Hi, my name is Anouk. I had just handed in my PhD thesis when I applied for the COVID-19 SME Internship as an Event Manager at a digital platform; LikeToBe. LikeToBe is an online network which helps introduce students to professional online networking and creates regular employer engagements through online careers talks, which are available to watch here.
The role
Due to COVID-19 many face-to-face career fairs and events were cancelled, so they were organising their first two online career events to provide a link for young people to safely engage with employers online. The first event was focussed on pandemic issues and how to prepare for a post-lockdown world of work, and the second event focussed on Women in Engineering.
My main job during the internship was to co-organise these online events. As LikeToBe is a small start-up, my tasks were broad and included:
- bringing employers on board
- promoting the events to young people
- managing the events during the day
- advertising the events on the social media channels.
As the internship was only four weeks, we had limited time to organize this event which was very challenging. However, we managed to get over 50 speakers from 20 different companies involved with more than 2,500 young people engaging with our platform during the two days.
Outcomes
I have improved several different soft skills, including communication, flexibility, interpersonal skills, problem solving skills, remote teamwork and time management. These skills will be useful in the future regardless of which direction I will be going. I would recommend doing an internship especially if you are not sure what you’d like to do after your studies. I found out that organising events is something I love doing and I might stay and work for LikeToBe full-time.
Looking for an internship?
The COVID-19 SME Internship Fund is now open and we are advertising internship opportunities through mycareer.
There are also many other work experience opportunities listed here.
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