Stockholm School of Economics in Riga Students' Magazine

This summer I was given an opportunity to have my internship in Procter & Gamble in a country I had never been to or spoke the language of - Poland. It was one of the most active summers I've had and I loved it! Now, let me tell you about it!

I got an internship in Procter & Gamble Marketing in Warsaw and I was there for one and a half months to work on several projects and to study marketing and brand management principles at work in real life. As many of you know P&G is a firm who invented the brand management concept as early as in the 1930s and has continuously developed it further so it was merely natural choice for a marketing person like me to go there.

Now you might ask why did I choose to go to Warsaw? Warsaw is the capital of Poland, one of the capitals of Eastern European region, has close to 3 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area and is two times bigger than Riga. Every firm who wants to be a major player in the Easter European market is present there. I chose to apply for P&G because their internships are demanding and offer me an opportunity to challenge myself.

I was working on Always brand in Femine Care category. Yes, that means working with pads, tampons and pantyliners. Don't get me wrong, it was worth it! Before you get any strange thoughts let me tell you that I was not selling pads to department stores or brainstorming about the new possible ways of using a pad. Instead I was organizing a set of promotional Always OverNight Party events to teenage girls over Poland. Doesn't sound so bad at all, does it? Moreover I was given full responsibility of the tasks I did and I had to take over the organizational side for my individual projects pretty much from day one.

What exactly was I doing? During the period I was given three tasks, one was an analytical project, one was an organizational project which constitues a part of next year's new product upgrade marketing campaign and the third one was an execution project, where I was able to get a hands on experience how things are done during a marketing campaign. So I tried out all the main phases of marketing and branding in P&G.

The internship itself was very challenging - we had a week long introductory period with lots of team-building, going out and partying of course. I was expected to take initiative and be very pro-active from day one. I had to organize introductory meetings with many people across the different functions of the organization (who were to be involved in my projects of course). I even had to host videoconference meetings to P&G's headquarters in Geneva. In addition every intern has its Brand Manager (BM), who is committed to support you during the internship. The BM is a mentor who not only oversees your performance, but actively provides you 360 degree feedback and is concerned about your performance and success during the internship. All this, despite the challenges ahead me, motivated me to maximize my efforts during the internship. The internship ends with a final presentation of all your doing during the summer in P&G. It was a lot of fun and work - funwork!

Marten and the Varsovians 

Warsaw is a huge city and has impressive city centre including the all-famous Palace of Science and Culture, has very groovy clubs and one of the best Kebab places in Europe.

During my stay there I was living with one of the interns, Borys, who was a veeery outgoing person. During my first weekend I randomly got a stage pass ticket to Poland's biggest open air festival simply because Borys knew a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy, who plays World of Warcraft. And the Warcraft guy just happened to be the person responsible for the press tickets to Heineken Open Air festival. Super! I was part of the press that weekend. Actually Borys also knew a guy who got us free sleepover at a house as well. Another fun fact was that Borys' brother plays in a rather famous hardcore punk band, so I had the chance to drink some beer with the gig guys outside Warsaw and got a chance to try out his father's 550hp 91' Corvette. 

Warsaw with its post-soviet architecture, vast city size and open parks hides very many awesome places of interest such as bars, parks and memorials. the best bars to go are definitely Plan B or Pawilony, the last one reminding me a mixture of an old shack and a 70s soviet flat. God, I still miss that place! 

Poland is a lovely country - the other weekend I took the time off and went to Krakow, Czech Republic and Slovakia with an Estonian friend who was visiting me. That was awesome! For starters the landscape of the Silesian mountains in Southern Poland, the city of Krakow, the Orava lake in Slovakia, the narrow mountainside roads, Czech police-car following us for 100km... ending with one of the most random nights I've ever had in a post apocalyptic dungeon-like Krakovian night club with 3 Australians, 2 Swedes, 1 Romanian, 1 Moroccon and an Irish guy... quite interesting indeed. And the beer in Poland is very good as well. 

During my stay in Poland I randomly picked up golfing. The story goes like this. One day in the pub I was making fun of Iwona, a blonde girl, that golf is not really a sport. Apparently she decided to prove me wrong so she took me out to teach some golfing. Not bad! It is actually quite fun to see those small balls fly far and high.

The internship summer taught me a lot! I got an opportunity to see and feel how an international organization functions, I got a chance to put myself to a test, I got a chance to really stretch my capabilities. I met many new and interesting people, I was totally alone when I got there a mere month earlier and I had many new friends among other interns and employees when I left. That was a great experience. I am encouraging all of you to think out of the box, to think out of Baltics and really try to challenge the settings you normally are in. Don't hesitate to try going for P&G, it’s a good choice of career! :)

by Marten Orgna