So it has been silent on my blog for 2 weeks but now I can scream it of the roofs! I AM GOING TO AIX-EN-PROVENCE. However, finding an internship hasn't been "easy".. In this blog I will share my experiences and advice with you and I am sure this can help you when you are in a situation like this.
My experience
Finding an internship has been a rollercoaster for me, it was so hard to find. The south of France stole my heart, so that is where I searched, but the truth is.. finding placements in France is a lot harder than in the Netherlands. Why, you ask me? Well in France company’s are obligated to pay their interns a minimum of €3,60 / 3,65 per hour, in a 40 hour work week this results in €550/570 euro’s per month. In the Netherlands this is not the case.
And I am going to be honest with you, at a certain time in my research I started doubting what I really wanted to do, I know I love the South of France and Tourism, but what kind of position did I want to do? I also have a passion for marketing, I love creating content and being creative in my text and design. However, I am not the typical office person who sits behinds a desk for her whole life and just filling in documents.
I got a few options:
Work in the Gorges du Verdon in a restaurant for 3 months - aka. Taking a study break
Doing my internship in the Netherlands at a company which creates blogs for amongst others the Côte d’Azur
Doing my internship at an online travel organisation in Aix-en-Provence
My advice
Well you can also guess what I chose due to the introduction of this blog. However, the last few days I have
been thinking a lot about who I am and what I want to do in life, and thank god for my friends and family who supported me in this decision! Some gave me really good advice on how I could choose the right thing. And I want to share them with you.
Move all your fears away, think positively, see what kind of value it gives you and what fits in YOUR dreams.
Write every option with details on a paper, look at which one your feeling goes to. For example if you have 3 options like I had, look which one is your least favourite, make a chunk of the paper and throw it away, and try to do this with the other 2.
Something you LIKE
Doing something you like to do is a lot easier to persevere than something you do not like. However, you also learn who you are and what you want to do in life during your internship!
What I did is combine this 2 strategies which let me know what my heart tells me and what would be the best option for me.
My advice, choose something that fits the best with you and your dreams! I chose for Voyage Privé, Europe’s biggest online luxury travel agency and I will
be creating newsletters for the Dutch and Belgium’s Dutch part, creating, something I love to do. Following by that it is placed in a beautiful city in the Provence, a dream coming true!
To be continued…
“Learn to trust the journey, even if you don’t understand where it’s going”
XOXO Lisa
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