Hello, my name is Clémence, I am 19 and I am French. I currently finished my first year of High National Certificate of International Trade and, to validate it, I had to do an internship of two months abroad. I chose Spain and my school proposed me to start a new partnership with a Galician school. Therefore, I arrived the 11th April 2015 in the city of Corunna, located on the Atlantic coast. After two weeks of international trade classes at the partner school, the time had come for me to go to the firm. Its name was Ardentia.

Before leaving France I had visited the website and I had discovered the contemporaneous style of the jewels which were made by hand in the workshop. Ardentia was not a big firm but it was exporting in more than twenty countries, so it was totally adapted to my internships criterion.

My main work in Ardentia consists of prospecting the French market. It’s an asset because I am not worried about the language, nevertheless it was not as easy as we could think. The concept of prospection? An Excel or Access file, at the beginning blank and at the end full of shops names, geographic zones, numbers phone and email addresses. The goal? Targeting potential customers and contact them to start a sustainable commercial relationship. Result? Lots of time spent doing researches on the web, a little stress before each call and often a disappointment to do not get the expected results. However, we must not forget all the benefit my work provide to the firm and to myself. On the one hand, we acquire efficient small knacs of research, we become aware of the reality of the workplace, we develop his sales points, we become more comfortable with phone calls ( and never mind if the welcome is unfriendly !) and each time we receive a positive mail, it is good mood for all the rest of the day! On the other hand, this work is also positive for the firm which will gradually grow in the French market, winning in renown and presence.

And I do lots of other things! For instance, I looked for a French sales agent, I made follow-up calls to clients. I help for the translation in French, English and even in Galician! I help to prepare the exhibitions. I sometimes wrote French articles to publish it on the Facebook page in the aim at developing its renown in France. I also created a Facebook page exclusively dedicated to the international and in which I have to publish every day a new post in English and French. Actually, I make myself useful as I can with the theories knowledges acquired during the school year and those, practical, that I am getting here, while adapting me to the company’s needs, values and objectives.

 

To conclude, I still have two weeks being part of Ardentia but I can already say that this first insertion into the workplace will have been a productive and rewarding experience. If the criterion match, perhaps I could go back for my second internship.