Why I am the most successful young woman you could ever meet

I’m sitting in my room in London, South East, watching at the top of The Shard and trying to put together my thoughts about my experience at Communications department of Overseas Development Institute (ODI). It’s been 3 months since I got here and tomorrow is the last day of my internship. What groundbreaking do I have to say about it? Let me think.

The most stupid question that I get about these past 3 months – was it worth it? Of course!!! For many various reasons. But I always point out that work experience is not the most important one, at least not for me. Let’s be honest - you can get work experience in your motherland and it’s hundred times easier. If you decide to do an internship on the other side of the continent, you’re probably looking for cultural experience as well. This is what I got here and I could not happier. I made loads of lovely intelligent funny friends who are almost already packing their stuff for a trip to Lithuania to visit me. At first I thought that Britons, who are stereotyped as introverts, won’t approve me - 100% extrovert. For once in my life I’m glad I was wrong. Since I’m counting my last days at ODI, today my colleagues arranged a lovely surprise leaving lunch at my favorite restaurant by the office. This proves that they are warm friendly people who treat you equally with every other staff member.

When it comes to work, looking at a broader picture, it’s very valuable to know what work in the office of a big organisation based in Western Europe looks like. People at ODI are very hard working and you can tell it after spending your first 10 minutes here. This is also because you could never hear a word not related to work. EVER. And they work so hard that their lunch break is simply for going across the street, buying a sandwich, coming straight back and eating it by computer. Yes, that’s not so much fun but who said that office has to be fun? (They’re so much fun after work in a pub, though). You have to respect this attitude towards work. Maybe that’s the reason this organisation is so successful in their work field. And I can tell that my department – central communications team – is very professional and devoted to what they do. Not only I learned a lot from them, I feel being inspired by them to be in it by 101%.

If I never had this amazing opportunity to do this internship, I would have never been able even to have a sneak peek at ODI. People at ODI were shocked when they found out that I was only 22 years old. ‘I thought you were at least 25’, - I’ve heard this a million times. Once I asked why I looked older for them (hey, I’m a woman and that’s not the biggest compliment). Turns out it’s not about my looks, simply nobody gets to work at ODI without a Masters degree. (And I’m still struggling with my Bachelor. At Vilnius University. Before they met me they didn’t even know what Vilnius was, by the way.) There you have it – I am probably the youngest person ODI has ever had and only because of UNDP. Since it’s so competitive to get into ODI, in my CV these three letters will look pretty amazing.

People who know me can guarantee you that I’ve never felt lack of confidence in myself. But after this internship in London, I feel even more confident (if that’s possible). I really enjoyed this internship, this experience, company of my new friends, big city and PUBS J  Everyone keeps saying that they can imagine how sad I am having to leave. But to be honest I’m not so sad – I’m happy. I’m happy that I had this experience, it’s very valuable and I’m ready to move on – to take everything that I gained here and use it in my promising career elsewhere. That’s why these internships are for, right? 

Eglė,

Student of Journalism, Vilnius University

 

My experience in Brussels, Belgium

Hello to everyone! My name is Simona Gaidyte, I am information and communication student from Vilnius University. I finished my internship almost a month ago. I needed my time to sum up everything because those three months were amazing professional and personal experience. I want to thank “Partners4Value” for this opportunity and the hosting organization “Minerva Consulting&Communication” for amazing experience. 

My daily life in Minerva

Minerva team

Minerva was founded at the beginning of 1998 so they have over 13 years of experience in working with organizations such as the ones mentioned above. The actual name of the company comes from an old Roman legend in which Minerva refers to the goddess of wisdom. I was working from 9:30 till 6:30 from Monday to Friday. These working hours were for understanding the dynamics of the company. I began to read the description of work (DOW) of the projects I would be working with. It is a long document which describes the objectives and purpose of the project as well as the Work Projects (abbreviated as WP) of each partner and the responsibilities they would be in charge of. It was important for me to read and truly understand this document because it gave me a better understanding of what the organization wished to achieve and the role of Minerva within that given consortium. I was working with projects CHAARM and MOTIF about HIV and RESFOOD about environment. I was responsible for updating the social media pages and website of the project. Also, I was supporting Minerva in every day activities. The most interesting part of my internship was a new project “Brussels Science Apéro”. Brussels Science Apéro is an initiative launched by MINERVA Consulting and Communication. The aim is to bring science outside of its familiar walls of laboratories and universities by engaging the public in discussions on scientific issues related to our daily life. We started from the idea in the paper and in three months period launch the first event.

Life in Brussels!

Brussels is the city you will definitely fall in love with. Be ready to get confused of two languages – French and Flemish – which are officially used in the city. In Brussels you can reach a lot of places by foot or use the perfectly established public transport. This city always has what to offer: my all weekends were planned in advance and were full of activities and adventures.

Grand Place, one of my favourite place in Brussels

I was travelling a lot in Belgium and visited the most beautiful cities in country – Gent with wonderful atmosphere, Bruges with mystic old town and industrial Antwerp. First time in my life I was travelling by fast speed trains reaching around 300 km/h, first time in my life I was speaking French and eating snails and first time in my life I was living in the house full of people from different cultures.  

The view through my window

Before going to Belgium, I did some research and got more information about the country, its traditions and living style. I found it very useful and helpful for quicker adaptation. I was ready for a lot of rainy days and winter cold. But it didn’t stop me from discovering places in Brussels and around the country. Belgium is famous of its beers – the most amazing thing is that for every different beer they have different glass and technique how to poor it, sweet chocolate and waffles. Let me add frites too!

Manneken Pis with traditional Lithuanian clothes

I can't put all the things in this blogg so if you will have any question feel free to contact me and ask for more information. I would be glad to share my experience!

Internship in Research Institute for Managing Sustainability (RIMAS). Vienna- Austria. 2013

I cannot believe my internship is over! Three months have passed so quickly. It feels like all of it was just a dream, but all my gained knowledges and experience prove that the internship was real.

Actually, it was not my first internship. I once used the “Erasmus” - programme to go to Krakow, Poland. I had a great time there and gained a lot of experience, which already influenced my career. But Polish people are too similar to Lithuanians, therefore I was strongly motivated to gain more knowledge and to expand my network in a more intercultural and different enviroment.

I was so dissapointed when the international programme manager from my university told me that it is not possible to participate in an “Erasmus” - programme again. But the manager informed me about the possibility to participate in the “Partners 4 Value“ - programme. 

Thank you very much for this programme and for the opportunity to experience an internship - not once but twice until now!

Why did I choose Research Institute for Managing Sustainability?

Fist of all, the “Research Institute for Managing Sustainability“ at the “Vienna University of Economics and Business” is an independent university institute specializing on research for Sustainable Development and Corporate Sustainability. RIMAS is committed to tackling the societal, political and economic challenges which arise in the context of sustainable development with interdisciplinary approaches in research, education and consulting.

I was interested in having the internship with RIMAS at the “Vienna University of Economics and Business” mainly because it primary focuses on the areas of the Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility. These thematic areas are closely related to my Master paper. I also had the opportunity to perform my internship in a working environment which was very interesting and beneficial in terms of my study objectives and career prospects.

I was expecting, that the internship with RIMAS will be beneficial in terms of getting thematic knowledge, multicultural working experience, real-work experience that will enable me to enhance my research skills and projects development skills.

This internship definitely served me well in carrying out a preparatory research for my master paper. Moreover, it has already influenced my career and my personal life.

My daily life in RIMAS

At my internship I had to work 5 days per week and 8 hours per day. But to be honest, every employee of RIMAS had to organize its work and working hours by itself. It was not mandatory to come at 9 a.m. and to leave at 5 p.m. The most important thing was to do your task until shortly before the deadline. Moreover you could also work from home. But as I wanted to get to know RIMAS and their daily life better, I went there every day. I had my own room and my own desk, so I could seriously concentrate on my tasks.

At first I was introduced to the activities, structures and functions of the Institute. I had to help RIMAS-team at different tasks. Mainly I had to do desktop researches related to several projects, supporting the team in preparing conferences and workshops. The most interesting and practical task was to help the team at the proposal submissions for the European Commission. 

Another part of my duties was to investigate and analyse some data.

In the beginning it was quite difficult to work alone, without any presence of my boss or other co-workers. I had to learn to organize my work-time, in order to finish my tasks on time. Later on I adopted and improved my organizing and my planning. Moreover I substantially improved my searching and my computer and English language skills.

 I have to say that it was interesting to work there not just because of the institutes working area and approach, but also because of the co-workers. The people working in RIMAS were very nice, helpful, creative, intelligent and friendly. Most of the RIMAS workers were not from Austria. There were employees from Italy, Poland, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovak and so on. For this reason I had the possibility to learn not just Austrian’s but also other languages and culture habits.

I was working in an intercultural environment.

About leisure time and everything when the working hours were off...

My internship period was from February until May. I saw the city in two different forms: in the winter and in the wonderful spring. Vienna is an amazing city. I will always remember it as very international, cultural, beautiful, with plenty of palaces; where everything (including public transportation) is perfectly organized. Viennese people are very polite, friendly and helpful. Every time I opened my map on the street, they asked me if I need help. As I don’t speak German at all I was surprised that almost everybody responded in English at a very high level.

It was difficult to find accommodation for 3 months. For the first month (February) I got a room in a dormitory. I had so much fun there; I met a lot of nice people from all over the world. We organized trips and we explored Vienna together. 

It was expected of me to stay in the dormitory for the whole stay, for three months. Unfortunately, I had to leave, because all the rooms were booked for the month of March and April. I tried to find another dormitory to live in, but the answer was always the same – everything was booked. I started to search for a cheap flat to rent. It was a really difficult period for me, because nobody was interested in renting a flat or a room for such a short time. This was a big problem I did not want to have.

Fortunately after some searching I found a very nice flat with a very social flat mate. The owners of the flat have five daughters, so they treated me like the 6^th daughter. They involved me very quickly in their family life: every Sunday we had a family-dinner with a nice atmosphere and original Viennese food.  

I was really happy to have a lot of friends and a true Viennese family.

                I was never bored. There are a lot of interesting places to see in Vienna: museums, palaces, churches, attractions, wonderful parks and other places. I also visited in Austria beautiful places like the mountains or the small old villages that had grape plantations. 

Besides all mentioned things, Vienna has a very good geographical position, so it is not expensive to visit other countries in the neighborhood.

In conclusion I really loved my stay in Vienna and my statement would be: if you want to change your life in three months, you have to go for it – for the internship!

My internship at The Hague Institute for the Internationalization of Law

Since I have entered Vilnius University I knew that I want to explore as many opportunities and to see as much as possible. This is why I did not miss a chance to go for a study abroad and afterwards to do my internship in the foreign country. After everything I went through I can say that these were the best decisions I could possibly make and I strongly encourage everybody to do the same. This is a lifetime opportunity to broaden your cultural knowledge and experience what it is like to work in other EU countries.



The Organization

I was an intern at The Hague Institute for the Internationalization of Law. The HiiL is a not for profit organization, which is located in the Hague, the Netherlands. Its main activities are related to the law innovation and it operates all over the world. As the organization puts it: "HiiL is passionate about making justice work. The core of our work is to improve rule-making and conflict resolution processes. In today’s challenging environment that is impossible without innovation. We support clients and other stakeholders doing this together, across borders and based on the best available knowledge."

The organization is rather small, its core team is comprised of 19 members. However, organization constantly employs interns and student assistants, which makes the environment of the organization very dynamic. Besides that, the team of the HiiL is very international. During my internship I met people from all around the world.

My activities at the HiiL

I was an intern at the External Relations department of the HiiL. I was supporting the implementation of the organisation’s overall fundraising and external relations strategies, searching, tracking and reacting on new funding and business opportunities, approaching potential clients, maintaining CRM system, preparing the proposals for potential customers and helping with various administrative tasks.

During these 3 months I gained a lot of confidence in business situations. I learned a great deal of new skills and have grown as a young professional. I had a lot of support from the rest of the team in the HiiL, which made my learning progress even more effective.

The Netherlands

The Netherlands is one of the best countries to do your internship. It is very international, therefore almost everyone speaks fluent English. Besides that, almost all of the major companies of the world has its headquarters in the Netherlands. Internships in this country most of the times are paid (300-400 eur per month). However, it is important to take in account that the life expenditures in the Netherlands are rather high (around 1000 eur per month). 

Country is located in a very convenient geographical position. All the main western Europe countries are located near by, therefore it is a great chance to explore all of them.

All in all, this was a life time opportunity for me and I would strongly recommend to everyone to choose the Netherlands as a place for the internship as it is a country, which provides a lot of opportunities. 

Vaiva Knašytė