Week 5 Doing the most

Intro

I went through my posts regarding the the internship at the Erasmus office and as i read again my content i realized that i didn't covered what actually i am doing at the office, like what are my tasks or what is actually going on during an internship. So in this week i will try to tell you guys what are my day to day activities in the office and if i learn something from it so far.

Seven months is a lot of time for an internship, a regular intern spends around 3 to 6 months on a company without any paycheck but with the hope that after his practice is finish he will get a position inside the company. I don't know if this is the case in my position but i heard some gossip about wanting to hire a student to remain in the Erasmus office at Firat University. Now after all the incidents that happened in the past 24h i do not think i will consider this option but for me opened my perspective about working at the Erasmus office in the nearest future hopefully in Europe somewhere.

Source

All in all i did learn a lot to say the least and during this post i will give an example of what i did and still doing and what a regular day looks like. So let's get to it!

Answering the emails

This is a major task i have to do daily. As all universities have their own contact email, Erasmus office has one as well in which universities, students, anybody is writing in order to get information or any type of help. For example in our Erasmus email we have bunch of emails from Turkish students who are going with Erasmus so they send their documents there or we get emails from universities abroad for incoming students, bilateral agreements and more. Basically this is my first thing i do when i arrive in the morning at the office, i open the emails and ones are in English or my own language Romanian i answer immediately and try to help the students or who is concerned.

I am definitely good in writing emails, i did heard from people that i have the communication skill going on so basically my emails are extremely professional and i may have a secret weapon in pursuing people and convincing them into doing something. But overall i enjoy dealing with the emails, i feel in some way connected to the people and yes i can make as well connections for myself, it's always a good thing!

Searching internship opportunities

It has been a busy couple of months during April and may when we had so much stuff to do and we were always busy. It was my job in writing a bunch of emails and making tons of calls to universities abroad in trying to make them agree to sign a bilateral contract with Firat University. So actually what you do is pick a country and email all the universities there to see if they agree to receive in this case Turkish students.

Of course some of them they don't answer, some of them they reject the idea or some of them they don't have the department you want so is always around 2 or 3 positive answers. Me and my friend Mihaela during this 2 months we were calling like crazy almost all universities in Europe and in the end we narrowed down to maximum 10 universities who agreed. It's a hard task for sure.

Sending the OLS invitations

This is a new thing i am actually doing for the past 2 weeks. I need to search which student is going for the next semester with Erasmus, make a excel document with all of them and then basically search into their file their starting date of mobility and their email. After i have all this info's i need to sign up to our OLS account and send them one by one the invitation in order to complete the English language assessment test.

Of course there is always that student who had forgotten or did not complete so then i need to check daily who completed and who missed the deadline and then pursue them again to complete it. It's kind of stressful and boring process but i guess somebody has to do it, in this case me!

Dealing with the incoming students

This is a task that can be pretty interesting and sometimes can provide you an escape from the office. First i need to go pick them up from the airport, take them to their accommodation and always make sure they feel cozy and have everything they need. And of course of the challenging tasks is that i need to deal with all their documents and files and make sure everything is in order. Plus the fact that this semester i went with them to the Immigration office in order for them to apply for residence permit, and this is by far a long process when you need to translate first your documents from Turkish into English, apply online and then show up for the actual interview.

Plus orientation week when you need to show them around, the sights, the supermarkets and what this city has to offer.

Make presentations, take part in conferences

Since i am here i took part in some conferences for Erasmus students and staff and also i prepared a presentation during our staff week. The conferences are educational for all the students who want to take part in Erasmus programme and is also a learning key for me as well. Here in Turkey they were held in Turkish language so i cannot tell you i understood too much but i still had to be present there.

I have made a presentation about the city of Elazig and the Firat University for our foreigners professors who visited us during staff week. As well as i took part in their presentations. But overall this is an activity i love doing it especially if it keeps me out from the office for a couple of hours.

Source

Sorting up the files

This is a task i absolutely love to hate. It is stressful and is bothering me so much. Basically before the student goes abroad we need to make sure he has all the documents in their file, starting from passport copies to original acceptance letters, learning agreements and a bunch of other stupidities. Now i have seen how my home university is dealing with it and i saw how little paperwork they require, but in Turkey oh my God is a bunch of non important files they require so it's absolutely a stupidity. I hated doing this.

Make Excel files

Another task i hate and it took over a month of my Erasmus life, basically what you need is to add all the students into an excel file and mention which department are they from, what year, what grade they took on their English test and so on. And then make it look good with colors and stuff. I mean i know i am not the most patient person in the world but this excel was driving me crazy literally. Thank God is over!

Dealing with annoying students

There are always those students who love to come to the office and spend hours in talking bullshit or just annoy you beyond your patience. And then the students who always come and they are desperate why their papers didn't come and why this coordinator is not replying to his emails. Yeah had a bunch of those students.

Answering the phone call

There is a phone close to me and is the only one the Turkish students always ringing to ask different questions, and of course my Turkish language completely suck so i feel like a secretary, answering the phone and then call the person who wants to speak with. It is annoying and i hate it!

Taking photo copies

Last but not least is a task from the same category of being a secretary but without making the coffee. This is taking photo copies, scans and a bunch of bullshits but i still do it.

In conclusion

Life at the Erasmus office is not always fun, there are some days when you absolutely have nothing to do so i just watch serials but there are days when i am so busy i don't even go to my lunch break. From the most small things to the most elaborate is always a challenge trying to help the students and get everything in order. But i kind of love it that's why i am thinking working in the future in an international office. Is better than be a waitress i guess, and the salary is good !

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