Guest Post
Due to the high demand for tech workers, organizations are providing exceptional salaries and perks. Although getting a new job has become more challenging, tech professionals now have better jobs with a better work-life balance. During the coronavirus lockdown, many people have begun to learn new tech skills to increase their chances of getting a new job.
Nowadays, coding schools are popular because they provide students with the right skills to help organizations reshape the market. Their graduates have the right knowledge to meet employers’ needs and land their dream job. So, if you’re wondering what skills you need to get employed and land a six-figure job during COVID-19, this list will allow you to achieve your goal.
Python
Python is a must-have programming tool for every tech worker these days. In 2020, Python is gaining ground because it’s great for analyzing, visualizing, and interpreting data. Python is also an excellent tool for implementing machine learning algorithms. It’s been used by many companies to automate processes and provide more personalized services. In the data science field, Python helps data scientists and data analysts create better insights. Consequently, organizations can make better data-driven decisions and develop better products.
Python is very easy to learn, and it’s a great option for those looking to start a new career. Today, a Python developer earns, on average, $116,161 per year at Bank of America. Many coding bootcamps offer Python courses. But, if you have a busy schedule and you’re looking to learn from home, you should enroll in Springboard’s coding bootcamp.
At Springboard, students learn at their own pace and can get job-ready in only six months. Springboard’s data science course is designed to provide students with core data science concepts. They learn statistics, data wrangling, machine learning, and storytelling skills vital to meet employers’ needs. And by working on real projects, they build an interview-ready portfolio.
Java
Java has become very popular lately because it is the perfect match for creating IoT software. In 2020, companies are using data to identify what customers want and how they want it. Given that, they gather information from multiple devices and platforms. Java is an object-oriented programming tool that can be used for creating cross-platform solutions. And it’s also a must-have for Android development. Nowadays, Android has about 85% of the smartphone market. So, becoming an Android mobile developer will indeed increase your job opportunities.
In the US, a Google Android developer earns, on average, $125,989 per year, according to Indeed. These professionals also enjoy great perks like on-site spa sessions, gym classes, and free food. Google’s workers not only love their jobs because of the salary but because of the perks and work environment. For that reason, they’re always willing to work harder to achieve the company’s goals.
Learning Android development skills is easy with the help of General Assembly’s courses. General Assembly provides students with instructors that teach them how to build exceptional and interactive Android apps. At General Assembly, students learn through hands-on projects. Students build real apps to develop their coding skills.
JavaScript
Learning JavaScript is among the best options to land a six-figure job. It allows developers to create front-end and back-end code. In other words, it’s an essential tool for full-stack developers. Also, many companies—like Paypal, Netflix, and Microsoft—use JavaScript on their sites. In other words, learning JavaScript will allow you to land the job of your dreams.
JavaScript full-stack developers are in-demand, and at Microsoft, they have outstanding salaries. In fact, they earn, on average, $55.84 per hour in the US. Flatiron School is among the best coding schools in the US, and it offers a software engineering course that allows you to learn full-stack development skills. During the course, students will learn how to think and build like professionals. And they will get equipped with the tools to create any web app. The program mainly covers Ruby and JavaScript. The company also designed the course to allow students to launch software engineering careers, independent of any specific programming language.
Digital Marketing
Today, people are spending more time online, digital marketers are in-demand, and companies are offering outstanding salaries to meet their expectations. They are responsible for creating marketing campaigns and use digital channels to increase companies’ brand recognition. They also use their SEO skills to help organizations rank in search engines. To become a digital marketer, you need a lot of patience and discipline. This is because they regularly deal with customers, and they must be on their best behavior. They also use social networks and email to provide better customer service.
At PayPal, digital marketers make, on average, $149,655 per year, according to Glassdoor. And for example, companies like Netflix provide them with six-figure salaries and excellent perks like paid parental leave and paid vacation leave. So, becoming a digital marketer will allow you to land a six-figure job and even improve your well-being.
To learn digital marketing skills, you should enroll in Thinkful’s coding bootcamp. Their digital marketing course is designed to give you the right skills to join any marketing team. And by developing skills like SEO/SEM, email marketing, content marketing, and marketing analytics, you’ll be able to stand out from the competition. Also, since tuition costs can make students feel stressed, Thinkful offers several financing options to help them deal with the expenses.
Conclusion
Getting employed and earning a six-figure salary won’t be just a dream if you get equipped with these tech skills. They will help you to become an attractive worker and meet companies’ requirements. The learning process can be tough, but I can guarantee that you’ll have no regrets. Also, you have to remember that the tech market is growing fast, and it’s disrupting every industry around the globe. If you want to be ready for future challenges and get the job you have always wanted, learning in-demand tech skills is necessary.
About Author: Artur Meyster is the CTO of Career Karma (YC W19), an online marketplace that matches career switchers with coding bootcamps. He is also the host of the Breaking Into Startups podcast, which features people with non-traditional backgrounds who broke into tech.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/meyster
Twitter: @arturmeyster
With Five Pandemic Proven Methods for Connection
Modern society has evolved in many regards, especially in how we interact with each other. A significant amount of these interactions now happen in digital social spaces than real ones. One excuse I get a lot these days is that you can’t “network” because it’s very difficult to meet other people in person, especially people you don’t know.
Digital spaces are revolutionary and have brought people at great distances together but if you are like me you probably feel entirely ready to leave the house and meet a stranger in person. I have started to chat a bit longer with the bakery lady and the guy who fixes my doner kebab. It’s weird but necessary because human interaction has become so scarce and I also feel that we all deserve a bit more love these days. Don’t get me wrong: I’m generally not a very chatty person unless I’ve known someone for a long time. I rather keep a “professional” interaction short and this might come across as arrogance to some.
However, over the last year I changed my attitude a lot. The pandemic has made me realize how little I often connect with people in business as in good German style I still separate business and pleasure, colleagues and friends. If you have listened to my workshops about the importance of building relationship you probably wonder how I can hold up this paradox.
My answer is simple: It’s a deeper level of trust that I share with the friends and more personal connections. I also don’t hold back whereas in a professional environment I would probably not use certain expressions. Today it’s all a bit more blurred because I speak to everyone from my living room. I feel like I let everyone into my personal space, hence they must be able to handle the more authentic “Angela” as well.
Building Trust Through Offline Networking
When was the last time you trusted a random person on the internet? In fact, isn’t the first advice given to anyone on online social media to ignore and not trust anything a stranger tells you? Just how much of a relationship do you have with someone you’ve only interacted with in Twitter DMs? And even worse, if you are on social media you probably get abused by scammers and other annoying people a lot. Social media for me has a dark side and it’s very easy to feel vulnerable there after you were told for the 100th time that someone wants something from you. Most of the time I find it irritating and frustrating.
Professional networking, similarly, can only go so far to building your relationships if they’re limited to online interactions. Face-to-face meetings help develop a higher level of trust among participants – positive body language plays a great role in helping put nervous people at ease. Similarly, interacting in the same physical space (over a coffee, at a lunch or even a mixer of sorts) is a great ice-breaker. Shared experiences always do leave a lasting memory, what better way to start building a repertoire with your network?
Believe in the Networking Karma
The thing about networking is, it’s not a transactional relationship. You don’t go into it expecting rewards, or even gratitude. You do it because you believe in ‘networking karma’. That said, you are only human and even the most generous of givers can find themselves overwhelmed at times. That’s why it is important to set up boundaries that help you prevent burnout and maintain a healthy relationship with yourself and your network. I have adopted the “Five-Minute-Favor” from Adam M. Grant’s book “Give and Take” as one of the principles that I can easily say yes to. With knowledge exchange it depends on whether I feel I get the same inspiration out of the relationship that I give in. Usually, this is the case in most of my networking groups, usually I prefer “Erfa”-Groups where practical tips are exchanged to a captive audience and “Mastermind-Groups”, where we usually bring our lazy selves forward and overcome imposter syndrome. In Switzerland you can also follow the institutionalized networking by joining an association or club that is dedicated to your profession. If you need more advice on this please reach out to me. I’m offering my resources and recommendation to readers and clients within our HireMeExpress program.
Five Pandemic Ideas for Offline Networking
1 – Go for a Walk at Lake Zurich with a Cup of Americano
The easiest way to network offline right now is the walk along the lake with a coffee to go. I have finally bought a reusable cup because the waste of coffee cups and general one-way packaging is starting to get on my nerves. My local bakery accepts that you bring your own plate or bowl when you buy lunch from them.
2 – Allow for a Weekly “Watercooler Chat”
What I am missing the most about working in an office environment is the social part, the watercooler chats about not so professional topics, the casual bumping into colleagues and asking them about their cats and the general exchange of fun and pleasantries when you work with the same people for years. As a global digital nomad you will have to get used to building up relationships fast but there are always people that you have known for a long-time even if you worked at different companies or on different projects. And it is absolutely okay if you contact them without a reason and set up a “Watercooler” chat where you strictly make smalltalk only or chat about your family or the last tech problem you faced when trying to organize a vaccination for your mother from abroad. I know you are as keen as I am in turning into a mega productive robot but allow yourself this time by blocking half an hour once a week (that’s in addition to a daily lunch break).
3 – Visit the Zoo or Kunstmuseum
I admit that I haven’t been to the Zurich Zoo yet and the last time I went to the Kunstmuseum was probably when I was here as a tourist or when I had friends over from other countries. I admit that I tend to not fully utilize all the opportunities Zurich offers during “normal” times but if you wanted to meet me right now these two options are open and you can connect while watching giraffes or looking at a Warhol. I am sure this will go down really well as a networking opportunity.
And: If you aren’t convinced yet at least take your kids there to support the Zoo because…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztC2QCkge2I&ab_channel=ZooZ%C3%BCrich
4 – Go for a Hike
Generally we have a lot of opportunities for small hikes in the city and out in the countryside. If you are a workaholic you might not be aware of them so I suggest you start with Uetliberg, Felsenegg, Greifensee and Pfäffikersee. I don’t own a car but most of these locations can be accessed by public transportation and if you wish to save your contact time you will need to let them know how they get there or pick them up.
5 – Share a Themed Take Out Meal on a Park Bench
With the upcoming week and the spring weather we are expecting you could invite a person you wish to meet to a themed take out meal on a park bench. Even if restaurants are still closed we have these beautiful parks in Zurich and a botanical garden where you can take your lunch in a beautiful atmosphere. If you want to make it even more interesting you could combine it with a topic or an expert interview.
If you are a Giver Watch your Boundaries
If you’re a seasoned professional with the wisdom of experience to share, offline networking can help you build trust with those who wish to seek your advice but would hesitate to reach out to you directly. By giving off an approachable vibe, perhaps giving a little impromptu talk to a group of people, you can embed that necessary bit of trust in younger professionals to reach out and network with you and others at your position. They’d go on to do it when they reach your place in their careers, and continue the cycle of positive networking!
A natural consequence of purposeful networking is the asking and giving of advice. For experienced professionals, especially those who actively network, it can soon become an overwhelming practice. Giving advice is great, it’s what makes the world turn, but when your network constantly reaches out for advice on anything from spreadsheet optimization to career planning, it can lead to the sort of burnout that makes you want to stop networking. It may also negatively impact your health!
Learning to say no is never easy, especially if you’re worried about coming off as impolite. It is, however, essential. Let your principles guide you: Develop a strategy that lets you identify scenarios where you say yes and those where you say no. Stick to this guideline and maintain your sanity!
Kind regards,
Angie Weinberger
Why you need networking principles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRUXcBT_QS8&t=10s&ab_channel=AngieWeinberger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdFudLPyqng&ab_channel=RobBulder
A guest post by Nabeha Latif – Social Media Guru
This week I’ll be talking about one of the most important tools in a professional’s repertoire: the LinkedIn profile. With over 500 million users, a LinkedIn profile isn’t just an afterthought, it is a mainstay of modern recruitment. Something that essential needs to be mastered fully, so let’s get to it. Presenting:
Top 10 Tips for a Killer LinkedIn Profile
1 – Get a Personalised URL
In my experience, far too many professionals forget to do this, often because they simply forgot about it. LinkedIn provides you the ability to discard the standard URL (which is a jumble of letters and numbers) and have a vanity URL instead. This personalised URL can be used to promote your profile in email signatures, on business cards, portfolios and resumes. It also gives you the ability to target better organic SEO by putting in your job title or industry. Having your profile appear as a top Google search result against a job title keyword is a pretty useful trick! Check out LinkedIn’s own guide on setting up a personal URL for your profile here.
2 – Nail that Headline!
You’ve got only six seconds to catch the attention of a recruiter on LinkedIn, which makes your headline absolutely do-or-die. Do make sure your headline contains the necessary keywords that are SEO friendly (that is, they contain certain words that people generally use when searching for the relevant job title or industry) and allow people to identify your industry with ease. Do make the most of the allotted 120 characters, don’t just write your job description. Try being playful (if appropriate) with word choices – sky’s the limit when it comes to creativity. Of course, don’t forget your real purpose: catching a recruiter’s attention. If your profile views drop, a reason could be that your headline needs to be re-worked.
3 – Populate your Experience
Just like some people sometimes forget to update our CVs, LinkedIn profiles too can become stagnant. That’s why, every so often, you should sit down and make sure that everything from your summary, work history, projects, trainings and education is up-to-date. It helps to employ the same sort of creativity you used to create your perfect headline to show how you excelled during a particular role. Make sure that you review and plug in any gaps that may have been left in the first time round. The more a hiring manager sees of you, the easier it makes for them to decide if you meet their requirements.
If you have privacy concerns, you can choose not to share details about your career or self that you consider sensitive, as a LinkedIn profile is public and trawled by internet search engines. Concerns about private data stored by LinkedIn can be addressed by going through their GDPR-compliant privacy policy.
4 – Get Creative!
This is the third time I am mentioning creativity – that is how important it is. In a sea of automation (LinkedIn now has a feature that autofills your summary), it is very easy to drown in the overwhelming number of similar looking profiles. Learning to showcase your skills and experience in a smart, catchy manner greatly increases your chances of getting noticed by the right people. Put in media from YouTube, your favourite design wireframes or any public mentions or accolades you may have accumulated! You can do that by going to Add Profile Section > Accomplishments and choosing the appropriate section.
5 – Engage, Engage, Engage
LinkedIn is a social network after all and engagement is key to building a healthy profile. Engaging with peers through endorsements is a positive methodology, not only will you establish a good rapport with your network but will receive endorsements in return. That rapport can help you reach out for recommendations, an important aspect of building your brand and establishing yourself as a significant presence in your industry.
It is also imperative that you join the conversation. On groups, with key influencers, with colleagues and peers. Profiles that engage actively on groups are 5 times more likely to be viewed!
6 – Master the Algorithm
A killer LinkedIn profile is one that hits the top of the search results every time someone searches for a certain kind of professional. Want your profile to be the one the LinkedIn search algorithm chooses? Here’s how: Complete your profile, 100%.
LinkedIn’s algorithm is designed to give top priority to profiles which are complete (they are referred to as “All Star Profiles” and only 51% of users have those). This means that if you missed out on any aspect of your profile, you will essentially be invisible in the search results. No one wants that.
On the subject of LinkedIn Premium: spending money on a premium account will not affect your profile in any way, there are no new features there. Those accounts are targeted more towards recruiters and job seekers looking to directly connect with people not on their network. That is why purchasing a premium account will not be helpful in improving the quality of your LinkedIn profile
7 – SEO is King
Some digital specialists posit that the modern Internet is driven solely on SEO. That may be debatable but in the case of LinkedIn, that is very much true! Make sure that your profile is the one found by external search engines: optimize job titles, descriptions and as previously mentioned, in the vanity URL. All these fields are text only and thus will be parsed by search engines, you want to maximise your chances of being the top of those result lists. “Digital Guru” may sound like a catchy job title but people searching for “digital marketer” or “digital marketing specialist” will never know of you! The key is to keep it simplistic so that you can be easily found.
8 – Be Pixel Perfect!
Having a professional profile picture on LinkedIn is critical – first impressions matter! Questions to ask yourself when selecting a profile picture: Does it have a neutral background? Are you appropriately dressed? Did a professional photographer take the picture or is it just a selfie?
I’m also going to direct you towards how you can elevate your profile by making sure you optimize the technical aspects of the images you use. Hootsuite covers it in great detail if you’re interested, but to summarize: Make sure your images are the right aspect ratio, meet the minimum pixel count and are the correct file types. You don’t want your images to be blurry or misshapen due to incorrect dimensions!
9 – It’s not a Sprint, it’s a Marathon
You burn through an entire weekend getting your profile into tip-top shape. Great, you now have a killer LinkedIn profile! However, what happens after a week? A month? Six months? Remember this statistic: 40% of LinkedIn’s active user-base logs in daily to the platform. These are the people who take time out every day to post, interact, tweak and improve their profiles, connections and more. Emulate them, make LinkedIn a part of your routine, it will maintain your profile as one of the best and help maximise your chances of catching the eye of recruiters, should you be looking for a new job.
10 – Run a Company? Treat the Page as you would your Profile
If you run your own business and have it listed on your LinkedIn profile, you should make sure that the company page receives the same care and attention as your profile. After all, both must reflect the same values. Rigorously fill in and verify the information pertaining to your company, set up a consistent posting schedule and boost posts from your own employees – all add up to creating an interactive and healthy social space around your company.
Female Entrepreneurs and Finance
It’s 50 years ago that women in Switzerland were granted the right to vote and while this might seem like a reason to celebrate it is also scary. Unlike in other countries in Europe women in Switzerland had to fight for a long time to be granted this right. You would think gender equality is self-evident here but it is not. Reality is still that many women earn less than their male counterparts, that having a career as a woman is rather unusual and being a female breadwinner is still an exception. And while I always worked or had my own money since I left high school, money and I have never been great friends. Money is a source of stress for me that I either avoid completely or obsess over. In an attempt at healing my relationship with money many years ago I first had to learn a few basics and make some key mistakes. I want to encourage you to learn more about finance and money and become financially independent.
I repeatedly asked myself three questions when I started my own business in Switzerland:
- Will I ever get my head around the financial side of the business?
- Will I ever get better at managing the cash flow?
- Will I ever make enough income to not feel stressed and under pressure?
Cash flow did not make sense to me.
I am really good at computing cost projections and balance sheets for expats. I can explain the difference between purchasing power parity and cost-of-living index. I can tell you how COLA relates to foreign exchange rates. I was excellent in Math as a student. So it’s NOT that I don’t like numbers or that I am not a “numbers” person (which unfortunately a lot of women attribute themselves with). I like math and numbers but I missed something else.
My issue was more that I lacked the practical understanding of a “good housewife”. I didn’t know how much a liter of milk would normally cost in the supermarket. I didn’t know those little secrets of saving money in Switzerland such as the fact that Migros and Denner are essentially under the same corporate umbrella but you can buy twice as much food at Denner.
When I was working as a Global Mobility Leader, I had a good paycheck. In Germany, I would even go grocery shopping in the “bio” shop Alnatura. My mother would say that I might as well go shopping in a pharmacy. For me, this meant “quality of life”. It meant that I would not be stressed at the cashier on Saturday because five other people were in line behind me like in the other supermarket. And I had the idea that I was eating healthy and helping the environment by buying “bio”.
There was another issue why I stopped learning more about finance, investments, saving money when I was employed: I had a bad relationship with money. Money stinks. Money doesn’t make you happy. When you have money, you don’t talk about it. I had all sorts of relationship issues with money. Money reminded me of scams or bad deals my mother and I had gotten into because we were naive and believed a banker would know what they were doing.
This article is for you if you started out as a business owner or if you feel that you need to heal your relationship to money. And if you are not a female but you feel you need to get better with money, you may read this article as well. Let’s try to understand a few basics of finance and financial independence.
Maintain a Cash Flow Plan
If you want to run a sustainable business, work with a cash flow plan. It can be a simple one, but you need to have your finances in order. In the early days of my business, I asked my BFF (who is a Finance guru) to review my business plan. She explained that I would just need to ensure that there is a cash flow in and that this is bigger than cash flow out. Easier said than done, but I still use that same plan a decade later.
Move from Fixed Income to Fluctuating Income
When you are used to a certain lifestyle with a fixed monthly income you rely on that paycheck a lot because you tend to tailor your lifestyle around your consistent monthly income. If you are unemployed or if you start out as a freelancer you have to get used to a fluctuating income.
A starting capital and cash reserve are important. If you are responsible for rent, health insurance, phone bills, transportation, food and other necessities you need to ensure that you can cover your basic needs for several slow months. In the first five years you might make a lot less than you are used to. You will need to change your lifestyle significantly.
Ideally, you have a reserve for a year in your bank account or someone who would help you out such as a parent or friend. Don’t bring your partner or spouse into your business. This can weigh heavily on your relationship and you also have to consider what it means in case of them facing unemployment, serious disease or death. Before you start a business in Switzerland, you should understand what this would mean for a (married) spouse. The legislation is not always logical, hence you need professional advice before you stir yourself and your partner into a dead end.
Read Finance Information with Different Angles
It is challenge to read finance information when it is written in a bad way and often directed at bankers or industry professionals rather than the “simple user”. I have addressed communication with bankers several times already. Most financial information is written in a way that no one wants to read it. Some of it does not even make a lot of sense. I received a weird letter the other day and sent it back with edits and side comments. The main message was: We could not deduct money from your account but there was a lot of fluff around it. It took me a while to understand why this company wrote to me.
Also, I was very happy when a few years ago for the first time the bank gave me two female relationship managers: One for my personal account and one for my business account and we immediately noticed that we had a lot in common.
I have started to read the Cash Guru and I also find the LGT Navigator helpful. If you like “Gossip Girl” you probably enjoy “Inside Paradeplatz”. Another good resource is Finews.ch.
Learn Vocabulary and Budgeting
If you want to appear financially competent when talking to your bank manager, financial advisors, insurance brokers, mortgage providers, or lawyers, you need to know a few basics and speak their language. For example, you need to understand interest and how it works. Also negative interest, debt, and how you get into debt. What is an advantage of a mortgage versus paying rent? How do open and closed investment funds actually work?
In the early years and even before I launched GPT, I used to spend more than I earned. I applied “Reaganomics”. What works in politics, does not really work for a small business. At the time, I did not really understand that this investment could hinder my potential for getting out of the red figures in the long term.
I made bad financial decisions. For example, I started to pay myself a salary too early. I listened to an advisor and should have listened to my gut feeling. Remember that other people’s experiences in the business world could be biased. They have opened their business many years before. Switzerland has also suffered from the global economic crisis. Often the Swiss have access to networks that foreigners will not really get into. Depending on your type of business, you should have a current account, which balances your company and your personal investments. I would advise that you separate your private and company accounts.
Split Larger Invoices
My business is cyclical and once I understood the cost and earning cycle, I could prepare myself better for the downtimes. For example, I have a lot of annual invoices in January but January is often a slow month. You can ask to split invoices into smaller payment plans. Often, when you ask the insurance provider they are willing to support you on a payment plan. If you want to be ahead of your costs, you should ask for larger invoices and pay them as soon as you possibly can. You can ask for an extension of a payment deadline and mainly you have to know that you need to be in contact with the company who raised the invoice to you. They don’t like it if you ghost on them.
Pay Vendors and Freelancers in Advance
When I can I pay all my freelancers in advance so that they would always get their money. It means that I have to budget their quarterly invoices too and it happened once or twice that I had to put a service on hold because of lack of funding.
Another principle I have developed is to check my account twice or thrice a week, sometimes even daily. I issue an invoice as soon as the service has been delivered or as soon as the booking has been confirmed.
Many large relocation companies and training agencies have very long payment periods. I suffered greatly from these in the early years of my business. I had delivered a service but sometimes was only paid 60 to 90 days later. In some instances, invoices got lost in cost center discussions and bad processes. Once I got paid two years later only. Now, I am more careful about the agreements in the contracts and I follow up on outstanding invoices faster. This doesn’t always guarantee that all invoices are paid on time but companies sometimes agree to advance payments and you can always decide to stop working with a client if their payments take too long. However, with private clients you should always agree to a full payment in advance or a payment plan.
At the moment you might still try to find a job in your new country and you hesitate about working as a freelancer or starting a side gig. The good news is that the steps for both are pretty similar. We will be happy to give you further guidance and inspiration through our HireMeExpress program starting again in April. Sign up here to find out everything you need to know in order to earn an income in a new market.
Angie Weinberger
HireMeExpress
HireMeExpress is the online course that will get you from desperate to carving out an income and feeling at home in your new country. Sign up here to find out everything you need to know in order to land a job in Switzerland or another market you are not familiar with. We will shortly give you access to videos, live workshops and add you to our waiting list for when HireMeExpress opens again in April 2021.
I am now three months into my new job, what someone would call my first real job, and my student life seems so far behind. The truth is that less than a year has gone by since I finished writing my thesis and my student ID expired just four months ago.
Fortunately and unpredictably, 2020 was for me a rather eventful year despite what could be common assumptions. In particular, one event at the very beginning of the year marked a great part of the months that followed: in January, I happily signed my six months’ internship agreement at Global People Transitions. Only one condition initially made me doubtful about embarking on this challenge: working from home. Was I going to get the real work experience feeling? Was I going to be able to bond with my colleagues? Was I going to feel isolated or lonely?
I look back and smile at this thought as, ironically, that was the very factor that made my internship possible at a time the world was shaken by the current global pandemic.
I started off my internship on April 1st, when some governments had already adopted heavy restrictions for containing the spread of the virus, while others still thought there wasn’t really much to worry about…things have changed so much that perhaps that’s also why it feels so long ago.
The internship at GPT kept me busy for a great part of 2020 and, in hindsight, I can see how it brought good things and concrete perspectives in 2021 as well. I feel lucky because I know that many others out there probably share opposite feelings.
The 6 months’ experience at GPT shaped me both at a professional and at a personal level. Being trained, supervised, and coached directly by the founder and Managing Director Angie Weinberger provided me with concrete tools, useful to face the upcoming work challenges with a down-to-earth approach.
Today, I would like to share with you the seven reasons, though not the only ones, why I think that interested candidates should consider an internship at GPT:
1. You Learn an Awful Lot About Global Mobility
Angie Weinberger is a renown professional with decades of experience as a Global Mobility Manager, Lecturer, Trainer and Coach. Being her right hand for six months meant earning an incredible amount of knowledge in the field of Global Mobility and being able to get a first-hand experience in the buzzing Expat World.
From the most administrative and practical aspects of setting up an international assignment to the most hidden and psychological facets of family relocation and culture shock, I learnt that being a Global Mobility expert means much more than getting the conversion rate right.
2. You get the international vibe
This might sound very much predictable – after all expats are international – however, not all internships in the Global Mobility sector offer you this opportunity. At Global People Transitions, I regularly and directly handled communications with many clients from different cultural, professional, and educational backgrounds, some of them living in Switzerland, and many others in more or less far away countries. But it’s more than that: you get to exchange with stakeholders and partners all over the world and have the opportunity to experience first-hand how things are done differently elsewhere.
The best aspect, however, is being part of a vibrant international team and this is not a foregone conclusion. At GPT I had the pleasure to work with a small though strong team of global professionals with considerable intercultural experience. Currently, GTP team counts six components spread across four different countries, three continents and four different time zones. Where else do you find these perks?
3. You Expand Your Professional Network
Something an internship should definitely give you is good prospects for the future career you want to embark on. It should build that last layer of foundations that you’ve been constantly growing with dedication and hard work through your studies and potentially, previous internships.
Now, creating a professional network for yourself is one of the most fundamental steps you take early in your career. And as an intern at GPT you are served this very opportunity on a plate. You handle communications with important partners, you participate in webinars, you set up interviews and podcast recordings with experienced professionals of various fields…you even might be invited to take part in in-person workshops with Angie’s clients!
And if this was not enough to expand your network of professional contacts, you’re given even more tools during the coaching (more about it at point 5) to help you enhance your professional presence both face-to-face and online.
4. You Boost Your Entire Skill Set
Before starting my internship at GPT I found it hard to believe I was even going to learn some basic programming and help out with graphic design. But it happened, I took the opportunity, made the most out of it and today I know a little more than I did before this challenge.
This is to say that even if officially an “academic internship”, the experience gives you the chance to strengthen skills you already have and for which you were probably selected, but also to test abilities you didn’t even know you had in you.
What I personally feel I became stronger at are interpersonal and intercultural communication, organizational, problem-solving, research, and analytical as well as digital skills. But I also definitely improved my time management skills and became a more resourceful professional, which is one of the most important teachings I take away from working in a start-up environment.
5. You are supported by an experienced coach
While you’re working hard on all those activities and putting an effort in all the tasks that are assigned to you, you’re not always aware of all the learning that happens in the background. But it’s important that you acknowledge it and that you’re able to convert it in words and facts when you face a recruiter or are discussing a promotion with your boss.
You also might have your ups and downs and obviously might find some projects more challenging to manage than others. You might be in the middle of a relocation yourself, or you might come to clash with cultural aspects of your environment that you find hard to cope with.
Among the benefits of an internship at GPT, the par excellence benefit if you ask me, is the coaching you receive from Coach Angie. Having her as a supervisor throughout the six months spent at GPT was already a blessing and an opportunity for growth that I will always be thankful for. Having her as a personal coach was an emotional and eye-opener experience that made me more aware of who I am, what I need and how I can achieve it. I especially took to heart her charisma and down-to-earth approach.
As I anticipated, these are not the only aspects I praise with regards to my internship at GPT. In fact, the list is still long and if you’re curious to know more about it you can reach out to me personally and I’d be happy to give you more insights.
In a sentence, the experience made me ready to enter the job market with a certain awareness, strengthened competencies and a more well-rounded profile for a junior professional like me.
About the Author
Sara Micacchioni is currently working in the customer care sector where she gets the chance to continue improving her skills as a people’s person in four different languages. She also works as a freelancer in digital marketing for a small start-up specialized in unbiased recruiting and diversity and inclusion projects. As a graduate in Intercultural Management, those are, in fact, topics that Sara keeps close to her heart.
In the past, she also carried out several short-term and long-term voluntary work projects in Europe and South America.
Sara lived, studied, and worked in seven European countries and speaks four foreign languages. She considers herself an interculturalist with a real passion for globetrotting. In her mission to travel the world, she has now ticked off 30 countries globally.
