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Life as an intern at Cactus in Brighton

Internship in Brig“Hello I’m Christina, the new Marketing intern.” The buzzer rang, the door was opened and a little nervous I went up the stairs for my first day at Cactus Language Training in Brighton.

I am studying International Relations and Management in Germany and it is part of my degree to do an internship abroad for five months. As I really enjoyed the Marketing lectures at university I decided to do an internship in this area. After looking through some vacant internship placements online, I found an internship advertisement which I liked the look of straight away. So I decided to try my luck and applied for it. Just a few days later I received an answer and we arranged a telephone interview. And here I am! This is my tenth week in the Marketing Department of Cactus Language Training here in Brighton, in the Southeast of the UK.

Brighton is a vibrant, young town which is a melting pot for people from all parts of the world. I have heard that some people call it “little London by the Sea”. There are many great places to visit like the Brighton Pier or the Marina. I really enjoy having a stroll through the Laines where you can find so many different little shops. In my opinion going to Brighton is a good choice and I am very glad that I made this decision.

It was a new experience for me to meet so many people from different countries. Many people who work in the Cactus Language office in Brighton are not from the UK but from Spain, France, Italy, Germany or Australia. It is very likely that people in this office speak more than two languages. So it is normal that you are surrounded by different accents and languages.

In addition, there are some international interns in the different departments of the company who are staying for various periods of time. So it was quite easy for me to get in contact with people of my age because we are in the same situation.

Making coffee, filing or doing the photocopying may come to mind when you think about an internship in a company. But with Cactus it is different. I was involved from day one and after a while more and more tasks have been given to me.

Cactus is on Facebook, Google +, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr and Pinterest.

One of my tasks is writing posts for Cactus’ social media sites. Every week the company promotes a different language and some interesting facts about the culture, the country, the people and the language itself. A big part of my week is used for doing research for these posts. As a result of this activity I have found out new, really interesting things on languages and different countries and cultures in general. For example, do you know the difference between European Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese? Or did you know how people in Spain celebrate New Year’s Eve?

I had no idea.

More and more course enquiries are coming through Facebook and Twitter and it is my task to answer them. In addition, I am responsible for uploading new content to Cactus’ social media sites. Each week one of our language teachers is featured and I post photos of current social events by Cactus. Furthermore we put together all the data from our social media pages and during my time here I have learned a lot about content management systems. I am using different programmes I haven’t even heard of before. I am really glad that I have had this experience and I think it’s great when you really enjoy your job and can pick up so many new things every day.

If you are looking for a great internship in a nice company in a beautiful, interesting city, I can totally recommend the Cactus Language Marketing department to you.

Cactus specialises in organising language courses for individuals and groups, having done so since 1999 for clients all over the globe and for diverse needs and budgets. Our expertise in the field of face-to-face tuition is second-to-none. With an extensive network of approved teachers and a strong in-house academic team, we are able to tailor a language course to suit your specific learning needs, anywhere in the world and whenever is convenient to you.

For more information about working at Cactus, please visit our Jobs page.