Meet Sanne Duba, a second-year IBCoM student and a close friend of mine. Her love for traveling, getting to know new people and learning new things in combination with her optimistic mindset ensures that she makes the most of her life in every aspect. She does not shy away from a challenge and her wide interests in terms of study, career, and free-time activities make sure that she will not get bored any time soon.
Because there were so many topics Sanne and I could talk about, deciding on a focus area for our interview became quite hard. However, with our eye on the approaching internship period for IBCoM’s second-year students and the extra difficulties they encounter due to Covid-19, I decided to mainly focus on Sanne’s search for an internship while connecting this to some important life lessons she has gained since the beginning of her IBCoM journey.
More open-minded than ever before
When asked about her experiences of being an IBCoM student, Sanne gets a big smile on her face. “If there is one thing I can say about my experience with IBCoM so far, it is that studying here has broadened my horizon. Every day I am interacting with inspiring people from different cultures and it has made me even more aware of the importance of diversity in different contexts. I have always been a good communicator, but how I interact with people has certainly improved since the start of my study”.
Because Sanne chooses to step out of her comfort zone as much as possible to gain new experiences, she not only learns a lot about others but also about herself. These insights and her ability to self-reflect are the building blocks to which Sanne returns to during busy periods or when facing challenges.
The search for an internship
Now that we are already a couple of weeks into term 3, the search for internships is becoming increasingly exciting for our second-year students. As for Sanne, this search has also been a little bit stressful and she had to drastically change her expectations once she realised that doing an internship abroad had almost become impossible. From an early age on, Sanne has dreamed of doing an internship in England and immersing herself in the British culture. When asking her how she feels about the fact that this would no longer be possible, Sanne says that she has accepted that her international experience will have to wait and that she is currently fully focussing on finding the perfect internship in the Netherlands.
“I chose international life but international life didn’t choose me. However, I know that there will be beautiful experiences and new adventures waiting for me once the world has become back to normal.”
What is helping her in her search for an internship is the fact that IBCoM is a varied and wide-ranging study. Because Sanne has a broad interest and has followed courses related to business, culture, politics as well as technology, she could be very versatile. Although Sanne finds a lot of things interesting, she recently discovered that her heart mainly lies with international relations. This is therefore the area on which she is focussing most during her current search for an internship.
“If you have the right mindset and really want to go for it, you can choose a direction that suits you, even if it doesn’t fit the more standard IBCoM directions like social media or marketing. For example, I found out that I find international relations very interesting and I want to choose more seminars and electives related to this in my third year.”
For future students as well as other second-year students who are currently finding themselves in the middle of their search for an internship, Sanne would like to remind them that it is okay if their search for an internship or even their personal development process is not going as they had in mind. Do not put the bar too high for yourself and just try to get as many different impressions as possible. In this way, you will be able to find out what it is that most inspires you on both a professional and a personal level and you will carry these insights with you for the rest of your life.
Author: Itske van den Braak
Editor: Gwendolyne Cheung
Illustrator: Roos de Waard