I knew I wanted to spend summer back home, in Slovakia, so when I got the chance to intern for an NGO I was over the moon. My official position is ‘marketing intern’ for Slovak National Office of The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award. So far I have been working on smaller tasks that had to be done before the end of the school year in Slovakia (last day of June). It meant a lot of mailing had to be done – certificates, posters, letters of recognition, as well as a couple of Instagram and Facebook posts about events for teachers, birthdays of the Duke of Edinburgh and so on.
The National office is located in the center of Bratislava in a co-working space. It means we are surrounded by several startups, some entrepreneurs and couple remote offices of corporations. It has many perks such as meeting interesting people, having almost mandatory “pet someone’s dog” break, free coffee and different space to work at (open space desks, so-called ‘aquariums’ for one or two people, private desks, couches, terrace, kitchen bar, etc.). The downside of co-working space is the never-ending buzz. People talk and call loudly, dogs are barking, sometimes there are babies crying, the coffee machine is also not the quietest. So it took some time to find my way around it, get comfortable and find places where I can focus the most. Now I know I prefer coming to work before most of the people, around 8am, and have a head start on my tasks for the day. I schedule meetings for the afternoon as the morning time for my deep work.
My first two weeks, apart from smaller projects, were filled with constant meetings with other team members. The National Office has 14 members and my mentor told me to schedule meeting with every single one, to get to know them and their responsibilities. It gave me the space to explore different ‘departments’ and see whether there is something else that I would like to do. My mentors and the director of the NGO gave me the freedom to learn not just about marketing but other areas such as partnership and sponsorship. I highly appreciate this mentality, especially in such a small institution. All the departments are interconnected and in order to do one thing correctly, I have to understand all perspectives.
https://www.instagram.com/p/By-PeImHu8o/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Right now, I have some sort of routine. I started working on a long-term project, campaign for Instagram and Facebook. On Tuesday, 25th June, I have a meeting with my mentor about the strategy which I am preparing. We will discuss what we post and when, how it is going to look like, what our goals are, who our main audience is, etc. Until then, I am finishing a few smaller things from the previous week. It is a pilot year of Ambassador program and I am in charge of any communication and marketing related to it (with the help and consultation from my mentor).
The experience so far directly relates to and contributes to the fulfillment of my goals, which are:
- Improving written communication, especially in Slovak language (articles, emails, PR posts)
- Developing my creative skills in Canva, photoshop and similar portals (by creating posters, infographics, etc.)
- Learning more about Social Media marketing (metrics, how to measure goals)
Throughout the first month, I plan to add goals that I would like to achieve by working with colleagues from a different department. This week I am attending the Executive Board Meeting and next week, I might be shadowing the director in a business meeting. I am excited to be exposed to new experience and meet inspiring people from business, education and the NGO sector.
Sabina Simkova ’22