A Day in the Life of: Communications Intern Raili Laansalu

My co-students and I always joke about who brings the most coffee and does the most scanning at their internship. Well, even though coffee (drinking) and scanning take up some time at my internship,  it is not all I do at the ASC.

As part of my Media and Entertainment Management studies I am required to complete an internship in an organisation and position of my choice. I chose to do my internship at the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) in the communications and events department. I will spend the next seven months in the city centre of Utrecht working together with a small team to make this world a bit better place.

Daily life

I am currently in my third month of the internship and I can assure you, it has flown by in the blink of an eye. My day-to-day work consists of a variety of tasks, because in communications and events, almost every situation requires a personal approach.

I communicate daily with certified farms, media publishers and individuals about multiple aspects of the ASC programme.  One of my main tasks is planning, monitoring and updating the ASC social media accounts and making sure the webpage is current. Sometimes I write an ASC blog post, or review articles and press releases before they are published to the website.

Every year ASC attends several seafood expos around the world, and each event needs months of planning and preparation. This is where I also jump in. I take care of whatever is needed to make the events as successful as possible.  For example, I make designs for flyers and documents, and make sure the promotional materials are there on time for the events.

Additionally, I design ASC newsletters, certification updates, and other informative documents, which I send out to our subscribers, media publishers and stakeholders.

Getting to communicate with people is the thing I most enjoy about my job.  It is great to work with people who have respect and appreciation for what we do and who are not afraid to give you compliments every once in a while. Receiving good feedback from our stakeholders is definitely the best part of the day and it also keeps me motivated. As I have keen interest in audiovisual media, I also enjoy making designs and working with photos and videos to use at events and as part of our media plan.

Day One

When I think back to day one at ASC, I remember everything was completely new.  I had never worked in such a position or organisation before and, of course, I was nervous about how it would work out. I was given a lot of information about my new responsibilities and tasks on that first day and throughout the whole first week. By the end of the second week, I already remembered almost everything and was able to work on my own. There are still some situations which are unknown for me— as I mentioned before, in communications you never know what is coming for you— but all in all I can say I feel pretty well settled in the position by now.

ASC

There are many reasons why I enjoy working at ASC, but one of the main ones is definitely the warm and caring atmosphere. As our team is rather small, everyone has the opportunity to get to know each other, work together and learn from each other. The team has lunch and coffee breaks together, and celebrate important events in each other lives together. One other thing that connects the people working at ASC is definitely their interest in environmental issues, as I can see that people do their jobs with passion and really care about the outcome of what they do.

I would recommend that anyone interested in doing an internship at ASC have an open mind, good attitude, an interest in environmental issues and, of course, enthusiasm to work in a small team with motivated people.