What will you take away from Convident for the rest of your career?
My internship period has given me an idea for my professional life in the future. I also learned a lot about online marketing and became familiar with new terms. It was definitely also useful to see the difference between the Belgian and Dutch business approaches. The cultural and language differences taught me a lot and was a valuable addition to my work experience. I also learned a lot about the online environment in general. More importantly, I learned a lot about myself!