Erasmus practice in the country of beer and chocolate

Erasmus internship… My first thought when I heard this offer was „Work abroad for free this summer?!“ To others, this may seem like an unattractive offer. After all, summer is a time to relax, unwind, and „chill out“! However, this summer of mine was not meant for relaxation or „chilling out.“ I always liked to make spontaneous decisions, and this time, an Erasmus internship in the summer was one of them.

WHERE?! Quick search.

At the end of the spring semester of my first year, the university organized career days, where I learned about the Erasmus internship program. The offer to spend the summer abroad and gain a lot of useful experience was tempting immediately, but I had to act quickly. Since this is an internship and I only had two weeks to fill out the application, I had to quickly find an organization where I could do it. My first thought was to contact my sister living in Belgium and ask for her company's contacts, because it is one of the few companies in Belgium where the main spoken language is English, not Dutch. That's how I found my internship place - "Donaldson company".

The first "steps"„

I was accepted for an internship at the American company Donaldson. It is a global filtration systems company, the main goal of which is to improve air and water quality in the world. Although it is an American company, I am doing my internship in Belgium, where the European headquarters division is located, focused on Western Europe and the Middle East. On the first day, I was shaking and very unsure of what I was doing here. While the mentor assigned to me was telling me about my activity plan for the whole summer, only one thought was going through my head – „I don’t understand anything, I made a mistake, I should have gone after the 2nd or 3rd year“. Sometimes I didn’t even understand whether I really heard English.

As for the work environment itself, the office, it's the kind I used to see in American movies - a large space divided into open cubes, everyone around can see what you're doing (whether you're working or sitting on Facebook). When you had to sit in front of a computer screen for 8 hours in the first week and not understand what you were doing at all, it was a big shock, and the thought that you would have to do it for another three months was drowning and suffocating. But to my joy, that was only the first week. Later, I started to understand the work system, organize projects and meetings myself, help change the pricing system, and now I'm part of the marketing team. People here are very friendly and always help if I don't understand something. Even when I don't dare to ask for help myself, they will come up to me and ask if everything is really clear.

½ time gone, ½ time left

Every day, everything is getting more interesting and more intense. A very important event is approaching - "Automechanika". It is like a "fair" for companies that work with car parts, including filters. Therefore, this event is also very important for the "Donaldson" company - it is one of the few opportunities to acquire new and valuable customers, to better present themselves before their competitors. They allowed me to contribute to this event: to look for ideas on how to better present themselves, stand out, attract customers to our stand, look for advertising ideas, etc. Recently, my mentor informed me that I would be able to join the marketing team and go with them to the "Automechanika" event in September, which will be held in Frankfurt! When I found out the news, my legs and arms went numb... Not only did I get a chance to work for a billion-dollar company, but they will also fly me to Frankfurt! I know that I won't be flying there for a vacation, but will also need to do some serious work (this thought definitely causes some stress and adds extra work), but I believe that the experience will be invaluable.

Work hard. Have fun.

Erasmus internship is not only work, but also an invaluable vacation. Although this is not the first time I have visited Belgium, this country always surprises me. I live in a small student town - Leuven. The architecture and atmosphere are really cozy, and the people are very friendly. Every weekend there is something going on in the city - city festivals, concerts, performances, etc., so I never have time to get bored here. On weekends, I travel during the day, visit cities I have not been to yet, my friend and I taste Belgian beer (because there are over several thousand different types), and in the evening we go out to the city center. There are practically… no clubs in Leuven. There is one small club that not many people visit, which is why all the main parties are held in the bar district. I met quite a few Belgians. Some still don't know where Lithuania is, and keep confusing us with Ukrainians or Russians. I also visited a couple of festivals in Belgium, including Tomorrowland, which felt like a fairytale. Now I don't feel like I spent my entire summer just practicing, because I also had a very interesting and adventurous vacation.

Why is it worth it (?)

I offer Erasmus internships especially to those who are unsure about their choice of studies, because I am convinced that although economics is interesting and I will definitely finish my bachelor's studies with a smile, I will choose a completely different direction for my master's studies. Of course, in my opinion, every student should take advantage of this opportunity, because you get out of the theoretical framework that you have been put into since school, you understand how everything works in the workplace, what you can do after graduating, especially since the university creates conditions for moving and provides financial support, which is fully enough to pay for room rent, food and travel.

Vilte Urbonaite