Viktoria’s internship experience at Customer Alliance

Viktoria Mosaidou, originally from Salonica, Greece, studies Communication Design at the BTK – Hochschule für Gestaltung – in Berlin. After six months working with Customer Alliance, Viktoria, our lovely design intern, said goodbye to us in order to continue her studies. However, before she left, we asked her to share her impressions and feelings regarding her experience as a Customer Alliance intern. Here is our interview with her:

When did you start with Customer Alliance and in which department?

I applied for the Graphic Design Internship in the Communications & UX Department at Customer Alliance. I started working in October 2015 for a period of six months.

What were your responsibilities?

I was supporting Henriette, our Senior Designer. I had to make sure that the Customer Alliance design guidelines were properly applied everywhere within all the materials and resources that Customer Alliance is promoting. My biggest challenge was to interact with other departments. This is something that really helped me to communicate with other colleagues, that are doing something completely different from what I’m doing. Before, I didn’t know that the design department was so interconnected with other departments.

How did you learn about Customer Alliance?

I was looking for a Graphic Design Internship and I wanted to stay in Berlin, as my University is also located here. In the end, I found it through Google. I did some research on their webpage and on social media, and I felt that it was a company where I could learn a lot. At first it was very challenging for me, because Customer Alliance is not a graphic design-based company. However, it puts emphasis on creating amazing designs for the Hospitality Industry. That’s why I felt like I could learn many new things apart from graphic design, which in the end was a big plus.

What did you like the most about working for Customer Alliance?

The team atmosphere. Also that I learned a lot, of course, but in almost every internship you learn something. That’s fact. What I really liked is that I felt welcomed since the first day I came here; and, although there are so many employees, still they manage to keep an easy going atmosphere. I thought working at Customer Alliance was going to be only office-based, but there were a lot of activities we were doing together encouraging a friendly environment. This helps you a lot when working, because you feel more comfortable within the team. Everyone is open to feedback and helping you to improve. Furthermore, Henriette, my supervisor here, taught me many design processes and showed me plenty of resources I didn’t know about before. It was an amazing experience.

Would you recommend this experience to other interns looking for a job?

Yes, definitely. I think everyone who is looking for an internship here, whatever the department is, will learn more than what they applied for. The main reason is the interrelation of the departments. For instance, for some projects, I was working with the IT team. From them I learned some programming too, which I was not expecting to discover. This made it a very enriching experience. Because it’s an internship – where we are supposed to gather experiences to find what we want to do – it’s nice to have all these influences, so that in the end, you can find your path by looking in multiple directions. More is always better for the learning experiences!

So what comes after your internship at Customer Alliance? What are your plans?

As I said, I’m going to go back to university to finish my studies. Thanks to the experience here, I feel like I learned a lot about project management and about many design elements that I didn’t know before, and I feel like I really have a very good basis to finish my degree. Once I’ve finished my studies I would like to stay in Berlin for some time in order to improve my portfolio and connect with the rest of the creatives living in the city. When I think is time for me to start looking for a job, I’ll take the first step. In the meanwhile, I want to travel and combine this with gathering more design-experience. Go and explore how design is implemented in other parts of the world. Thank you, Customer Alliance, for being such an important stepping stone for my future career.

And thank you, Viktoria, for having been part of our team for these amazing six months

Are you interested in joining the Customer Alliance team? Learn about career and internship opportunities from the Careers section of our website.