Pros
Welcoming atmosphere, relevant tasks, and expectations met
Kontras
Quite a small number of stuff that I was expecting and would like to have experience with
Pros
Divento.com takes on a lot of part time people and you can work online if you like. This a is a great help if for some reason you don't want to work in an office or you can't. If you're not experienced at writing, you may get offered an internship. They give you a test to see if you have the potential, then you have to do a two month part- time training period, to bring your writing up to scratch and to learn how to post your articles. If you want to stay on and you complete the internship in a satisfactorily way, you will be offered a freelance writing job. But the training is invaluable in itself and should enable you to get freelance work elsewhere. I have friends who have paid several hundred dollars to learn the same things, without the hands on experience. Also you get a press pass when you're working there which is a huge advantage, since it means you don't have to queue or pay to gte into ehhibitions, concerts operas etc. I freelanced for them whist I was working on my novel and with two small preschool children.
Kontras
It is quite difficult, if you do an online internhsip to have the self discipline to do the hours you commit to. My partner was doing an internship at the same time as I, but the second time he missed his deadline, he got fired.
Pros
- You are given a lot of responsibility and control over the work you do. - Comprehensive step-by-step guide to the resources you use.
Kontras
- Not given much support > no clear expectations of my role, I arrived in Prague (where I did my internship) without much idea of what I was doing so I arranged a Skype call with my boss to clarify > my line manager had gone on holiday for the first 3 weeks I was working, so had no real point of contact. I had to produce weekly reports for my boss but wasn't given a lot of feedback, even when I asked for it > all my emails were ignored as soon as the job was over - I sent a goodbye email and didn't get any response, and my emails (including scheduled weekly reports) for the last week or so on the job were ignored. - Unpaid - would be ok because they were clear about this after the application stage (was definitely not clear pre-application though), but I was told to apply for a specific Erasmus grant. When I went to my uni and asked about this, they said that this type of grant is only for students or people undertaking work that is included as part of their course, not summer jobs like my job was. Instead of trying to take advantage of a system for a different purpose it was intended, Divento should be paying their interns was the advice my uni careers centre gave me.