Luxembourg - #BIMdannmalinLuxemburg

Antonia: Hello and welcome back to our THWS Podcast Bimdannmalweg. In this Podcast we talk about experiences of students that spent a semester abroad and today I am here with Jose. Maybe you can introduce yourself really quick.

Jose: Hello everyone. I am Jose. I study International Management in the last semester.

Antonia: For this podcast I want to part the episode into two parts because we are not talking about a semester abroad but an internship abroad. So, at first, I want to ask some questions about the internship and after that some questions about everything that was not the internship. So, firstly, why did you choose this internship and how did you find it?

Jose: So, you know we need to do a mandatory internship in the 5^th semester of our International Management Program. I was looking through a lot of internship and was sure that I want to do it in finance and accounting and then I found this internship posting directly on a company’s website.

Antonia: Ok, and where was this internship and why did you choose this location?

Jose: It was in Luxembourg. Like I said, I found this posting directly on a company’s website and applied for it in a general manner so that they could assign me to wherever they needed me to be. So, I didn’t choose Luxembourg for any particular reason but I was send there.

Antonia: How was the application process?

Jose: It was very long. I applied for it in February, then I got an answer one month later. Then I had an interview with HR, typical HR questions: why do you want to work here? Why in audit? Yes, my internship was in audit, in case I didn’t mention it before. Then I had a second interview with the manager of the department, she asked me some technical questions and a case study, I will not go further in detail it was all about finance and accounting. Then I had a third interview with on of the partners of pwc Luxembourg, but this meeting was more talking about the city and the company, not very important things.

Antonia: Ok, sounds good so far but three interviews is a lot, I guess. Were the interviews in person or did you need to travel there?

Jose: Normally they do a two-day event for the application but it was during covid so it was all online.

Antonia: Yes, that is what I thought. Did covid affect your decision for the internship or the internship itself in any way?

Jose: No, not at all.

Antonia: Good, that is a positive thing. In which language was the internship?

Jose: Well, that is a good question. The corporate language of pwc in Luxembourg is English but I was in a German team, working for the German market.

Antonia: Ok, but you do not speak German?

Jose: I speak German on a B2 level. They thought this is enough and put me in the German team. So my internship was completely in German. I was a bit lost in the beginning; I have to admit.

Antonia: Sure, you needed some time to get used to it. What tasks did you do in your internship?

Jose: Interesting. I don’t exactly remember everything, because it was over one year ago but I can tell you that I used a lot Excel, a lot of coding knowledge. We also had to go to the clients office to check all the document we needed to do the audit. Then, when you have collected and checked all the data and documents, you perform the audit.

Antonia: How did you feel doing this tasks? Was it easy to do them or was it rather hard?

Jose: It was ok I would say, because we had two weeks of onboarding in the beginning basic accounting courses, basic finance courses and so on, so we had everything we needed to perform the work. 

Antonia: It is nice that they offered such a good onboarding, because a lot of companies don’t and then it is pretty tough sometimes.

Jose: Yes, definitely.

Antonia: Were you the only intern or were there more?

Jose: We were around 35 interns.

Antonia: Oh wow. Do you know, by any chance, how big this company or that location is?

Jose: Yes, they are the biggest company in Luxembourg, right now with around 2,700 employees.

Antonia: Wow, I didn’t expect that. I actually heard of this company already while writing my thesis. I used some information that company published, that’s why I heard of this company before. About the interns: did you work together with the other interns or did you had separated tasks?

Jose: Well, in the end of the onboarding phase we got assigned to one of the departments in the insurance section. I was assigned to a private equity department and in this department there are a lot of teams. I was assigned to a team which was focusing on the audit of the private equity of a German company.

Antonia: That sounds interesting, even though I have no idea what exactly you needed to do there. How was the work with the other co-workers. Did you work on tasks together or was it more like: “You are the intern you are doing these tasks and we are the professional workers so we are focusing on these other more important tasks”?

Jose: Well, I think it wasn’t like: “You are the intern and I am superior”. I was assigned to my tasks and I had some deadlines I needed to meet and that’s it. Everyday I was working with my senior associates, but never with the manager, I have to say, not even with the partner.

Antonia: Ok. How was it with your ideas and participation? I mean, if you had an idea or some thoughts or similar, were they considering your ideas or were they rather ignoring them because you were “just” the intern?

Jose: Yes, I would say that they considered my ideas, but to be honest: I didn’t had many because it was all pretty new to me.

Antonia: Ok good to know. How was it with your colleagues? Was it like go went to grab lunch together or was it rather a professional only work-based relationship?

Jose: Normally I had lunch together with the other interns, because we were the same age and in the same environment but sometimes the partner of my team was buying pizza for dinner or for example for Christmas he organized and paid a lunch for all together and such things, that was pretty nice.

Antonia: That sounds great! Were the other interns also international interns?

Jose: That was funny. Even though we have been in Luxembourg I only met one Luxembourgish person. Everyone else was French, Italian or Portuguese, Spanish or German but I only met one Luxembourgish guy. That was weird.

Antonia: That sounds so similar to an experience about which a lot of people told me about the semester abroad. Because, for example, I went to Spain and I thought that I will meet so many Spanish people but in the end I did not. Because obviously, as an international person you are looking for friends and other international people will also look for friends, and finally you are just meeting but with other international people. But that does not need to be a bad thing. So, how was that person from Luxembourg?

Jose: I barely knew him. He was one of the managers and I just met him a couple of times because of some work-related issues so not very personal meetings. It was purely work.

Antonia: Can I maybe ask you something financially about your internship?

Jose: Yes.

Antonia: Did you get any financial reward or a salary during your internship?

Jose: Yes, I got a salary. In this company they have two categories of salary for interns. One is for students in their third year of university, they get 1,200€ net per month but that is not a lot for Luxembourg. If you are in the 4^th or 5^th year, then you get 1,700€ per month.

Antonia: That sounds great!

Jose: Unfortunately I was not yet in my 4^th year so I was getting the lower salary category. But for students that is still a lot, just not so much in Luxembourg.

Antonia: I know of a lot of students that were afraid about the payment thing, because the internship was mandatory. They expected the companies to say: “Ok, the internship is mandatory anyway, so we will not pay you anything”. Others were just paid 450€ a month, like a mini-job.

Jose: Oh, that is a pity.

Antonia: For sure, but your salary sounds pretty nice. I mean, wow, that is much more than what I got. Does this company also has locations in Germany? I don’t think you already mentioned.

Jose: It is a world wide company. I think they have offices in almost every country. About Germany, I know that they have offices in Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Nürnberg any many more, so more or less in all the big cities.

Antonia: Ok. Do you plan to work for this company again after you finished your studies?

Jose: I don’t know yet but maybe I will try. I know that getting into pwc in Germany is really hard.

Antonia: Sometimes when you do an internship you immediately feel like: “ok, this is what I want to work for the rest of my life” or one the other hand, you feel like that is not the right job for your future.

Jose: Well, audit is something good, but nothing I want to do for the rest of my life. I would say that for the next four or five years it would be ok, but I see myself more in the corporate finance sector.

Antonia: Was it always finance for you or was this something that came up during your studies?

Jose: It was always finance for me, but audit is pure accounting.

Antonia: Ah ok well, then I see the problem why you want to work something else after your graduation. So, if you conclude your internship, how did you like it?

Jose: Well, I learned a lot a have to say, I met a lot of people I experienced six months in a different country, and I have to say, I was partying a lot.

Antonia: We’ll come to that later, for sure.

Jose: The only problem was that everything was very expensive. One beer for example was 8€ and if you wanted a cocktail, it was 15€ so it was pretty expensive to party there but anyway I figured it out.

Antonia: I have some questions about that for the second part of this podcast, but now just regarding your internship, would you recommend it to someone else?

Jose: For sure. It is a very good internship for everyone that is planning a career path in finance or accounting.

Antonia: Would you have preferred it if the internship was in English?

Jose: Of course it would have been easier but I see the positive side here, so I had the chance to improve my German.

Antonia: That sounds good! If you need to rate your internship on a scale of one to ten, and ten is the best, how would you rate it.

Jose: If I purely rate the work-part of the internship I would say 9.

Antonia: Uh, that sounds good. What were the parts you liked most? And on the other hand, what is the missing point on the scale?

Jose: Well, I learned a lot there, but the missing point is the salary. It is a low salary for Luxemburg.

Antonia: This is so weird, because it makes absolutely no sense for me.

Jose: I know, but life is very expensive there.

Antonia: I know, and we’ve been there, on the trip in the first semester, but I don’t remember spending any money there. Whatsoever, what about the length of your internship? Was 6 months a good length or would you have preferred it longer or shorter?

Jose: My contract was from the first of October to the 31th of march, so it was 6 month, but when I reached the 20 weeks we needed for the mandatory internship, I quit. It was enough for me and I preferred to chill a little bit again.

Antonia: I really know what you mean. My internship was also 6 months long and it was totally fine but in the last month it was pretty hard because the end was so close and I just felt like stopping to work. Even though it was a really nice internship! But at some point it is like “You know what? I am a student. I want to study now instead of working”.

Jose: The major auditing phase ended in february, so I really had nothing to do after that so they were assigning me some dummy tasks and I did not like that so much and I did not feel like being there anymore.

Antonia: I totally get it. So, that is it from my side about the internship. Do you have anything to add about the internship? Oh, and what were your working hours?

Jose: Good question! I was working 8 hours per day, 40 per week. I could choose my time range between 7 in the morning and 6 in the evening, but normally I started around 9 o’clock because my team was also starting around 9 o’clock, so we can work all together.

Antonia: That sounds good. Nice flexible working hours, I guess that is what young people like.

Jose: And the good thing is, we were working during the busy season, so some were working until 11 or 12 in the evening, even on Saturdays, but there is a law in Luxemburg that doesn’t allows students or interns to work more that 40 hours a week, so at 6 o’clock I was just like “ok bye”.

Antonia: One more question just came up to me. Were there any employee benefits that you could benefit from?

Jose: Yes, we had Sodexo tickets. These are tickets with a certain amount of money on it and you can use it in the supermarket or in restaurants, so it is basically money.

Antonia: Nice, and you got this every month?

Jose: Yes, every month. I think almost 200€. I used this card to have lunch at the cafeteria during my breaks.

Antonia: Was the cafeteria in the company or close to the company?

Jose: Yes, it was inside the same building and the prices, regarding the Luxembourgish lifestyle were pretty well. I think it was around 9€ per meal.

Antonia: In contrast to our cafeteria here, this is expensive. But even at the cafeteria at the company where I did my internship, I paid around 5€ for lunch. But 9€ for me, personally, is restaurant prices. But you will tell us more about the prices soon, because now we will talk about everything that was not the internship. And here I want to start with: Where did you live? How did you live? And how did you find it?

Jose: It was really hard to find a place in Luxemburg. I was struggling for like 2 to 3 months. 2 weeks before I moved there, I finally found a place. There is a real estate company which has a monopoly in Luxemburg, like they have thousands of flats and rooms for rent. The thing is, they are very expensive. They charge you a high fee only to find a room for you, which is around 1000€. That is what I paid, plus the deposit, plus one month of rent. So, I was paying 800€ for my room, even though it was not a big room, it was like 12qm.

Antonia: Was it part of a shared flat?

Jose: Yes, it was a house actually, in the city center. We were nine, so it was a pretty big house, it had four floors.

Antonia: That sounds fun!

Jose: Not so much. People are not so clean.

Antonia: Oh, yes that is always a big problem about shared flats. You can be very lucky about the people you live with, or not. If the fit is not good, you do not really have a good time. How was it in your shared flat? Was it international people only?

Jose: Yes, we were from everywhere. There was a guy from Romania, two Irish guys, one guy from France, one girl from Italy, me from Venezuela, and I don’t really remember the other people.

Antonia: Crazy. Did you do things together or was everybody living separately?

Jose: Some of them were not so open. They were working their 8 hour shift, came home, eating, sleeping, nothing more. But we were three guys, the two Irish guys and me, who were really close. We did a lot of things together.

Antonia: That sounds nice. You already mentioned that the shared house is in the city center, how long did it take you to go to work from your house?

Jose: It was around 15 minutes. I had to walk a little bit and then take a bus for 10 minutes, that brought me directly to the office building.

Antonia: Ok, that is not too bad, and then you already had some fresh air in the morning.

Jose: Yes, of course.

Antonia: We are already on the topic. What is about public transportation?

Jose: It is for free.

Antonia: What? Everything is so expensive and then public transportation is for free?

Jose: Yes, unbelievable right?

Antonia: That is so strange.

Jose: Everything is for free. The tram, the busses, the trains.

Antonia: How is it in Luxemburg, do you depend on public transportation? I mean, if you want to go some where do you need make use of public transportation? Or is everything very close?

Jose: If you live in the city center, I would say you can go by bike. But if you have public transportation for free, there is no point not to use it.

Antonia: Yes, I see your point. How was the public transportation timed? Was there a bus any other minute or did you have to wait a lot?

Jose: I think, the bus I needed to go to work with, arrived every 6 minutes.

Antonia: Wow what a dream! Not comparable to whatever is going on in Germany with the public transportation, like trains for example they will never arrive. So, going on, what about your free time activities? Did you do something besides working?

Jose: I was basically coming home and then having dinner with my flatmates. But we had a routine, on Thursdays we were going to an Irish pub. A pub where every intern in Luxemburg was going. So it was crowded.

Antonia: Why on Thursdays?

Jose: I don’t know, but that is the reason why I worked in home office every Friday.

Antonia: So you had the chance to work in home office? Whenever you want?

Jose: Yes, basically I only had to go to the office once a week. But, doing an internship abroad and not going to the office, that doesn’t make sense to me.

Antonia: Yes, of course, you can learn much more in the office. What about trips? Is it possible to travel inside of Luxemburg? Is there something?

Jose: Not really. The closest things are Paris, Brussels, Saarbrucken and Trier.

Antonia: Did you went there?

Jose: No. I already visited all of these cities, so I didn’t really felt like going there again.

Antonia: What did you then do on all the weekends?

Jose: Hanging out with my friends.

Antonia: What kind of hanging out was it? Did you go out to go to bars or did you play any games?

Jose: We were cooking together on Saturdays, after that went on a walk and then started drinking at our place. And afterwards we went to one of the clubs in Luxemburg. That was on Fridays and Saturdays and then Sundays we tried to come back to life, you know.

Antonia: What about all the costs you have to life there?

Jose: At least what I got as my salary, 1.200€, that is what you need to live there.

Antonia: With the accommodation or without?

Jose: With the accommodation.

Antonia: Ok. You already mentioned that the prices for going out were pretty high, for example for the drinks. Can you repeat how much you paid for that.

Jose: Of course. Beer and soft drinks cost around 6-8€. Cocktails were more expensive, around 15€. The entrance to the club was really expensive, but you got one drink for free. We paid like 20€ and got a free drink.

Antonia: At least. How are the clubs there?

Jose: I would say, not so great, but enough you know.

Antonia: You can have fun, I know what you mean.

Jose: From a certain point on you just see the same people there, you know Luxemburg is not a big City.

Antonia: Do you know by any chance how many people are living in Luxemburg?

Jose: It has around 130.000 inhabitants.

Antonia: So more or less like Würzburg.

Jose: Yes.

Antonia: Actually I thought it is a little bit bigger.

Jose: Well, that is only the city! I don’t know how many inhabitants the country has, but I am sure it is not that much.

Antonia: Ah ok. I like the size of Würzburg because it is not to big and not to small. Was it the same for you?

Jose: I would have preferred if Luxemburg was a bit bigger, but it was ok.

Antonia: What about your friends there? Did you primarily hang out with your flatmates there, or did you also met other people there, or maybe the intern?

Jose: In the beginning it was only the interns, we went out almost every weekend, but then I met my flatmates. The two Irish guys arrived a month later than I did, in November, so when they came I started to spend most of my time with them.

Antonia: If you need to conclude your whole time in Luxemburg, so not only the internship but also the living, did you enjoy it?

Jose: I enjoyed my internship in Luxemburg and would recommend it to everyone who is interested in the accounting-finance-sector. And life in Luxemburg is ok for 6 months. Longer, I don’t know.

Antonia: Ok I see. That are already all the questions I wrote down. Is there anything you what to share? Some tips or recommendations?

Jose: If you are going there, try to avoid real estate companies because they charge high fes. Just get into one of those facebook groups. It can be dangerous, because there are also a lot of scams but…

Antonia: That is what we talked about with Jessica. She did her internship in Amsterdam and was looking for an apartment and got scammed.

Jose: Wow. Well, I cannot tell what is better. Pay a 1000€ fee or risk to get scammed. But I know a lot of people who successfully found their accommodations via such facebook groups.

Antonia: Same. Not only in Europe but everywhere. For example Clara found her accommodation in Mexico via a facebook group.

Jose: Oh nice! I wouldn’t trust that in Mexico though.

Antonia: People recommend it in Mexico! They especially say: go to Mexico first and then start looking or an accommodation there, otherwise you get scammed. You have to be there and see the accommodations in person! And that actually makes sense. I was pretty nervous when I was looking for my accommodation for my semester abroad, because it was during Covid and I do not speak Spanish so well, so in the end I just decided to take an AirBnB.

Jose: There is a great website you can use if you try to find an accommodation in Spain, in case anybody is looking for, it is called Idealista and it is a safe source, you will not get scammed there.

Antonia: Someone told me about this website, but unfortunately while I was already living in this AirBnB. Whatsoever, that is it from my side. Any other things you want to share?

Jose: Nothing else.

Antonia: So, then we are done for today. Also, this will be my last episode for this podcast because I am done with my studies. I hope you enjoyed all the episodes that I did, I believe it was the last 9 or 10 episodes. I also hope that someone will continue doing this podcast, because I think it is very interesting and I really enjoyed hearing about all the experiences students made in their semesters abroad and it also inspired me to go abroad. So now that I finished my studies I will for sure visit some places that were topic in this podcast. So thank you and bye. Thank you Jose for being here.

Jose: Thank you Antonia for having me here and for your time.

Antonia: Of course, it was really interesting! I really wonder why so many students are afraid of doing their internship abroad. Because I was afraid, that is why I did my internship in Germany, but I find it very inspiring that you did it abroad. We also heard from two other students who did their internship abroad, from Jessica and Bella, which was also very inspiring. So, guys think about an internship abroad! I think it is a great opportunity to visit a country, learn about a culture and make some life experiences. That’s it. Goodbye and thank you.

 

Jose: Bye, thank you.