Francisco's International Internship

How Interning abroad led to a turning point in my life

During my childhood, I travelled with my parents, which is when I developed a passion for exploring new cultures and discovering a new perspective by stepping out of my comfort zone. Before coming to Japan, I had already completed a summer school course in London, an internship in my home town, Lisbon, and an exchange semester in Switzerland as a bilateral partnership with my university. I have never been outside of Europe alone before and this internship was my very first experience in Asia.

I was thrilled to have this opportunity to immerse myself in a new culture because I have heard that Japan is one of the safest , most organized and cleanest countries in the world. During these past 8 weeks, I have had the pleasure to work at Flow Solutions Inc. located in Yokohama, working in marketing communication. I had several responsibilities such as, conducting and publishing interviews of key stakeholders to accumulate content for both external and internal articles regarding staff and customer experience.

Furthermore, I also created and designed the intern webpage that is currently available on the company’s official website, enabling future interns to be aware of previous interns’ activities. There are CTAs (Call To Actions) on the web page itself to make it more user-friendly for candidates to contact the HR team at Flow Solutions and ask questions. The topics discussed on the articles were essentially about: KPI’s and webinar assessment, how the InSight platform works, interviews with the CEO, Sales Manager and Customer Success Director. All these articles were posted on the Wantedly platform and I was able to learn new strategies and understand how all the areas are inter-connected within the company. Since the staff within the company are not all Japanese, I learned different perspectives and how people tackle possible problems on a daily basis.

Also, had the opportunity to attend social events with my coordinator and co-workers after business hours, which reflected the great company culture and open-minded environment. Consequently, I developed a greater knowledge of marketing through a hands-on experience. I had a great time while in Japan not only due to the internship in the PR & Marketing area,but also due to the places I visited on the weekends and in my free time.

I have to say a big thank you to Marie Ohno and Chad Stewart for making me so welcome and integrating me into the company, helping me whenever I had questions and when I wasn’t sure on how to approach my tasks effectively. I would like to thank you for all that you have done for me. I’m grateful to you for giving me the opportunity to work with you and I have enjoyed my time working under your leadership. Thank you so much!