David – What I remember most about Prague is the friendship and the laughter
A Story by David, a political scientist
Country of Origin: UK
Destination: Prague (Czech Republic)
(Story collected by Vuste Envis)
The guys at Vuste Envis were very friendly and very helpful throughout my stay in Prague and it is a shame that my stay was not longer. I remember Lukas saying to me “I will not leave until you have internet” and I think that says a lot about the kind of guys there are at Vuste. They are determined to help you as much as possible.
My mentor had me 3 interviews in quick succession and I had 3 internships in quick succession. I chose Agora Central Europe and the Czech Helsinki Committee for political and human rights reasons and I chose GRB International because it was a marketing job within an export business. Everyone at my internships greeted me very well but the language barrier was more difficult with some employees than others. My tasks were laid down in front of me very early on and my roles included English language consultant, marketing consultant, political analyst and foreign media correspondent. This meant that my tasks would involve weekly reports and meetings, fixing grammatical errors in funding proposals or extensive research. During my internships I learned how to give reports during meetings, how to conduct more efficient research, the workings of a Non-Governmental Organisation, improved my communication skills and learned more about working environments in a different culture.
The experience for me was very helpful and added more strength to my CV but I had already arranged to move to Spain in a cultural exchange before I had gone to Prague. This has meant that I am unsure if all of this will have helped my employability. I have applied for an internship with NATO and their SHAPE division in Belgium so I am quietly hoping that my experience gained in Prague will be a deciding factor. Prague life was wonderful. It seems much more relaxed within a working environment than it does in the United Kingdom. That was something I liked a lot. Public transport made it easy to get around and the people were generally quite friendly with us. The nightlife really is something else and if you go out for a night with your friends, it really is an all-night affair. There were many occasions when my friends and I would have been coming home with the sun shining.
What I remember most about Prague is the friendship and the laughter that I had with the other men on the trip. I would love to go back and do it again, Prague was just fantastic in every way and that could possibility be the highlight of highlights.
