Oriflame Summer Internship

12. Home in Sweden with reflections

Publicerad 2017-08-14 10:42:00 i Allmänt

Hi! 

Now I have been home in Sweden for a little more than one week. When I look back at my eight weeks’ internship experience it feels almost unreal. During eight intensive weeks I had the opportunity to learn a whole lot about Oriflame and how retailing and sales work, but also about truly having fun at work and enjoying what you do. In the same way as Anton I would like to advise everyone that is ready for an adventurous internship experience to apply for Oriflame’s Summer Internship in 2018. It’s something that I will never regret.

 
The last Thursday of my internship I got surprised with a goodbye celebration - we had cake and I even got a present, a necklace protecting me from bad spirits, that will remind me of my time in Istanbul. I feel so lucky to have had the opportunity to meet warm people that have taken really good care of me and that have become my dear friends over this time. We will see each other again when(not if) I come back to Istanbul!
Thank you so much for this wonderful experience Oriflame!

12. Last day of the internship in Moscow

Publicerad 2017-08-04 18:51:00 i Anton in Russia

Hello!

Today is my last day at Oriflame in Moscow. I had my final presentation on Wednesday and it was rewarding to let my colleagues take part of my findings. I just had a farewell fika with my colleagues, which was nice but a bit sad.

It has been an exciting summer here at Oriflame. I’ve learned a lot about marketing and communications and significantly increased my proficiency in these areas. I’ve not only learned about current trends in these areas but also a lot about campaign planning, segmenting and conceptualization in marketing activities. It’s been very developing to follow the work in the team apart of my own project.

It has been an honor to work with all talented Oriflamians at the regional head office. One of the most motivating factors is to work together with other motivated and talented individuals. I had the opportunity to do so her and I’m immensely grateful for that.

I recommend anyone to apply for Oriflame Global Summer Internship 2018. You will get learn new things, take responsibility and experience some exciting place somewhere in the world. Stay tuned on the corporate website for when the applications open by the end of this year!

 Good bye fika with the team. Or those not on vacation at least!

Now it’s time for me to go on vacation and spend some time with my sister, who flew in the day before yesterday!

Happy summer everyone!

/Anton

11. Final presentation and Celebration

Publicerad 2017-08-02 21:55:00 i Allmänt

Hi! 
 
Today I had my last presentation for Oriflame Turkey's CEO, Johan, and the Marketing and Financial Directors. Right before the presentation it was shortened into one hour instead of two - so we only had time to go through half of the presentation, but we will continue tomorrow morning for an additional hour. Tomorrow I will also present my findings to the Category Team here in Turkey. So faar the feedback has been great though which makes me very glad. 
 
After the presentation I meet a friend, that I meet during my time here, for lunch at the great restaurant Sousa in the nearby mall. We had a great lunch and said goodbye and I went back to the office. I belive and sincerly hope that we will meet again in the future! After lunch I had to do some additional slides to add to the presentation that the CEO wanted. The afternoon went by quickly and after finishing work it was time for dinner together to celebrate the time here and the projects (half)final presentation. 
 
Me and my friend Gigi that I had lunch with today and another friend, Robin from Scottland. 
 
One of the amazing Bosphorous views of Istanbul. Tomorrow will be my last full day here in Turkey. I better prepare for it with a good nights sleep. 
 
/Emilia

10. Last week in Istanbul

Publicerad 2017-07-31 21:45:39 i Allmänt

Today I began my last week of my internship here in Istanbul. This internship has been an adventure and I have learned a lot about Oriflame, Istanbul, Turkish culture, product categories and to work in an other country. It is with mixed feelings that I will leave for Sweden on Friday. On one hand I look forward to some vacation and seeing my family and boyfriend, but on the other I will miss Istanbul where everyday brings knew knowledge and surprises.

 

This week I have my final presentation for our Turkey CEO, Johan, and I will be working on finishing everything in the best possible way until then. Today I received additional feedback from our marking manager, Muge, which helps me improve my presentation. I'm very grateful for her enthusiasm and help. I keep my fingers crossed for a successful final presentation on Wednesday!

This weekend I took the opportunity to do some shopping, suntanning and visiting some of the places that I have really come to like here in Istanbul. I went to my two favourite breakfast places, Mangerie and Aheste and had turkish breakfast.I went suntanning and swimming in a pool with a friend. I went to the really nice areas Besiktas and Karaköy for some food and shopping. And I walked the beach promenade by the Bosphorous. I have come to like Istanbul a lot and will definitly be back in the future.Pancakes at Aheste

Bosphorous view on the bridge by EminönuBebek beach promenade

/Emilia 

 
 

11. Friend visited and end presentation coming up

Publicerad 2017-07-31 20:55:00 i Anton in Russia

Hello hello!

Lately, I’ve been finalizing the end presentation of my project and my dear friend Andreas visited over the weekend.

Visit from my friend Andreas

My friend Andreas flew in last Thursday and stayed until early Monday morning. There has been plenty of roof top bars, good food and drinks. He arrived Thursday afternoon and we just went out for food in the evening. He spent the Friday river cruising and walking around in the city center while I was at work. In the evening, we went out for food and drinks. Before we called it an evening we took a drink at Kalina Bar, which has a good view of the city.

 View from Kalina Bar.
 

Saturday, we went to VDNHa, which is a large park with fountains, weird Soviet pavilions and a large green territory. We rented a couple of bikes to go around, which was nice. However, unfortunately the park is getting an extreme makeover renovation this year so basically the whole park except the green territory is a construction site. In the evening, we went out for some dinner and drinks together with my girlfriend. We ended the evening at O2 Bar, which is located on top of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel right next to the Kremlin. The view is unbeatable!

 Andreas in front of the Kosmonaut monument in VDNHa.
 Fountain in VDNHa.
 SU-27 Flanker on display in VDNHa.
 Andreas and Lolita at Karlson Restaurant.
View from O2 Bar of The Four Seasons Hotel, Old City Hall and the Kremlin.

The visit was rounded off with a trip to Sanduny, the oldest public banya here. Founded in 1808 it is still in the game. Nice way to relax on a Sunday afternoon.

Now  it’s time for me to return to my preparations of my final presentation, which is due on Wednesday!

/Anton

9. Hang out with colleagues

Publicerad 2017-07-25 15:12:00 i Allmänt

Hi!
 
Last week me and My boyfriend had lunch together with my colleagues, Turkan and Özgur from Turkey and Izabela from Poland. We eat at the really nice mall that is right next to the office, called Kanyon. Me and my boyfriend tried a traditional Turkish dish that is almost like Italian tortellini. Here it is a dish that almost every resturant have it's own version of, but most common filled with meat together with a cream sauce. However, I tried one version filled with abugine which I found delicious, but a bit heavy.

 

Izabela has gone on vacation now and will not be back here until I have left. She has been a great friend at the office sitting right next to me. Since I only know a few Turkish words, it has been really nice to have somebody at the office that speaks English all the time. I will truly miss her and her enregy!

But before she went for vacation, me, Izabela and Özgur decided to go for a dinner together this Monday. We went to a really nice area just by the sea side, called Bebek. We ate in a resurant just by the water(Acctually on the water), with amazing veiw and had a really nice time! 


/Emilia

10. Great weekend and the end is closing in

Publicerad 2017-07-24 17:29:53 i Anton in Russia

Hello everyone!

The last week in Moscow has finally granted us good weather. At least most of the time. I have been working on my final presentations, wrapping things up. This is my second last week here, which is a bit sad.

I’ve kept on exploring Moscow’s burger scene after work. There is still a sea of obscure burger place to tryout. This Thursday evening, I tried a pretty new place called “Predator’ in Russian. It is a copy of another very popular burger chain. The burger was however really tasty so they passed my test!

 The burger was good.

On Friday, me and Lolita went to listen to some classical music in Moscow’s catholic cathedral. It was beautiful to listen to live performances of classical composers such as Bach, Dvorak, Sibelius among others.

In the cathedral waiting for the concert to start.
 
 
Moscow's catholic cathedral.

Now the week goes on and I’m going to make the best out of my remaining time here!

/Anton

8. Project presentation coming up

Publicerad 2017-07-23 20:24:00 i Allmänt

This week has been very busy since I will have my first project presentation for our marketing manager on Tuesday next week. I have worked long hours and also worked a bit on Saturday. I still have a few things that I would like to finish before the project presentation. I hope that I will have time to finish everything in the way I want on Monday. 

 Me by the Bosphorus

Today, Sunday, I have been visiting one of my colleagues, Turkan, and her family. They live in Uskudar on the Asian side of Istanbul. Turkan and her son welcomed me by harbor in Uskudar at 12.30 and we went to the market to shop some fresh fish for our lunch.

Me and Turkans son

Uskudar was a lovely part of Istanbul with a lot of coulourful streets and nice people. It felt like I finally got the chance to see some genuine Turkish culture today. I helped Turkan to prepare the lunch(I have really missed to be able to cook since I live in a hotel for the summer) and I got an cook book with Turkish dishes(in English) in present from the family. I'm looking forward to try some of the recipes when I come back to Sweden and my kitchen. After the lunch me and Turkan's family went for coffee by the bosphorus and talked about cultural differences, politics and life in general. 

Me and Turkans family by the dinner table

I had a really nice time. Thank you so much Turkan with family for having me! :) 

/Emilia

7. Week of visiting

Publicerad 2017-07-17 22:31:00 i Allmänt

Hi!

While my boyfriend was here I really got the opportunity to see the city together with someone that hadn't been here before as well. We both like to explore new places an try new restaurants together so we had a great week here together. During the weekends we spent the entire days together, but during the weekdays my boyfriend slept in, walked around in the city and planned some evening activities. In the evenings we went walking in different areas of the city and tried out a lot of roof tops. Istanbuls number of roof tops is unbelievable and the city and Bosphorous views are amazing.
On Wednesday we went to a roof top bar in the Besiktas area which was on top of a huge hotel. We ate a really cute plate with small Turkish specialties and a traditional cheese platter and enjoyed a jazz band that plays there every Wednesday.
On Saturday we went to have breakfast at a really nice terass in Bebek just by the Bosphorous - I must really say that the Turkish people know their breakfast. After a long brunch we waled a while by the Bosphorous. The walking lane was really nice and we walked for a long time eventually trying to find a park until we ended up by a big highway and had to take a cab home unless we didn't want to walk all the way back again. A good thing with some exercising though!
 
 
Today it is Monday and my boyfriend left Istanbul and I will be able to fully devote myself to my project which I will need since the presentation deadlines are coming up. Wish me luck! :)

/Emilia

9. Trend workshop and Friday dinner

Publicerad 2017-07-15 10:36:00 i Allmänt

Hello!

Trend workshop on Thursday

Yesterday I attended a workshop on market trends. We spent the whole afternoon reading up on new trends and brainstorming new ideas. It was a lot of fun. Twice a year such workshops are arranged to make people here stay in touch with the demand on the market. Around 25 people attended and we got to take part of current trends both in the consumer as well as competitor area. It was interesting to take part of what’s going on. I had already heard of most of the trends since this is what I’ve spent a lot of time working on here.  We spent time in small groups to brainstorm new ideas. It was fun and I think some there were plenty of feasible ideas generated that day! 

Good hamburger afterwork

 There is a high prevalence of good burger places in Moscow.
 
This Friday I went out for a good burger afterwork. Many who hasn't been to Moscow don't know that the restaurant scene is rather good. Especially, when it comes to more trendy things. The burger trend came to Moscow before Stockholm and the supply is just immensely better here.
 
/Anton

6. New week and new project

Publicerad 2017-07-11 21:29:16 i Allmänt

Hi!
 
Last week was my fourth week at the Istanbul office and I started a second project. The first project, regarding analyzing margins of the products here in Turkey, has had some data access issues, so I needed to have something else to focus on while waiting. I am happy for that since I now get to do a market research and competitor analysis project for some specifc products as well. I started the project with gathering information about the market and its actors. I will continue to visit stores to gather data regarding competitors for the competitive analysis and do interviews in focus group format. This weekn I am also continuing with the margin project and are currently making estimates of the data that we are missing - this to be able to continue with analyses in the project soon. 
 
Photos of me with my Polish collegue Iza at one of our local fish restaurants near the office. 
 
This weekend my boyfriend joined me here in Istanbul - I'm really happy about having him here for a while and will write another post about what we did this weekend tomorrow. 
 
/Emilia
 

8. Graduation ball on the Moscow river

Publicerad 2017-07-10 19:14:00 i Anton in Russia

This Friday I went to my girlfriend’s graduation ball on the Moscow river. After another week with intense rain and low temperatures it was nice with a moment of celebrations, food and dance.

 Just arrived to the boat.

I took off from work around 18:00 on Friday afternoon and met up with Lolita at Kievskiy Vokzal, one of the major railway stations, at 18:45. The boat was waiting for everyone down by the pier. I had put on a dark suit for the occasion. The invitation said black tie but I thought I could get away with an ordinary suit. I was right since there were only artsy and theatrical people at the ball and most people of them have probably never had a reason to dress up in a smoking. One girl had even misunderstood what black tie meant and came to the ball in a black dress and a black whip(?!) as accessory. :) At 20:00 the boat took off and cruised along the Moscow river for a couple of hours. There were speeches, a lot of them before they served the food. The student in me still threw itself on the occurrence of unlimited free food and wine. It was good and tasty. They had a couple of jazz bands, who played during the dinner and afterwards a DJ took over and everyone went to the dance floor. We also danced and had a good time. Overall, it was a great evening with nice view of the city, good food and fun times.

 Enjoying the sights and food.
 The dance floor is open!
Stay tuned!
/Anton
 
 

7. Work, bad weather and banya

Publicerad 2017-07-05 19:40:00 i Anton in Russia

Hello!

I’ve been quite busy the last week with both work and leisure. Unfortunately had to postpone some blog writing. I am closing in on the end of my project as well of my staying here. There has been a lot of meetings and some minor presentations at work since last week. It as a lot of fun and I have taken on some new tasks for other stakeholders as well.

Farewell celebrations and banya

This weekend I said my farewells to a friend who’s leaving Moscow for new pastures. We were a gang of Swedes, Finns, Latvians and Russian who spent the evening together. First the larger part of the group went to Sandunovskie Bani, which is a Moscow landmark and one of the oldest banyas in central Moscow. It was nice just hanging out, having some beer, vodka and snacks. Afterwards we met up with some more people at a trendy Mediterranean restaurant.

Coldest summer in 130 years

Since Monday I’ve been digging into my work tasks. They say this is the coldest summer in 130 years here. The weather has been quite terrible since my arrival. It feels like it has been raining every day and rather cold. This is strange because usually Moscow summer are very hot! Anyway, it has been easy to focus on work. Just looking out the window and seeing all the grey clouds, rain and thunder makes it feel quite cozy to sit behind the computer in the office. :)

 This has been the standard view from the office. :)
 The Gorkiy Park with the triumph arch in the background.
 Lovely company.

It hasn't been raining all the time so yesterday I could take a walk in the Gorkiy Park with Lolita. The Gorkiy Park is Moscow's main city park. Summertime, it is green with trees, flowers and park ways. There are a lot of cafes and restaurants there and it is one of the most beloved places by Moscovites for leisure time.

 

All the best,

Anton

5. Weekend in Istanbul

Publicerad 2017-07-04 17:52:00 i Allmänt

Hi! 

This weekend my mom came to visit me here in Istanbul. The beautiful and modern Istanbul surprised her - she liked it a lot more than she thought that she would. I was offshore very happy that she was here and showed her around in the city. Mom happened to pick the warmest weekend here so far (and apparently also a record for this month in Istanbul I heard?) and we were sweating the entire weekend in 35-40°C. Puh!

When She arrived Friday afternoon I went to meet her at our hotel(The Marmara pera) and we went up for a drink on the hotel roof top bar. One big reason for choosing that hotel was that it had a pool on the rooftop, but the roof top bar was really amazing! The hotel is one of the highest buildings in the Pera area in Istanbul and you can see the entire city while lying in the pool or taking a drink in the bar. After telling mom about the different areas of Istanbul from above we went to eat traditional fish meze at a restaurant with a view of Bosporus. The food was not really her cup of tea, but at least she got to try some traditional Turkish food. 

Saturday morning, we woke up early to take the ferry to an island group called "Princess Islands" just outside of Istanbul, to escape the heat in the city. It was a pretty long and hot boat ride, but when we got there it was definitely worth it. We rented two sunbeds and one parasol and alternated between reading books and swimming in the ocean the entire day. 

On Sunday we sunbathed on the hotel rooftop and went for a city tour. We had seen a nice looking restaurant in our area the night before that we planned to visit for lunch, but when we came there they still only served Turkish breakfast (this was 3 pm...). Anyway, we decided to go for a second breakfast instead of lunch - and it was very tasty! It included all sorts of small dishes. Cheese, jams, olives, yoghurt - and everything in all you can eat style. I really want to go back to that place. The rest of day went by very fast and on Monday morning I hugged mom goodbye when I took the subway to the Oriflame office. Thank you so much for the visit mom!

/Emilia

6. Presentation and Deadlines

Publicerad 2017-06-28 20:13:00 i Anton in Russia

Привет! (hello!)

This week I have been once again been diving into marketing trends and concepts. The Monday was spent preparing for a mid-project presentation I had on Tuesday. I have also deadlines for some objectives coming up so it’s I’ve been focusing on to get my material ready.

Mid-project presentation

This Tuesday I presented what I’ve have come up with so far in my research. I presented for the main stakeholders I must relate to in the communication project: Linda, Olga and the channel managers Kirill, Anna and Maria. Everyone had already got a pdf with 100 slides the evening before and so I only presented a ‘summarized’ version on the meeting. You can only do so much in one hour! I still had more than 50 slides with content that I couldn’t exclude. The meeting went alright. I presented briefly on all covered issues in a rather fast pace. There was some good discussion between the sections of the presentation, which is good. It is the whole idea of what I’m doing here. I’m trying to come up with input that makes people think about how things regarding the different communication channels can be done better or that maybe aren’t being done at all now

.

 Focused Oriflamians. Great deeds in the making.

The week progresses

Since the presentation on Tuesday I’ve been diving into the research again. I must finish some material for Kirill and Maria by the end of the week so there’s no time to waste. :) Sometimes I miss out on breakfast at home when I feel it is being better spent either sleeping or working. Thankfully, there are protein shakes and powder soups in the kitchen corner of the office. It a real lifesaver.

 Oriflame Wellness products - real lifesavers!

This weekend I’m looking forward to go to the banya to say farewell to a friend who’s leaving Moscow for new pastures. It will be an awesome reward for diligent work.

/Anton

Om

Min profilbild

On this blog you can follow some of the Oriflame Global Summer Interns who have been selected for their passion, creativity and energy to complete exciting strategic projects in one of our locations around the world. This summer we will follow Emilia Bryngelsson, who is doing her summer internship in Istanbul and Anton Ekman who will be working in Moscow. Feel Inspired? Do you want to dare yourself and take the leap out in the Oriflame world ? Be on the lookout on our corporate site when applications for Global Summer Internship 2018 opens up in December!

Latest Posts

Categories

Archieve

Subscribe and Share