From Vienna to Barcelona

“My name is Anna-Maria, I am from Austria and 21 years old. I am studying Tourism Management in Vienna and had to do a mandatory internship abroad. I thought about a lot of cities for doing my internship, but Barcelona was my first choice, although I couldn’t understand a word of Spanish yet.

Thoughts about the internship

To be honest, I decided to come to Spain mainly because I wanted to enjoy Barcelona. In the past, I’ve had a lot of bad experiences with internships and I expected to do things such as making coffee. However, everything turned out differently than expected. From the beginning, I had the feeling that I fit in the office team perfectly. My two bosses were very helpful and patient. During the first month, I had so many questions, that I even annoyed myself, but after a while it got easier and easier for me to work on my own.

Tasks during the internship

At the beginning I started supporting the customer service team.I answered the phone and replied to our customers emails. On the other side, I also did some social media activities. However, I discovered that I would love to do more for our social media channels and so I did: My responsibilities included activities on Facebook and Instagram, additionally I wrote blogs for our website, took pictures for posts and blogs and also focused on SEO. As I did my Bachelor thesis on social media marketing, I already knew a lot in theory. However this was the first time, that I was able to put the things I have learned into practice. I learned so many new stuff and found out that social media is much more complex than I thought it was. Furthermore, I learned the basics of Photoshop and wrote the monthly newsletter for our customers.

At the office

My working day started at 9:00 and ended at 17:00. Our office dog Momo brought a smile to my face every morning, when he welcomed me at the door. In the office, I felt very comfortable, thanks to the great team. Even though all team members have different personalities, we all had one thing in common, our passion for travelling. Apart from many other things, I definitely learned from my colleagues, is to stay patient and positive no matter how difficult the situation might be.

What about Barcelona?

At the beginning, I was not very enthusiastic because I missed Vienna very much. However, every day I learned to love Barcelona a little bit more. I have never been to such a cool city before, it is impossible to get bored there. It was really hard to find time to sleep. I met so many nice people, especially my flatmate became a very good friend, although she is 20 years older than me. I love the beach, I love the buildings, I love the bars and restaurants, for me this city is simply perfect and I will definitely come back.”