Intern Review
by Spanda Foundation
This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
-
The Role
1.3
-
The Company
1.1
-
The Culture
5.0
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
Be very careful with this NGO. try to find any reviews and you will find: absolutely nothing!!! (don't trust me, simply try) - neither good nor bad reviews. How is that possible? Spanda Foundation has been working for many years. What the website will not tell you is that Spanda is a one-man-NGO (all-in-one director, founder, manager, publisher, supervisor and a bunch of interns, no other employees). that's not necessarily bad. However, this one person a very old guy - no discrimination towards old people - who has quite rigid, many times rude, habits. He is no going to teach you anything. The biggest concern of Spanda Foundation are (NO) running projects.
The Spanda interns are usually very nice people who will appreciate you as a person. However, since there are no, I emphasize NO projects at all, it is hard to be appreciated as a colleague, supervisor's appreciation not mentioning ...
Spanda Foundation is a fiction. It has no money, no running projects, barely some space and computers to work at. Since there are no running projects - there was one, but that was many years ago - there's no need for such things like support or guidance.
fictitious projects = not much to work on.
ok, you will be given some responsibility, but you will not see any result of your work (other than some publications - which are btw published by the same all-inc-one man's publishing company).
Even though there are no projects, you might be able to learn something. However, I dare to say you can learn as much by sitting at home and working with the internet.
The Company
Interns=young guys from around the world=very good and friendly atmosphere. + occasional clashes with the director/supervisor/Mr. M.
try to contact some current interns and ask the for their honest respond. especially people coming from abroad - I'd call them victims - are very surprised once they get to The Hague. You can prevent such disappointment by digging as much info as it's possible about Spanda. I bet all you can find comes from Spanda itself (website, facebook, Twitter). Read something about the "projects". They do not exist!!!
no money for the projects = no investment in its interns (once again, there are no other employees)
None at all. Spanda is not looking for any future employees. Interns do not cost Spanda a single euro cent.
The Culture
I have met great people there.
a room in shared apartment, some 400 euros per month, a bicycle some 50 euros, other expenses depend on personal needs.
Details
International
September 2015