Wolfgang – Discovering Wrocław and Poland
A story by Wolfgang
Country of origin: Germany
Destination Country: Poland
It seems like it was yesterday but actually it is now over two years ago when I arrived in Wrocław at the end of February 2012 on a cold winter day. At first I was a bit scared but as well excited how my time in Wrocław will look like as I never was in Poland before. In addition, I have started to learn Polish just one year before my first time in Poland. Hence, everything was new for me. But the experiences I have made in Ireland and friends I already had in Poland helped me to adapt to the new climate fast.
As I arrived on my first day in Wrocław Maciej Tylkowski and Małgorzata Tylkowska from Semper Avanti, who supported me during my time in Wrocław, were already waiting for me and picked me up on the train station. With them I went to my temporary home. Later they as well organized my language course for me, supported me to find an interesting internship place and found a nice room for me as place for the next eight months of my internship. They as well supported me, whenever I needed their support. Hence, I can tell that I was in safe hands with Semper Avanti during my time in Wrocław.
About a week after my arrival I started my language course, which had a length of two weeks, to improve my Polish and to become more secure using the language in everyday situations. With the end of the language course finally my internship started at Work Service International for the next upcoming eight months. In the internship I supported the sales activities of HR services for Germany and the recruitment of Polish workers for our clients in Germany. Among others, I searched for new clients, built client data bases for possible clients, supported the communication with clients as well created candidate profiles, checked language skills of candidates and supported the job posting in Germany. Further, I supported the recruitment and sales team in their daily office work eg. with translation for Polish text to German. All together the internship provided me a good possibility to develop my knowledge and professional skills in general and in the HR field in special. Further, it helped me to develop my language skills.
In addition to my daily work, I used the time in Wrocław to get to know Poland better and to visit friends I got to know during language exchanges. Hence, I used my weekends to visit Wrocław as well as to travel through Poland by train. I visited Częstochowa, Kraków, Łódź, Poznań, Szczecin and the mountions in Szklarska Poręba among others. Looking back to the trips I can tell that it is worth to visit Poland and all the nice places the country has.
At the beginning of October 2012 my internship ended full with new experiences and impressions and I returned to Germany a bit sad but as well happy to see my home again after eight months. But did the stay abroad and its impacts ended here? No, I did not ☺. During my time working in Wrocław I found an interesting topic for my Master Thesis about. In addition, I could made new friends in Poland during my time and one in Kraków, who recommended me at the end of 2012 Capgemini as possible place of work after my study. Here I found a job in the field of HR Outsourcing and moved home in March 2012 to Kraków. Since this time I live now in Kraków developing my professional career in the field of HR further and discovering Poland further.
Summarizing I can recommend to use the possibility to make an internship abroad within the Leonardo program as it offers a rich possibility to develop ones personal as well as professionals and knowledge skill. In addition, it offers the opportunity to discover new places, people and to widen one’s personal network. As well I can recommend Wrocław and Poland as internship place as it offers a perfect location with many additional beautiful place like Częstochowa, Kraków and Poznań to discover ☺. Further, with Semper Avanti you have an excellent partner for your time in Wrocław and Poland, on whom you can count on in all situation of your time abroad ☺.
