At 8.30 on Tuesday 7th August I stood in the reception area, ready to start my first day as an intern at Grundfos at Bjerringbro (GBJ). I was proud and excited to have got an internship at one of the most highly regarded Danish companies, even though the road had not been easy.
I had already started to look for an internship in January 2012. I had a powerful desire to take on an internship, and there were 
several reasons for that. I had reached a point in my degree where I wanted to try out my theoretical knowledge and move away from books. In addition, I saw an internship as a perfect opportunity to get a foot in the door and build a network at one of the companies I dream of working for after my degree. I selected certain companies, sent unsolicited applications to all of them, and subsequently rang and followed up on them. After an interview at Grundfos, I was given an internship.
Huge gains
I had huge expectations of what I wanted to get out of my internship, but for all that I got more out of it than I dared hope. I was allowed to become absorbed in GBJ’s business process and wrote, for example, an assignment for my internship about sub-processes in their business plan. In addition to that, I was involved in making workshops and so on to assemble knowledge in order to update the process GBJ uses to export their production lines to other subsidiaries. I worked out new procedures for how export processes should be carried out in the future, and my proposal for changing the set-up of the process in Grundfos’ internal database was approved and implemented both on the local and the global level. I also did a Value Stream Analysis of ways in which GBJ could optimise their management administration, in other words how the secretaries could optimise their daily tasks.
Through my analysis of their management administration in particular, I learnt an awful lot about the political manoeuvring within a company and not least of its importance. I was also allowed to take part in meetings at which important decisions had to be reached. I participated, for example, in meetings with top management at GBJ, interviewing them about my projects. I learnt an amazing amount from interviewing such skilled business people, and that has given me a real gung-ho attitude and a belief that my views are relevant and good enough, even though I am an inexperienced, ‘raw’ student.
Preparation for the labour market
As an intern at Grundfos you are given some demanding tasks. You have to show enthusiasm and to grasp the chances that come along to show your own worth, and then in exchange they invest in you. I had a personality test made and was given specific points to work with to develop in the direction I wanted to go. I had concrete wishes as to what I wanted to work with and learn, and Grundfos did their bit to create the necessary framework for that.
There were also, of course, challenges involved, one of them being to move back home to my parents in Jutland, far away from my friends and boyfriend in Odense, but, when I look back over my internship, the prospect of a job at Grundfos when I finish in the summer of 2013 has made it all worthwhile. I have learnt a lot about myself, about what I want to use my degree for, where I will start when I finish my degree, and in which direction I want to develop myself.
My advice to anyone considering taking at internship is to stop thinking about it and do something about it instead. Many companies do not advertise for internships, but, as Grundfos said, “there is no problem in setting up an internship for the right person.” An internship is the best preparation for entry to the labour market. The experience I gained at Grundfos means that I will not start from scratch in my first job. Grundfos has helped me to take the first step in my development.
Kathrine Korsholm Jeppesen
MSc student in Strategy and Organisation
SDU Odense
- Kathrine took hold of her own career, and is now rewarded with a Career cup!