Starting my summer of impact

Recently finishing my bachelor in Social Sciences, plenty of opportunities were open for me.

Should I take a break and go on holidays or get on with my professional career? The holiday option seemed very tempting until I came across Impact Hub. Impact Hub is an entrepreneurial community with 700+ innovators, start-ups and corporate partners who are acting in various fields – from cosmetic products to MRI software.

The special program they were offering during summer: Summerpreneurship. The program, which offers an internship in a start-up, is complemented by workshops on various themes. So gaining professional experience, expanding my network and having fun with other interns, doesn’t that sound convincing? When I read the headline: When are you starting your summer of impact? I just had to answer NOW. So I took this opportunity and entered the start-up world.

My start-up

Although I was overwhelmed with all the different start-ups, I chose to apply for the ones that were related to my studies. No wonder “Measuring enterprises relationships” immediately caught my attention. Thanks to my experience in Sales, that I gained as a Team Leader in Sales with AIESEC, an international organization that aims to impact the world through cross-cultural exchange experiences across the globe, and a good impression, Flurin, the CEO of Boonea AG, offered me an internship.

Hence, I started my start-up adventure. The first thing Flurin gave me was my very own Business card. He said: “Get out there, spread them and get some back”. In fact, he had to remind me at least 100 times since that day as I still tend to forget them. From the first day on, I was introduced to most of the entrepreneurs at Impact Hub. Even though, I can’t remember all of the names, I’m trying my best to improve that. Concerning my tasks, I certainly can’t complain that I have nothing to do – preparing sales meetings, developing pitches and presenting them – my tasks are all about new challenges. New challenges one can’t train at university, but only in the “ non-academic real world”. I am also enjoying the team work with the other intern – and how can one not love having lunch with the best start-up team?

Now to my learning outcomes: in general, I learned a lot about Customer Relationship and Key Account Management as well as Sales and Marketing. Concerning the practical learning outcomes, I hope that the several sales trainings had a significant effect on my sales and presentation skills.

I’m looking forward to the new opportunities that this internship will bring me.