How do you create an internship program people love?
By letting the interns build it using your company’s know-how and their best ideas.
At Vinted, we’re constantly at work on employee happiness. We measure it with surveys, improve it with perks and the occasional party, and dig deep for data that helps us know exactly what keeps people happy when they work at Vinted.
This year, we set out to launch our first ever internship program. Instead of building it the way our team of managers thought was best, we decided to try a new approach: let interns use what we already know about happiness on the job, and develop an internship program their peers would love.
Meet the duo who made it happen: Justina Gudauskytė and Monika Kalinauskaitė.
Give us a little background — how did you end up at Vinted?
Monika: My story isn’t exceptional. I was a typical fresh graduate: excited about the future, yet scared of the big rough world out there. I struggled to crystallize the idea of what to do with my psychology degree. I felt like I wanted to do 4 things at the same time: travel the world, volunteer for a big cause, start a dream career and get a degree in a completely new discipline. I decided to stick with the career and experience little bits of the other things at some point in the future.
I searched for an internship in the UK, where I was based, but nothing caught my eye. Until I saw an offer to contribute to the happiness of Vinted employees and do an internship in the company’s People team. Being a people person, I immediately knew this was the job for me!
Justina: I started my career pretty early, when I was in the second year of university. All my previous work experience was related to my field of studies — French Philology. I remember the day when the idea about Vinted as my future employer popped into my mind for the first time. I was attending a students’ conference when I heard Milda, the co-founder of Vinted, give a speech about the company’s work culture. She talked about Vinted’s values, the informal work culture and shared her experience with solving internal communication problems. I was so impressed! This was the first time I caught myself thinking “Yup, I want to work here”.
A year later, I finally decided to send Vinted an intro email. That’s how I became a French community support agent here. And 4 months ago, I got an incredible opportunity to join the People team for an internal internship. One of my main tasks was creating an internship scheme for Vinted together with Monika. Plus, I’m learning the secrets of hiring and employer branding, and I find this very exciting!
Is Vinted at all different from your previous employers? In what ways?
Monika: In my final years at university, I had some part-time jobs. They were all related to hospitality and customer service, as I am an extroverted human-lover and enjoy talking to random people. But the tasks I was performing at those jobs weren’t challenging my mental capacities as much as I wanted them to — so I now find myself challenged by Vinted. Here, I get to create strategies for projects I have never worked with before: the hiring process, employer branding through social media, and a brand new internship scheme! I get to learn completely new procedures daily.
Vinted clearly stands out with its mindset. The company has the right approach to its people. Once I walked into the office, I was blown away by the concentrated wave of motivation. There were actual happy people walking about! I have not moaned about going to work, not even once, since starting here.
Justina: I was looking for myself in fields such as project management, translation and copywriting. But I wasn’t really happy with the 9 to 5 office life. In my mind, Vinted was a quite exceptional place, and it fulfilled my expectations. Beyond all the delicious breakfasts, discounted lunches and other perks that Vinted offers, it’s the people, the culture and the opportunity to meet amazing challenges that makes working at Vinted so awesome. Everyone is super friendly and helpful here and that helps to reduce friction and allows for great ideas. It is really inspiring to know that what you do here has the potential to impact millions of people in a positive way.
What about this new internship program at Vinted — tell us why people should be interested.
Monika: It took a lot of thinking to crystalise the exact idea of it and the reasoning behind why we are doing this. Eventually, we persuaded the company that interns bring an amazing opportunity, and they are just as valuable as current employees.
For an intern, this program is a chance to gather knowledge about their particular field. They’ll get to encounter everyday life in a startup, one that’s very different from a corporate organisation. And who wouldn’t want to know what being an integral part of a company’s ecosystem really is, get a chance to bond with its people and feel Vinted’s vivid vibe?
Every intern will receive a mentor, and that’s not someone who’ll do your paperwork. You’ll get to work with an actual pro in the field of your internship, who’ll share their best insights.
Everyone wants Lithuania to innovate and grow, therefore we are raising the bar by sharing our practices, not hiding them away as secret. All these aspects are tangled into one unique package in this program.
Justina: Together with Monika, a team of two, we have designed this internship scheme from scratch. The interesting fact is that we ourselves are two interns with a different experience — Monika came to Vinted from the outside and I’ve already been working at Vinted for a year.
I believe this program is a win-win for both the students and the company. For interns, it’s a great opportunity to broaden their horizons, experience the dynamic startup life and work culture, figure out their career path and grow as professionals. Simply put, it’s also a chance to talk to lots of Vinted people and find out how they got where they are, and get tips.
For a company, it’s a very smart investment. Mentoring encourages the mentor to share knowledge and best practices, which also helps to increase the mentor’s sense of self-worth, strengthens their interpersonal skills. We’ve really thought about everyone here!
At Vinted, interns contribute to the product and are treated as an equal part of the team. The tasks assigned to them are meaningful, rewarding and really let them feel the Vinted vibe. Oh, and the best part: every internship is a paid internship at Vinted. Because interns aren’t free labour, right? All of this is what makes a huge difference.
So how does being on Team Vinted feel, really?
Justina: The first thing that comes to my mind — it feels like you’re a part of something big. It’s not that you feel like a little cog in a big mechanism, not at all. I mean, Vinted is growing very fast, but as an individual you can still make a huge impact. Working with a team or on your own, you can implement your ideas, and even just voicing your ideas is always very welcome. Also, fact: Vinted people know how to have fun.
Monika: I feel such an integral part of the company now, that I don’t imagine my life in Lithuania without it. After spending my uni years abroad and coming back to a very much reborn country, it took me a lot of courage to build a new life from scratch again. Everything worked out and I am so grateful.
I am not labelled as an intern at Vinted and do not differ from anyone in my team when it comes to the power of my opinion, my responsibilities and the scope of the projects I own. I am chuffed by the attitude towards me and the fact that I am equal to everyone else.
Vinted’s paid 3-month internship program starts on June 1, 2016 at Vinted HQ in Vilnius, Lithuania. Claim one of 4 spots on the program — frontend developer, backend developer, Android developer or UI designer — by sending your introduction to monika@vinted.com by May 16, 2016.
