internship

Field of Study: Marketing Communication and Advertising

After one year of study at Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia, Simona began pursuing her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Economics in Katowice, Poland. Locus Workspace is Simona’s third internship at a coworking space, so she has a lot to say about the coworking environment and community. Her official title is Community and Event Manager, a position with an array of responsibilities through which she hopes to gain significant knowledge and experience.

I started out my university education wanting to study graphic design. In Slovakia, there are many universities specializing in graphic design alone, but I wanted to expand my options for future careers. Since I was a bit unsure about pursuing graphic design, I chose to study Marketing Communication and Advertising. I also wanted to acquire an education that would set me up for a career in event planning or management, as I was also interested in this area of study at the time.

Unfortunately, I found my first university to be insufficient for what I really wanted out of my education – practical work experience that would prepare me for post-graduate life. Three internships later, I think I gained quite a bit of practical experience. You might be surprised to hear this, but a majority of my university peers did not participate in an internship like I did. I would encourage more people to participate in internships. I feel that they are essential to gaining certain skills applicable to the work force. At Locus in particular, I feel like I can build these skills in an environment that is already both friendly and familiar to me.

At my previous internships, I worked on graphic design and social media, but I believe Locus will help me reach my full potential in ways that these past internships couldn’t. While I found each of the coworking spaces I interned at to be community oriented, I feel most at home at Locus Workspace. Here, I can learn more in terms of technical skills, in addition to the soft skills I am building in communication. Locus hosts events that enable its members to learn of each other’s various careers and cultural backgrounds. Since Locus is a predominantly English speaking coworking space, I get the chance to practice my English often. The best part about this is that I am gratefully met with an understanding and encouraging community.

I hope to improve my management and promotional skills through my position as Community and Event Manager. I think tasks like promoting events and organizing meetings will help me further develop these skills. Also, I hope to gain more certainty about my future career by being exposed to the diverse community members at Locus.

In addition to making sure the space at Locus is both presentable and comfortable, I am  responsible for communicating with both members and non-members who come to me with a variety of inquiries. I also promote our events, such as Jelly!, our free tour opportunity where anyone can visit the space and spend a day as a member with no actual commitment to the company (for those eager to sign up now, follow this link: https://en.locusworkspace.cz/free-day). Besides these responsibilities, I am in charge of promoting and planning weekly and monthly Locus events. This sometimes includes preparing and directing events as well. I’d like to think my efforts help create and maintain the Locus environment I have grown to love.

At my previous internships, I enjoyed the experience of coworking spaces. To me, they embodied what a coworking space should – cultural diversity, occupation diversity, and a close knit community. I think a coworking space should be far from a stereotypical office job where you are a stranger to those around you. Locus is already a space where I am comfortable and simultaneously productive. In the next few weeks, I imagine things will run smoothly and I will only enjoy being a part of the Locus community more and more.

I cannot say enough how welcoming and understanding everyone in the office at Locus is and has been from the very start of my internship. I have learned a lot in the three weeks that I have been here and I already feel confident in responding to any questions members or nonmembers may have. There is no stress to burden my mind or interrupt my productivity when I walk into the office – something I am very happy I can say.

Lenka Černáková was a community manager at Locus for almost a year, and we’re very happy to announce that she came back this summer!

Lenka recently shared her personal experience of what it’s like to work and be a part of a coworking space, writing a guest blog post for The Global Mobile Worker, a blog about the future of work (that happens to have been created by another Locus member, the amazing Robin Terrell).

We’re reposting it here because it’s a nice story about what it’s like to work at a coworking space, and particularly at Locus, and we hope it will be useful for people thinking about doing this kind of work in the future. 

Thank you, Robin, for letting us repost, and thanks most of all to you, Lenka, for sharing your story with others who might soon be in your shoes!

This semester we count with 2 new interns! Keep reading to know some more about them 🙂