Interning Abroad

To put it simply, interning abroad in a foreign country is so rad. I arrived in Prague with the slightest knowledge about my internship. After many Skype fails and lots of back and forth emailing, I woke up one fine morning in July to a welcome email from the company where I now intern! Although the email contained a brief description of my internship duties, it was very vague and left me with more questions than answers. During my second week in Prague I finally got to start my internship. On my first day I walked into an office where dogs were wandering around freely and people were lounging on couches. I instantly knew this internship was going to be a good one.

The front desk made out of magazines

One of the dogs!

I chose to do an internship here in Prague because I wanted to gain experience in the professional world and interning in a foreign country is an AMAZING opportunity. If you ever get the opportunity, you should seriously take it. I am a film and digital media major, but still haven't figured out what I want to do after I graduate. People are surprised when I tell them I do not necessarily want to pursue a career in film. I love film, and hope to incorporate it into my work, but I am more drawn to creative outlets like design, marketing, or public relations. I decided to do this internship to not only gain professional experience, but to hopefully figure out what I want to do with my career. Updates on this to come.

Chalkboard

The company I intern at is called Nydrle. They refer to  themselves a “data driven creative agency” which basically means that they are a marketing agency for a large variety of companies. The company was established about twelve years ago and is known for creating innovative content and they do a lot of media related work including film, photography, and graphic design. Even though I am still getting into the swing of things, I felt very welcomed from the start and love the vibe of the company. The office is decorated with unconventional items and overall looks really trendy. I love it. People are allowed to bring their dogs to work so there are at least three dogs frolicking around the office at all times. I am still trying to befriend them (I think I am making progress) but it is so refreshing to work around animals. The only thing that I am still getting used to is not knowing what people around me are saying. It is slightly intimidating to have no idea what your co-workers are saying, or what is actually happening, but it could be so much worse.

A lounge area where people often do work and have casual meetings

Great workplace

I work twelve hours a week which gives me less free time than other people in my program. I actually enjoy it a lot because I constantly need to be doing something. It has been so nice having a second community here in Prague as it helped the transition and exposed me to more of the culture here. In terms of the work I have been doing, it is very sporadic. My first week I had to brainstorm ideas for the company's Christmas card and for the past week I have been doing HR work for Vodafone, a popular cellular company in Europe. Projects are thrown at me and I just have to roll with it.

Everyday I have to remind myself how lucky I am to not only be in Prague, but to be interning at such an innovative company. If someone told me this would be my life a year ago I would have laughed at them, but here I am here and could not be happier!

Dalia B. is the Fall 2017 MOJO Blogger in Prague, Czech Republic. She is currently a Junior studying Film & Digital Media at UC Santa Cruz. 

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