My life as an intern in Spain

I would like to keep you informed of my experiences as an intern in an international company abroad.

I have been working at a Tour Operator in Mallorca since August. My internship company is an on- and offline provider of travel services and active in more than 175 countries. They offer hotel rooms, transfers, excursions and tours around the world.

Source

The company does not exclusively hire Spaniards. Because of the international character of the company, there are also many Germans and Italians active in the firm. The company culture is very Spanish. Therefore, we keep a siesta every day. A siesta is an afternoon nap, often after lunch, when the sun has reached its highest position. Instead of going to sleep, we all go to dinner together and walk around the business park.

I mainly work on my computer, because I often need to use excel. Working activities include updating reports (daily, weekly, monthly), making benchmarks, tracking new customers, delivering newsletter content etc. My work is very varied and my managers come up with new work activities every week.

It can be noted that this company is merged in early 2016. This means that two employees from different companies work together in one company building.

I work in the head office of the company. The floor beneath the head office houses the booking department of the company. Sometimes it also happens that we have contact with these people from this department. It is good fun to meet various people in one company that carry out different activities: this way you learn more!

The head office is an open office. This has both advantages and disadvantages.

BENEFITS:

- Contact with colleagues from other departments.

- Pleasant atmosphere, no hierarchy.

DISADVANTAGES

- You hear everything and everyone! At a certain point, you even start to annoy yourself with the umpteenth sound you hear.

- You no longer have privacy, because everyone who walks by can look at your screen.

- You can not customize your own workplace, because other colleagues can suffer from this.

- It is impossible to avoid a conversation because you continue to meet people.

It is generally very nice to work with Spaniards, but I feel that Mallorquins are more 'closed'. They mostly talk to people of their own 'inner circle' and it is rather difficult to get into this group. Fortunately, I have a number of colleagues that I get along with very well. They helped me a lot with everything.

I will keep track of my internship activities in this blog every week!

XOXO Denise

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