Getrude Manda

My work experience

February 6th 2017 marked my first day at Mediaschneider, I was welcomed with flowers, a card signed by everyone in the office and all sorts of gifts. This instantly made me feel like part of the team. Despite the language barrier, most of my work mates tried to speak English with me and helped translate my work from German to English. At first I had no idea what to do or even how to do it, but within a week or two I had grasped it all. I had the opportunity of visiting different departments within Mediaschneider, interacting and learning from different people, I even got the opportunity to visit client’s offices such as Swisscom, Beyer and Swiss Airlines.

During my internship, I also had the opportunity to have two mentors (Iva Uzunov and Viola Riesen) from different departments, namely AD operations and media planning, and this gave me the chance to learn two different jobs. I learnt so much at Mediaschneider that I am sure it will help me a lot in the future.

I travelled to Austria with the Mediaschneider team on a ski weekend, where I tried skiing and sledging in the snow, this gave me the chance to get to interact and get to know my colleagues on a personal level. Towards the end of my internship, I got to travel to Paris with my mentor and the experience was one I would not mind repeating.

home away from home

It is amazing to see just how welcoming and open-minded my hosts were to a total stranger like me. I had the opportunity of living with three different swiss families during my stay in Switzerland. I admit that the first time I learnt I would have to switch host families I was a bit sceptical about it, but it gave me the chance to meet new people and create bonds I didn’t think were even possible. From my arrival at the airport, where I was met with warm smiles, to the last day of my stay in Switzerland, I was shown so much love and care that for a minute I forgot I was home sick.

My first hosts were Franziska (host mum) and Isabella (her daughter). My host mum reminded me so much of my own mother because of how well she took care of me. She is one of the hardest workers I know. Franziska showed me a different side of Switzerland, which you cannot see in pictures or read on the internet. She introduced me to her family and friends and made me feel like part of the family. She always had an idea of what we could do on the weekend when I had no plans and always encouraged me to find ways to spend time with the other interns. We went to the mountains together, Basel, tours around Zurich and even to the Ticino and Italy for the Easter weekend with her family. Because she knows how much I love football she took me to a football match between Basel and Zurich, which was one of my best moments during my stay in Switzerland.

I also had the opportunity to live with Remo and Jeannine, a young couple living in Zurich. Even though I only stayed with them for a week, I feel like I have known them all my life. They are such fun and loving people, I could not stop laughing and having fun around them. What amazed me about them is the interest they showed in knowing more about me and where I come from. We would have long talks during and after dinner about anything that came to mind. They took me to the zoo once and we took a boat cruise on Lake Zurich together which was an amazing experience.

In the last two weeks of my stay in Switzerland, I lived with Leandra and Jonathan, yet another young couple who took great care of me. We always joked about how I would be there first child together. They showed so much interest in learning about Zambia that we decided to prepare “Nshima” which is Zambia’s staple.

Going to a country where I didn’t know anyone and didn’t even speak any of the native languages was scary for a 20 year old like me but I learnt so much in those three months that all I can say is “it was worth it”.