Expat Life – a little bit of all around the world in Prague

Kaja F., Leisure and Tourism Management Alumni, ABInBev, Prague, Czech Republic, winter semester 2023/24

Dobrý den!

Which means Hello, and is the most useful Czech word I learned, as well as almost the only one besides Ahoj (word used for hello and bye when talking to friends), Děkuji (Thanks you) and Na shledanou (goodbye).

Application process

For the internship

I found the open internship position on LinkedIn and applied via the application formular on their website. After I applied for the position, I had to do a video assessment. About a week later I got invited for an interview, but for another position I initially applied for. I decided to do the interview anyways. A few days after the interview they offered me the internship position.

For the Erasmus scholarship

For everyone who has studied abroad with Erasmus before you will realize that the application process is quite different for the Erasmus scholarship for an internship. First, I found the internship itself and then I could apply for Erasmus. Fortunately, the deadline for applying is much later than for a semester at a university. The year is divided into four quarters and so is the deadline for applying. I started my internship in the fourth quarter of the year, therefore, the deadline for my application was mid of August of the same year. After I applied and did not hear back for quite a while, I reached out again to the international office about two weeks before my internship started. Apparently, it took so long due to another applicant’s documents. So, I just got the acceptance about a week before the internship started, which made it almost impossible to hand in all necessary documents in time. Even though I ended up handing in some documents late, I received the scholarship. Compared to my previous Erasmus experience it did not go as smooth this time but, in the end, it all worked out.

Search for Accommodation

Prague is a big city and rents have increased a lot in the last years, so it is not easy to find an affordable Flat. I searched mainly in Facebook groups, and I heard from my fellow interns the same. In the end I found in one of those groups a cheap shared flat outside the city center. The location was not optimal because it took me an hour to work but for just three months it was fine.

The internship

ABInBev is the biggest brewery company in the world and owns brands like Corona, Stella Artois and Beck’s. It has offices all over the world. The office in Prague is called digital hub Europe and is with around 950 employees and 30-50 interns the biggest one in Europe. I was part of the CCXNC team which stands for Consumer Customer eXperience New Capabilities. Within that department I worked in two teams:

CCM – customer/consumer management for Germany, Switzerland and Austria

CX Expansion – order management for Switzerland and Austria

The work was a mix between English (office language) and German (talking to customers and consumers as well as colleagues in offices in Germany). In ABI they also use lots of abbreviations which was hard in the beginning, but I got used to it. Since I studied tourism management before, the beer industry was completely new to me and quite different from what I knew before. This gave me the opportunity to learn a lot. I liked the most, working in such an international environment. In my teams I worked together with people from more than 10 different nationalities.

Living in Prague

Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and has a lot to offer. The public transport is incredibly cheap and at the same time I always got home even in the middle of the night. To buy tickets I used the app “PID Lítačka”. For a three month pass in Prague I paid 1480 Czech crowns which is approximately 60 euros. At most places it was possible to pay with card, some only accept cash and for some reason often you have to pay your rent in cash. The Czech language for me personally is a very difficult one which is the reason why I didn’t learn too much Czech as I mentioned before. At my work everyone spoke English, so it was no problem. In general, a lot of Czech people do not speak English but somehow, we always managed to communicate. It is not a disadvantage though to know Czechs who can help you with the language sometimes ?

Besides meeting up with my Czech friend that I met in Norway, I spent most of my free time with other interns or colleagues from work. I went bouldering almost every week, we went to a board games café, trivia quizzes and to a lot of bars and clubs. On the weekends I had either friends and family visiting or went to places in Czech Republic outside of Prague. Unfortunately, I was only there in the last months of the year and since I was working until 17:00 – 18:00 it was mostly dark after work. On the other hand, I had the chance to spend the Christmas time here and visited some of the Christmas markets. I definitely want to come back for visiting in summer.

Conclusion

After I finished my Bachelor, I decided to do another internship before starting a master. I chose to do this abroad because I wanted to experience working in a big multinational company and making use of my English in a business environment. I never thought before that I would ever live in Prague, but I am extremely happy that I did it. It helped me grow a lot, both personally as well as in my career. Because Prague is the city with the most expats in Europe, I had the chance to meet people from all over the world. This Erasmus experience differed extremely from the one I had when I studied a semester abroad, but all in all I enjoyed it a lot. Since it was an unpaid internship, I am very thankful that through Erasmus I had the chance to do this internship.