Meet intern Ylona Atol
Our intern Ylona (20) is in the third year of her Communication & Multimedia Design studies at Zuyd University of Applied Sciences in Maastricht. Since the end of August, she has been doing a six-month internship at Maastricht Marketing as an Online Marketing intern. She is happy to share her experiences with you in this interview.
Why did you apply to Maastricht Marketing?
"Maastricht Marketing I did not know well before my internship. I therefore didn't have many expectations beforehand, but just wanted to let it come to me. I did some research to see what the foundation does and what my role would be in it. When I saw Visit Maastricht's Instagram, I knew it would really be something for me. Presenting my own city in a way that invites people to visit it and conveying the atmosphere of this beautiful city was a really fun challenge for me, and it turned out to be just that."
How would you describe your work?
"During my internship, I am mainly involved in creating online content. Here you can think of creating reels, stories and captions for on social media, as well as writing product texts and shooting mood photos of products for the webshop. I am also involved in many ongoing projects, because content is involved in almost everything.
Some of these projects include Magical Maastricht, the strategy for the visitor website, the Maastricht Store, Maastricht Loves Local and all day-to-day B2C communications. I find it difficult to really specifically name a few things that I enjoy most because I get something out of many ongoing projects and they are all fun to work on in their own way. That's the great thing about online marketing, it can be used almost anywhere."
Can you tell us a bit about the team?
"What I like most about my internship is the diversity of work and the dynamic team at Maastricht Marketing. Everyone has a clear role within the team where everyone's talents come out best, but the team also works together a lot. Everyone knows each other's strengths and complements each other nicely. No day is the same and there are always new challenges in different areas, which we tackle as a team in a fun but above all effective way. There is always room for questions and for improvement, which makes my internship super instructive."
What did you learn during the internship?
"Time goes by incredibly fast. Looking back at the beginning of my internship, I feel that I have learnt a lot in terms of work, but also on a personal level. It is very instructive to get to experience how an organisation works and fun to see results from the things I have made. For instance, it is nice to see the product photos in the webshop that I shot or to read the reactions to an Instagram reel I made.
What I especially learned during my time at Maastricht Marketing is that, as cliché as it sounds, asking questions is really very important. At first, I sometimes struggled with this because I thought I would have to find out for myself or that I would bother someone with it. However, within Maastricht Marketing no question is too much but it is actually appreciated if I ask questions, because that way I can carry out tasks faster and more efficiently."
How did you experience your time during the internship?
"The working atmosphere within this company really gives me the space to develop myself. I am included in the team as a full member and that motivates me a lot to get involved and do my best in work. I get to come along to events, am involved in many projects and can always indicate if something is too much or too little. In short, a great working atmosphere, room for development and a friendly team. What more could you want during your internship?"