Marketing, volleyball and landscapes in Northern Ireland

A story from Camille

Country of origin: France

Country of destination: UK

Just after obtaining my master degree in marketing, I wanted to go abroad to gain professional experience and live in an English-speaking country. The good thing is that my fiancé wanted to do the same and his company offered him a job a Belfast. It was a great opportunity for him so I chose to follow him and find an internship there. At first, I was not so excited about living in Belfast and a bit worried about marketing opportunities there.

But I got in touch with a placement agency that really helped with my job seeking, offering me great opportunities. One month and few interviews later, Datactics, a data quality and matching software provider offered me a marketing assistant position. I was amazed to find an internship so quickly and easily that was meeting my expectations.

Wining the NI Open Data Challenge in Derry

Wining the NI Open Data Challenge in Derry

Indeed, the position was very interesting, involving a wide range of marketing activities from the rebranding of the company to the launch of a new product and the management of various events.

I was rapidly integrated to Datactics team and only one week after joining them, we won the NI Open Data Challenge in Derry. So helping them with the presentation of our proposal was my first achievement and success with the team. Then the rest of my internship went really well and they offer me to stay few months more with them – which I accepted.

From a more personal point of view it was a great experience as well, meeting a lot of different people – from work and outside – who helped me to better understand Northern Ireland culture and history. I also joined the volleyball team of Queens University, who kindly accepted me in their team even if I was not an experienced player.

It also gave me the opportunity to discover the beauties of Ireland and Northern Ireland and share it with my friend and family who visited me. All the people who visited me were positively surprised by the landscapes they discovered.

But after 10 months living here, it is time for me to go back to France not because I don’t enjoy Belfast anymore but because I want to do a second year of master in Paris and to have another professional experience in apprenticeship in a bigger company.

Of course I would really recommend anybody who wants to have a mobility experience to go for it without hesitation.

I really enjoyed it and I will be sad to leave Belfast even if I am sure that I will visit them again. And I would like to thank again ESPA and Datactics for giving me this opportunity to live such a great experience.

Madeline Blackburn - Intern Europe

Having taught all over the world, Madeline is passionate helping young people to find work opportunities overseas. She is a co-director of Intern Europe and ESPA which are dedicated to helping young adults find great work experience and internships across Europe.

You may also like...