A six month business internship in the UK

A story by Eva

Country of origin: Latvia; Destination country: United Kingdom

Hi!

I am Ieva (Eva) and I finished my internship in Bristol earlier this year (2014).

I had spent 6 months in the placement, but I still remember how hard it was to find it initially. It was July 2013, and after several months of searching I still had not found anything, but the internship was supposed to start in a months time. Everybody is struggling at first and it is never easy, especially for foreigners without the skills of “useful” languages. Latvian language might be beautiful, but you will agree with me, that the population of 2 million is probably not enough. Anyhow – I got there, and it was a great experience!

I was a business development / marketing intern, in a company who are wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers of a wide variety of products in mainly agricultural and building categories, operating in 11 branches throughout the UK. I worked with finding new opportunities customer and market – wise, also worked with various sets of data, analysing them: I would even say, that the most important thing for a person in my position was Excel skills. Everything else could be learned and improved on the spot (also with Excel you don’t have to be an expert, but general knowledge is a MUST). Additionally, I would say that perfect English language is not as important as it might seem in the first place, so I would encourage people not to be shy and try to apply anyway – working in the environment is probably one of the best ways of improving the language!

This experience was so good; the company was very supportive and provided a great learning environment.

I would just like to leave you with these thoughts: be brave, celebrate change and come and do your internship in the UK!