Marketing and Sales Intern Clayton
My name is Clayton Coombs and I am 22 years old. I am currently studying the course International Business at the HAN – University of Applied Sciences. These last 5 months I have been working behind the scenes in the sales department as a Marketing & Sales intern at Dynaf, location Curaçao.
Expanding cultural horizons
A goal of mine has always been to visit my home country at least once. My study at the HAN, International Business, has a criterion that a student must go abroad at least once during his or her 4-year study to experience a new culture. I saw this as the perfect opportunity to do what I have always wanted, learn to speak Papiamentu and to experience my culture from up close. Lately, my interest in sustainability had grown and I was lucky enough to stumble upon Dynaf, which was a perfect match for me considering the products and services that they offer.
The search for creativity
I chose the specialization Marketing & Sales, because I have always been interested, in what I view as the more creative aspects, “How do I sell products”, “With the help of creating visuals, how can I convince people to buy products”. My study was very centred around the theoretical part of Marketing & Sales, but we, or I at least, experienced that we spent little time on working on certain projects that sparked that creative side of me.
Diving into the depths
In my time here I was responsible for a lot of projects regarding content creation. You may have seen and liked a couple of posts that I uploaded on Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram. Before my arrival here I was completely unfamiliar with designer applications and did not know how it worked at all. Luckily, I was properly introduced to the company which allowed me to start producing content a few weeks later. I immediately noticed that I was not treated like an intern, but as an actual employee. If I needed something I had to go and get it and they did not hesitate at all to give me tasks. Here at Dynaf I learned how to communicate and work with people from Curaçao in a business environment. I grew up in the Netherlands and can say that there is a difference. Second, I learned how to keep my head above the surface. Like I mentioned earlier, they treat you as an actual employee, if you face problems, it is expected that you do your best to fix them yourself, but this does not necessarily mean alone. Third, I learned how to work with several applications that are used for content creation. Last, I learned how to be more proactive. I am seen as an employee and that is how I had to operate. Get in there and do it or get stuck.
If I look back at the last five months, I can say that I really enjoyed it. It is a very nice company, with interesting products and a very fun team to work with. An internship at Dynaf, I would recommend it!