Working for Cactus as an Intern
Monday, 23rd February 2009
Sarah Schuler from Switzerland tells us about her three-month stint as an intern in Cactus’ Languages Worldwide department.
I can’t remember why I specifically chose Brighton for my Internship six months ago. But I can definitely tell you why I would choose it again now:
-The sea, light blue and green when it is sunny or dark blue when it is raining and cloudy.
-The pier, where you can have lots of fun with your friends by playing on the arcade games, or if you’re unlucky, lose your day’s spending money!
-The lanes, where you could spend ages finding hidden shops and buying little bits and pieces. Of course, Brighton offers also a variety of shops apart from The Lanes. There is a Shopping Centre and lots of shops in the streets. I will never forget when I first entered the 99 P Shop, everything for £ 0.99? I could not believe that!
-Last but not least: The nice weather! Yeah, I am talking about nice weather in England. The first few weeks in September were so lovely we could spend all afternoon on the beach at weekends.
Speaking of weather, England really cannot cope with snow. One night it snowed a few centimetres in the beginning of February. The next day, it was a Monday, the whole of England stood still. Lots of motorways were closed, flights had to be cancelled and even busses did not run that day. I had never seen so many people on the streets in Woodingdean, (a suburb outside of Brighton where I lived during my stay) people had snowball fights and children built snowmen. Anyway, two days later everything was again back to normal in Brighton!
I started my internship in Cactus on the 1st December with a mixture of feelings. I was really excited and nervous to meet my new colleagues for the coming months. I was a bit scared about speaking English too. During my first week I got so much information that I suffered from headaches almost every evening! Nervertheless it was so interesting to see where people go to for their Language Travel! I felt very envious when I saw people going to beautiful places all over the world for several weeks.
The Sales department that I worked in is in a large office, but there are over twenty people in one room so it could be very noisy sometimes. The different mix of nationalities working at Cactus was fascinating. There were Spanish, French, American, English, and Italian, and people from Colombia, Taiwan and India!
In the beginning of my third week I had to face my biggest fear in terms of my English: Answering the phone calls. And there were a lot! Sometimes it was very difficult to understand the people, especially when they were non-native English speakers too. Due to these phone calls my listening skills improved too. After a while I really got used to do it so in the end I had almost no problems.
Being an intern at Cactus was a great and unforgettable experience! I was integrated in the team like a full member of staff. I had responsibility which gave me the feeling I was needed and the work I did made sense! A few times we went for a drink after work on Friday, when it was good to talk about other things than work.
Back in Switzerland I will start to work in an international company in the accounts department. I hope to begin my studies to become an accountant this September.
Tags: south, internship, england, brighton, languages, switzerland
Posted by Laura Lippert 2009-02 under Blogs,
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