When I woke up I FaceTime to Angelique and she told me she struggles with finding motivation, so I decided to visit her and take my laptop with me to work on my stuff from her place. All of my work today was via LinkedIn and email my main focus was preparing and sending job offer letters and email to candidates who reach out to us after seeing our job offer online. The conversations were about what the company is like and what can the participant expect from us and what is it that we expect from him/her, how do we envision factory combat social distancing and integrated into our daily work life and general information about the platform we work from/in and people behind the scene.

Angelique lives in kanaleneiland, the name of their neighborhood speaks already for itself. So for lunch we bought two pizzas and decided to eat our lunch near the water, it was around 20° this perfect afternoon.

I have also written my very first rejection letter, for when one of the candidates does not meet the companies criteria and therefore will have to be very neatly rejected. I also did some reading online about what is necessary and what to watch out for when writing a rejection letter to someone you have never seen before. Rule number one is remember to stay professional and do not involve any personal emotions. Rule number two is not to make promises which cannot be made and just be straight to the point. Rule number three is explain why someone isn’t the perfect candid it this way you offer someone some feedback and you also indirectly provide some guidelines on what is expected from someone in this specific department. This are some rules I find important based on information I found online.

See the draft of my very first rejection letter below:

Tuesday like all other Tuesdays, a video call session with the crisis management team. We have been discussed the result from the questionnaires filled in by all the employees of the course of the past nine weeks. When we looked at the result it could be easily said that interns are losing motivation and much more quickly compare to employees. This has to do with the fact that interns are not being paid while employees still receive some sort of salary/allowance. Interns work in some departments had the opportunity to earn a commission, however, that is not a possibility anymore because of the pandemic. The video call was very weird this time since I felt very sorry for my supervisor who is trying his best to help everyone who wants to continue their internship, while at the same time students are getting less and less motivated which I find a bit ungrateful. We have ended our call without any clear solution or ideas, yet Piotr told us not to hesitate if anyone comes up with an idea. 

0 represents no motivation at all, while 7 represents well motivated

Today I also answered emails on staff inquiries regarding HR policies. Responded to questions of my fellow colleagues about the commission, which can be earned through the marketing of different events. The events which some have worked on are not taking place any time soon and are therefore postponed. Some colleagues have already worked on the marketing of this event and are left in doubts and wonder how the situation will proceed. Todays task were pretty important if i have to say it myself and left me with a feeling of responsibility. I believe that this is a sophisticated way of becoming a business professional, through involvement in important matters and contribution. Next time I will try to be more time efficient when communicating with colleagues and if ever again will I find myself in a similar situation I will definitely know who to contact first to highlight me on the matters.

Around 11 am I have received a phone call from my supervisor in the human resource staff. At first glance, I had no idea why I was involved in this conversation since the topic was ‘gathering market salary information’ and I have been told before that no financial data will be shared with me during my internship. However, by the end of the conversation, my supervisor explained that he really wants us to dive deep into the salary topic within the human resource management as it’s a crucial part of the department without sharing any actual confidential data. First, he advised us to do a little reading online on what is important to know for human resource consultants in terms of finance. He created a video/course which we can watch in which he explained what he finds important to know, what is it that he exactly do is to manage all the finances, how taxes work in Spain (it will differ in countries you work in also the way you pay them) and want to watch out for exclusively when collecting this different data for the government. 

For the most part I acknowledged the input of my supervisor and was great full for his resource-full thinking he has come up with many techniques to keep me informed and invest in my internship. With my own input I make the best out of any situation and turn it into a great experience. For the next time, however, I will offer my supervisor help. Offering help in creating new assignments seems like a task for a HR intern and I will definitely look back at the situation I found myself in and take quick action.

This was our only task for the day and he asked us to really dive into the subject since there is only so much he can do for us. Moreover, Piotr has asked me at the end of the conversation to call him back as there was something important you wanted to discuss with me. My supervisor was very worried for me since he has been going through my documents such as an internship proposal, and he has found that all the tasks I do for my internship do not align with what has been agreed upon. Which got me extremely worried. In my original industry proposal, we had stated that I will walk in the event management department, however, that is not possible at the moment because of the pandemic. I explained to him that I had been in touch with my assessor about things going differently than intended. Therefore I reassured him that there is no need to worry. Moreover, he pointed out that if I have any questions regarding my personal learning plan I shouldn’t hesitate to contact him which I’m very grateful for.

So today I have had a phone call with my supervisor. We discussed the career days he usually participates in around this time of the year, however, due to the current pandemic we find ourselves in no physical career day will be possible nowhere in Spain. Since the career day is a very important event for my supervisor and it takes place multiple times a year he found it very important to find an alternative to the current situation. We discussed the possibilities of online career day in which individuals who are interested can sign up upfront to see what the company has to offer. After a brief discussion, we have come up with some ideas of which one significantly popped up with a high chance of success. Although there is no grantee of success we have agreed to send out a short however catchy newsletter to partner companies and universities about his career day. Annually and event career date takes place in the Ilunion Hotel with over 42,000 visitors daily, however, since there is not possible for that an online platform will be created. To assure greater success we have decided to approach the companies who also participate annually in the career days at the Ilunion Hotel. If encouraging other companies will work out in our favour it will be possible to share the costa among the participants. The date this and last year was set on the 2nd of July and therefore would be preferably around the same date or week this year. Check the link below for more info:

Barcelona Tech Job Fair Spring 2020 by Techmeetups

Together with my supervisor, We have both send out an email to the organization and companies participating in the career day. In which we express our interest in an online career day with some ideas such as a chat room. Together we put the idea on the table and we hope to see some positive feedback next week. 

I have also set up and written mine end week report to my supervisor, I can honestly admit that I really worked on my punctuality for the past couple of weeks and set out some clear guidelines for myself to follow during the workweek.

The vision factory database is currently operated through the systems of tech firm DELL. Within the system, the company gathers different sorts of employee information including contact details contract signed and employee forms. My supervisor informed me that I could not get access to any financial data regarding payments and salaries of all the employees at this information is vital and only he and his partner can access it due to security reasons. However, today he has granted me access to the database in where financial data can be found in trust from which I worked, my task was to organize and update all the internal employee information mostly focusing on interns such as myself. This way the firm can look back at a specific year and see how many employees and interns it had employed. Also what the different turnover per person is for example how many courses have someone sold during the height of the pandemic caused by SARSCOVID-19 in 2020.

I have also created an example form for future humane resource employees/interns in case they would hire someone what crucial information is required to add in the database and in which following order to meet our supervisor’s criteria and have a clear overview for the future. See down below for the form:

This morning I assisted when picking up her hearing aid, I am happy I went with her if I think she would struggle to set her hearing aid in the right setting together with the man working there. Although he approaches people every day who have a very bad hearing my mum still faced with her lack of Dutch language and extremely bad hearing. I also noticed it as I get older I start to value the relationship with my sister and especially with my mum much more.

After our appointment, I found an email from my supervisor in my mailbox informing me about what my task for the day is, which is ‘’gather payroll data’’. He stresses the fact that it’s an important part of the human resource department however I will have to do it by myself. Since a lot of the information is confidential and cannot be sent to me there is no opportunity for me to learn anything directly from my supervisor regarding salaries and paychecks. I was advised to study the information from the following website: https://www.olxpeople.com/blog/3-stages-of-payroll-processing/ and look for similar Information online which might come in handy in the future. To be honest the only thing that I did pick up today is the difference between salaries and payroll in terms of the word used in the English language. The job before my last job was pretty diverse even though I was just a supervisor my previous employer showed me a lot of work he has been doing when you had to pay salaries or deduct the taxes by the end of the year. I still believe it wouldn’t be the same experience since both companies operate in different industries and therefore pay different taxes. Both in different countries as well. 

I’m very relieved at the beginning of my internship everything seems perfectly and fine then I had to go back to Holland and I got the feeling that this is not going to get any better and I am not going to learn anything in the department I want to work in however I am glad that the situation has taken again an unexpected turn of events

During today’s crisis management team meeting my supervisor and his partner concluded that a balance of the expenses and income made by the online courses is needed based on predictions and assumptions. After the meeting I called Sasha and we decided to divide the work, Sasha will focus on the expenses and I will focus on the income. To help each other a little we exchanged some tips which should be taken into account for the expenses it is the number of hours spent in the currency and for income, it is selling ratio from all employees involved in selling the courses online based on a course of eight weeks.

To not just provide my supervisor with random numbers which we cannot support and explain verbally we have decided to ask for help from our colleagues in the finance department. With their help, we come up with remarkable numbers that we can show and support by explaining why the expenses are as high as we expect and the revenue to be this high. We have also asked our colleagues if they could make a pie chart out of the numbers we calculated and received it by the end of the afternoon.

Week 8 the 27^th of April

This weekend I send an email to the school dean in which I ask for help to continue my request for the scholarship which I haven’t been so worried about earlier, however, due to the coronavirus and my unemployment I am forced to take action especially since I have the right to the scholarship but because it’s very hard to get it and I lost the motivation last year I didn’t finish the application. The money would be very helpful since it would help me pay back my debt I already own DUO. Everyone in Holland who is forced to stay home because of the virus gets 90% of the salary paid by the government because I quit my job when I was leaving for Barcelona and came back after seven days I am left unemployed without any income which is very frustrating. 

My supervisor has requested me to do research on company policies and give me the criteria to write down the 10 most important ones which will be used for the companies official website. I asked him if he could give me a clue and he responded by saying no I want you to do the research first and see the result so I can provide you with feedback based on what you find the most important. On the Internet I found a lot of information about a different sort of policy’s financial policies employees policies customer policies e.g. However since my supervisor asked me to do it all by myself I followed my gut feeling. After a lot of reading and a lot of research, I specifically focused on some aspects regarding the policies such as privacy, expectations, and behavior. See the file with policies below:

I also send a mail to my colleagues in the marketing department asking how they exactly put the company’s logo on the different visual files e.g. Since my supervisor expressed a clear interest in following the same guidelines, colors, shapes, and rules regarding files individuals posted online.

Piotr has informed me that all the companies in Spain will be closed at least till the 1st of June which means that there is no way I can go back to Spain before my internship will end, unfortunately. He said he will keep us updated however the situation right now is fluctuating a lot meaning the office won’t open any time soon. I have sent the file to my supervisor and asked if he could provide me with feedback on a video call rather than via mail because it’s very hard to express your emotions in words.

Today I decided to start my day off a little bit differently. I change had my breakfast brush my teeth and bike to the city center to visit my previous employer. He sent me a text message this morning if I wanted to pass by to have a little chat with him since he is not always in the restaurant however the restaurant is open every day since his companions have to figure out the financial information to apply for the short loans. He said whenever you need some quiet space or you can’t concentrate at your house anymore just come here you can work from here if you want which is very supportive of him as he knows I do my internship from home.

I was a step ahead and brought my laptop with me in my backpack. In my work mail mailbox, my colleagues from the marketing department send me the visual I asked for which I am very happy with I wanted them to do it a little bit differently that’s why I asked them to stick to the company colors the orange and turquoise and put the information more central in the middle of the page and not use any pictures of people.

Without hesitation, I posted the job offer with the visual and job description I wrote yesterday. I realize that on the companies Facebook many job offers from the past can still be found with to contact persons people who do not work for the company anymore which is a big disadvantage because there is a possibility that the people are sending emails to people who do not work for the company anymore. I informed my supervisor about my findings and my thoughts, therefore, my task of the day was to organize companies’ job offers and see if any errors are to be found in the latest job offers which are posted and delete job offers from the past which are not applicable anymore. I conducted the same task on LinkedIn indeed Facebook and the companies official website.

Today I also scheduled and confirmed some interviews for next week which will be done via teams and Skype I requested some help from my supervisor and asked if he would be willing to video chat to assist and guide me. I wrote my end week report which I do every Friday and add it to the mail the request of guiding me during the interviews.

When I woke up today I had already the idea that this is going to be a very productive day. I ate my breakfast and did some workout at home which I am very happy with since my motivation is running very low these days and I’m also very excited since I am having dinner tonight with Angelique and her roommates.

I had a call with my supervisor and we talked about how to proceed with the job offer in the different departments. Few days ago I have created an advertisement which I posted on the companies Facebook looking for marketing inters. After a short discussion with my supervisor, we have come to the conclusion that there is also a possibility to offer an internship in the finance department for people who are interested to do it from home. Together with my supervisor, we agreed to do some research and see if it is going to be possible to offer the internship to people who actually have to do an internship to graduate for example people like myself. For now, it is a fresh idea on the table however we believe that with a good strategy and our current good reviews from previous students we can make it work. I have sent a request to the marketing department to create a visual similar to the last one which I can use for the finance department vacancy. I’m surprised usually I get a response from the marketing department on the same day however today by 5 o’clock I still haven’t heard anything from them. I have finished the job description which I will use and I prefer to post the job offer with the visual since the offer has to be appealing to the eye especially to the current generation who is easily attracted by the use of various bright colors.