01 Dec My Business Development Sales Internship in Stockholm
Hi everyone! My name is Rian Yan and I study general business administration management, specializing in marketing management. Now for my masters degree, I do business management and expertise in strategy and international business. I participated in a Business Development Sales Internship with Absolute Internship in Stockholm!
Why did you decide to do an international internship?
For me, as a Chinese student studying in Portugal, I was already exposed to an international environment. So internationality was not a reason for me. Out of all the destinations, there is a specific reason for Stockholm. I did an Erasmus semester during my bachelors, in Gothenburg in Sweden, and I fell in love with the country.
Also, I found myself a good fit with the studying environment, plus Sweden has a good branding as a country, so I chose to get an internship in Stockholm to figure out if I would like to work in the country or settle down there in the future. I believe that only through interest exchange and benefit conflict can a person really get integrated in the society and make some judgement about their own preference on the social environment.
What company did you intern for?
I was working for Pet Buddy Group (Buddy Pet Foods). It is a premium all natural pet food company with mainly a D2C (direct to consumer) E-commerce business model. My main task was market development for the Chinese market, leading the branding to enter China. Other tasks asks included: market research, trademark registration, channel development, digital retail channel development, SEO Chinese digital market development, content creation for Chinese social media, establish trade partner in China…and the list goes on! After I finished my internship I stayed at the company and lead the Chinese market entry project for half a year until February 2021.
What’s been your biggest challenge so far while studying/working?
I am a person that loves to challenge myself and I’m always motivated and ready to solve challenges and improve myself. However, I would say my data analytics skills and processing big data based on business background using python was my biggest challenge. Even though I consider it as a challenge, I regard it as a solvable issue through further study.
How did your internship help you achieve your goals?
I would say my main goal of figuring out if I would like to work in Sweden was definitely achieved. The flat hierarchy, the friendly working environment, supportive teams and mentoring culture really made me love working in Sweden. This business development sales internship closed the gap between the academic and real working life for me as a business management student, making me realize that what we study at university is definitely very theoretical. Real working is way more complex and everything takes more time than what we learn at university while we were drafting a business plan.
Additionally, I made lots of friends and widened my social network for the potential of my future career. What’s more, I got a chance to expose myself to various projects and learnt a huge amount of skills and knowledge. I grew up a lot, which is an advantage of working in a start-up.
How did the experience change you?
From a career perspective, I would say I built a good network with many friends in Sweden and established potential for me to come back to Sweden for work after my masters.
From personal development perspective, leading a whole project of Chinese market development really gave me the opportunity to learn lots of knowledge and skills in a practical working way. It also gave me valuable experience and lay a foundation for me with future job searching.
From a life perspective, I experienced Swedish lifestyle more deeply, made lots of friends from everywhere in the world and created tremendous memories. All of these are immeasurable and invaluable treasures in my life.
What advice would you give to someone considering pursuing an international internship?
I would firstly say cultural differences are something that you have to do research on before and get yourself mentally prepared. Try your best to adapt yourself into the local environment and company’s working culture. Attitude and mentality are very important as they can change your perception from difficulties and frustration to challenge and motivation.
From my experience, I think always being able to deliver results before deadlines is very important, also being proactive is extremely important. Apart from this, execution really matters. Managers love interns who do things correctly and deliver things on time. Furthermore, a good personality and humble attitude makes your life way easier and will help you to fit into the environment way faster. Additionally, ask for feedback! Don’t be afraid to ask questions, you are an intern and you have the right to ask and to learn!
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