It’s Intern Season!
Hi Xenia! Thanks for taking time to talk to us about internships. Tell us a little about yourself.
Hi! Thank you for this opportunity! Let’s begin with high school. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with my life, especially since my family kind of had this idea of me going to the UK to attend a university. So, after a few existential crises later I found myself in Nottingham majoring in Finance, Accounting and Management. But I didn’t really like it there mostly because I hated my major. Then after completing two years I came back to Cyprus and started attending the University of Nicosia, majoring in Marketing Communications, which I by the way love.
How did you arrive at your decision to participate in an internship with HR Innovate?
Firstly, I knew I wanted to intern in an up and coming company because already bigger companies would neglect me as they would have a lot of tasks to complete daily and wouldn’t get the appropriate attention and opportunities to learn more things about marketing. Then the university helped in the search of finding the best company that would give me the attention I needed, hence coming to the decision of applying at HR Innovate.
What was the application and on boarding process like?
The application process was not that difficult as my university helped me with my queries and sending in information about myself to the company. However, I had to go to HR Innovate for an interview which triggered my anxiety since it was my first ever interview. But Kevin was so welcoming and made the whole process really chill which I appreciate a lot.
What do you hope to gain from your internship?
Experience of course is the most important reason because you need to know what you’re doing to be able to move forward. But I also want to be able to communicate as well as everyone in HR Innovate cause, let’s be real, they’re really awesome when it comes to talking to people.
Thank you for the compliment….
So — you’ve been an intern for a week. How’s it going?
I don’t even know how to describe my first week besides it being exhausting, but it was totally worth it. I learned how to Photoshop, how the whole recruitment process works, how to make HR Innovate more visible through social media, and the list goes on and on.
Finally, one last question. What advice do you have for people who are interested in applying for internships in Cyprus?
I’m quite bad at giving advice, but what I definitely know is that you should always be yourself when presenting yourself out there. It’s really obvious when you try too hard to make a good impression, which in the end isn’t really beneficial to you.
Thank you so much, Xenia.
If you would like to follow Xenia’s adventures as an intern — you can follow her on Instagram!
