Interbrand Inter(n)view | March 2022

Internships are an important part of business life – for students but also businesses. Besides offering in-depth experiences for the Interns as full-on team members, internships also produce unique perspectives as to how we as a company work, learn, and succeed together. As an Intern, you bring a fresh mind and a new view on our daily work into the offices – a great chance to learn and grow for all of us. That is why we at Interbrand in CEE decided to sit down and listen to what the next generation of brand leaders thinks. 

Hi Caroline, hi Arianna, to start the Interview, let’s kick it off with an intro about yourselves. You bring a broad and international wealth of experience with you. Has this influenced the way that you’ve been working at Interbrand?

C: I’m originally from Brazil, I have been living in Germany for three years now. From my side, the international experience is that you learn to work with people who think very differently from you. The ways of thinking, doing things, and approaching problems are completely different. It has taught me how to be more flexible and a bit more tolerant and more open to the different ways.

A: I’m from Milan, Italy. I moved to Germany for Interbrand, so I am new to the country. I think, being flexible and understanding different points of view is very valuable, especially when you work with different clients or different projects because you have to adapt to what the client wants. Depending on the client lead, you also have to adapt to their working styles. Some give you more direction, some others leave you more open to submit your own part into the project.

You’ve been working with the Interbrand CEE team for the past months. What would you say is an overarching mindset we share?

A: Collaboration. You don’t feel the pressure of competition. We are helping each other to thrive together. I would also add to be bold, even though you’re for example ‘just’ an intern: Don’t be afraid to bring your ideas or propose things. Don’t be afraid to try.  We share best practices across offices and you can always find a person that can help you in case you are not proficient in a specific topic or if you need to have additional information.

C: Leading with love. It’s a behavior that I’ve seen a lot in the office: From the first day, everyone is super welcoming and excited. Everyone wants to help you and get to know you. If you need whatever you need, people are trying to help you. That’s something that is really really strong from day one in the cologne office. 

How do this thinking and behaving show up in general in our daily teamwork and how do we approach tasks together in teams?

C: I think the collaboration is really strong also in collaborating with the clients. Try to get the client to improve everything that you do. Do workshops, listen to them, create things together. That’s something I see a lot of the behaviors reflected in the work that we do.

A: What I’ve noticed is that we try to follow the same methodology that we advise clients to follow. The client is the starting point and then you have to understand what is the goal of the project, what is the purpose, and then how can we bring the client towards this goal. It depends on the project, it depends on what the client wants, but that’s always the same structure I would say.

Looking back at your internship in general, what it means to be a part of our team, and the way we work: Why is an internship at Interbrand valuable for potential candidates, and do you have any advice for them?

A: One thing that this internship taught me is that it’s really important what you do in terms of projects and the work, but what is most important is the workplace as a place of people. Maybe there are some days where the task is not your favorite one, but still: The real reason why you’re here is all these people around you that make you feel like it’s a good day or that make you feel like you’re doing something nice, something that you are passionate about. 

C: The most valuable thing out of it is that you can learn a lot. The internship is extremely hands on. You’re not just doing the boring tasks that no one wants to do. You’re really involved in the project and people want to hear your inputs on everything. 

An advice for potential candidate from my side is to be curious, because a lot of the times you work on a project that is already going on and everyone knows a lot about the client and if there’s a lot of teams or not so asking questions digging deep, trying to understand the project, trying to understand the client and being curious and kind of brave to explore different things. 

Thank you for your time and all the best for your future paths!