Internship

INTERNSHIP IN LONDON (PART 1)

It has been really complicated finding somewhere to work in London. I have dropped a lot of CVs all around the city and had plenty of negative answers (or rather no answers). But eventually thanks to an English family friend, I have found a first internship in a company named Silversea Cruises. This company organises luxury cruises aboard its different ships.

During my first day at Silversea Cruises I was introduced to the entire team, about 30 persons. As it is a travel agency, there are people from all over the world. Then I was introduced to the business. Mr Bonner, the general manager in the office, presented me a PowerPoint about Silversea Cruises. He insisted on several points:

-        On cruises market, Silversea is positioned luxury. But I was told many cruises company claimed they were luxury positioned, so Silversea positioned itself high luxury.

-        Ships sizes are rather small (smaller than other ships) and the number of guests is reduced (from 296 for the smallest to 540 for the biggest). The aim of having small ships is to access some places other cruises ships are not able to go. And the reduced number of guests is to create a sort of exclusivity, by giving all of them luxury ocean-view suites.

-        Silversea Cruises proposes an All Inclusive system. This is unique in this sector.

About the life in the office, all has gone well. Everyone is very kind and there is a very good atmosphere. They are laughing a lot; they often come to talk with me friendlily. The office in itself is really modern and very soothing. I am working in an open space situated at the centre of the office with other people, and all around this open space is set boss offices, meeting rooms and kitchen.

As an intern I am part of the documentations department. I am sorting files, entering customers’ data on the computer, printing and sending cruises tickets at the customers’ addresses or at the one of the travel agency they book with. This sound pretty common but there is a really interesting part in my job which is to prepare those cruises tickets as I have to make research on the client, which travel has he booked (because there are about 30 possible travel to do), which suite has he chose, has he booked an airplane ticket to go to the pier on the ship’s departure date and so on.  To help me and show me how it works I am under two young women’s supervision.  There is another intern working with me, he is Italian, and 20 years old like me.

Next week I am going to work in another company, “Travel places” based in the centre of London as well. This is going to be a hardworking job as it is related to the Olympic Games.