My life-changing international internship at Bayer
My name is Bruno Dück, I am a 27-year-old Brazilian and I started a summer internship at Bayer Strategy & Business Consulting (S&BC) in Germany in July 2020. My internship has been an extraordinary experience and so it would be selfish to keep it all to myself. After having studied abroad, Bayer was the first organization that gave me the opportunity to demonstrate my skills. I have therefore been thankful to Bayer ever since the interview process, during which my development potential and cultural fit was taken into consideration.
The interview process was smooth and clear. We had the opportunity to demonstrate our abilities both individually and in teams. During the interviews, the communication was very open and honest, and this is something I immediately appreciated about Bayer. The promises made beforehand about what an internship at Bayer S&BC would be like have indeed materialized. Bayer is extremely committed to the development of its workforce. In practice, this means that we as interns are offered mentoring sessions every two weeks, which play a crucial role in our development. These mentoring sessions are conducted with consultants outside of your project team to facilitate open communication, which is extremely important for honest self-assessment and development.
“The culture of open communication and feedback also extends to my project team.”
We have weekly meetings to check each other’s energy levels and share our thoughts on topics outside of the project scope such as efficient collaboration. Furthermore, everyone is open to holding one-on-one meetings if you ask for it. Such meetings can be very valuable, as you can expand your network of contacts even further while also learning about others’ backgrounds.
“The project helped me develop complementary new skills”
In the project, I have also been given responsibilities. I have been assigned to work on specific workstreams, e.g. to ensure their development is of the highest quality. Since I come from a more quantitative background (economics and finance), the project I was placed on at Bayer S&BC helped me develop complementary new skills such as effective communication. To sum up, the internship at Bayer S&BC has been an experience of a lifetime and helped me become a better professional at the job as well as a better leader for the future.
