Every year we put our heart and soul into our Global Talent Internship Program, and 2020 was no exception. As COVID-19 spread around the world, the lockdown was enforced, university lectures and events were cancelled, and many of students began to wonder whether their grants and internships might be affected. Many questions were begged: how would the students about to join up fare? How would the lockdown affect the internships that had already been awarded?

Without doubt the situation of social isolation impinged heavily on the programs designed for the career development of our internees. We in the People department therefore had to think quickly on our feet to ensure our internship program could proceed in the form of teletraining. We tweaked the allocations, rethought the learning and collaboration activities, offering our students flexibility to continue their education as distance learning. We kept up the program monitoring and tutoring activities by means of team leaders. In fact, since the start of the pandemic we have offered 100 distance-learning internships to students from over 5 different countries.

This is the first year that our internship program has gone virtual, but what it means to be a GMV internee has not changed at all. We want our budding talent to continue learning, enjoy what they’re doing and apply their knowledge to a real situation before pursuing their careers in an international environment. Our program offers students priceless experience, learning from top sector professionals, to help them find their feet in the working world.

Participants during 2020 in GMV’s Global Talent Internship Program give their testimonies about their internship experience during the pandemic in different parts of the world.

TESTIMONIES:

Paloma Llorente (Spain):

«I began my internship in early February in the Flight Dynamics and Operations department, where the working environment is brilliant. I loved going to work and spending time in the office with my colleagues. The situation soon changed, however, and the lockdown brought in teletraining procedures. Both my line boss and the whole team continued helping me with my master’s degree final project, making sure the pandemic did not upset my learning process and career development during these lockdown months. It turned out to be a great experience, which I have since turned to good account in my current job as GMV aerospace engineer».

André Leitão Ginja (Portugal):

«I started my adventure in GMV in the Intelligent Transport Systems department with a summer internship. Later on I was given the chance to develop my master’s thesis as an intern in the Secure e-Solutions department, where I am acquiring a lot of knowledge about the Business Rules integration on a Public Illumination management system. On the other hand, I find it encouraging how the company is dealing with the current epidemical situation and providing me the best experience it can provide.

Also, despite the lockdown, communication is not a problem and I feel that I am learning and collaborating in a transparent and pleasant environment».

Sebastian-Augustin Gaga (Romania):

«Being an intern who remotely interacted with an international team was both a challenging and rewarding experience. From learning each other’s local traditions and time-zones to understanding each other’s habits and schedules, I managed to optimise my team-work skills and to have a good collaboration with my mentor and teammates. To perform well as an intern in such an environment, communication is the key. During the internship, one of my main goals was to gather knowledge and tips from everyone and to learn as much as I can from the people around me, because I knew I had a lot to learn from this experience and from the people around me. From JavaScript, Angular, Java and C# to Python, SQL, Docker and Linux, being a Full Stack Engineer Intern really helped me improve my coding skills and become more familiar with the software development process in an Agile environment».

It is obvious that COVID-19 has changed the world, but with a positive outlook, students have had the opportunity to face new challenges, adapting perfectly to the new situation.

Thanks to everyone for your enthusiasm and dedication!

People.