Intern in Russia: St. Petersburg, Moscow and Yekaterinburg

First of all, I was travelling to Russia, with a work and travel visa. My plan was to travel for two months accross the country to the Lake Baïkal, than work for two months in Saint Peterburg.
Actually I was looking for a job a an internship while I was on my road to Baïkal, but it was not really successfull, and I never received any answer to my email. I was almost arrived to Baïkal, when I found the company on Facebook, so I decided to send an email, and ask if they would be able to find an intership for me very quickly, as I was soon coming back to Peterburg.
They always responded rapidly and everything was explained very clearly.
Actually I was not really optimistic : first of all, I had not a lot of time to find something, and moreover I have experience and wanted to work in the wine field.... which is not very common in Russia!
I was amazed becaused they managed to find an internship within a few days (less than 2 weeks if I remember well), and an intership than matched perfectly all my wishes : working in the wine business or sommelerie.
So this was my internship : I worked as "assistant sommelier" in a company that is at the same time a wine school, and a wine shop. My main tasks were to organize and run a lecture about Bordeaux wines and organize a tour in the Bordeaux's vineyards.
What a pleasure to know that I would be able to share my knowledge and passion about wine with Russian people, as well as improving my Russian language!
Also, in the company they oragnized several times in a week some tasting lessons, and I was authorized to participate, I that was a great opportunity to learn more about wine.

Also about ProfIntern, they didn't only managed to find internship to students, they also organize meetings and activities with everybody, and always try to show us the best places of the city, and immerse us in the Russian culture. I discover the concept of anticafe, and I remember how we had fun at the ice ring with students from Belgium, France, and Portugal.

As a conclusion, after the lecture that I had to run, I became more self confident and decided to open my own company. That was a project for the future, but I think that I can do that now... I always wanted to open a wine tourism company. So what a great opportunity to experiment this with Russian tourists, as one of my mission was to organize a nice trip for them !

And also I really hope to come back soon, and meet ProfIntern team again!

I got in touch with ProfIntern to do a 3-months internship in St. Petersburg. It didn’t take them long to find me a flat and the perfect work place for me, moreover very close to each other. I eventually started my duty at the placing company as a Graphic Design and Fundraising intern. It happened that the organization was in the process of changing its visual identity, thus I got in charge of that very quickly and it helped me get to know the mission or the Institute and the way of working through more specific design tasks. After that, I was able to describe their work and their needs: telling the story is the first and maybe most important step for a nonprofit fundraising strategy. In the end, I managed to rebuild the visual identity of the organization and give them the necessary tools and documents to use it properly in the future, as it is very important to step up from others and to keep a strong and reliable image before even starting raising funds. I also managed to start several fundraising processes that the organization will carry on, and I also helped them record and mount some videos of their work consultations.
Three months is a short time to see the results of the actions you set up and it would have been a real pleasure to stay more for that, as Saint Petersburg as too much to offer for such a time span as well! Even though the winter lasted a bit too long this year, it offered us the possibility to see this wonderful city snow-capped as well as cheered up by its sunny white nights. The “Window on Europe” resembles any other European city indeed, but with more elegance and beauty. Still, it is Russia and you can feel the rich and complex history of the country just having a walk between Peter and Paul Fortress and the Lenin Square, passing by the infamous Aurora. Along with the sight, the senses of smell and taste are strongly in demand here considering the Russian pelmenis, pirojkis, smetana, mors, etc. and the various types of cuisine you can get here – let me go for the Georgian one here.
Overall, and far from lots of myths and fantasies that sometimes occur in Europe, this experience in Russia has been very enriching and satisfying and I have been honored to help at my level improve and increase the much needed work the company is doing and is spreading around Russia and its neighboring countries. I would be glad either to come back to Russia, or that the country lifts its visa restrictions to be able to explore it a bit deeper and longer. Maybe from next year for the World Cup?

Let me first say that I had never been in Russia before and, for this reason, I did not know really what I would have found here. It was such a good discovery!
ProfIntern could find the perfect internship for my needs and now I would like to tell you about my personal experience.
First of all they are reliable from beginning to end; my handler Maria Lobanova has always promptly replied to my mails, clarifying every my doubt and I could always count on her help.
The day that we met she was on time, smiling and she made me feel really safe; she walked me to the office where I would have started the internship, introducing me to the future colleagues and explaining me my responsibilities. Moreover, she was a reference point for anything I needed.
This internship helped me improve the Russian language and learn about this amazing culture, allowing me to spend my days in Saint Petersburg with my beloved Russian colleagues.
I requested a personalized internship program and was placed in NGO with wonderful team. My internship totally corresponded to my career goals and personal wishes and my tasks were connected with communication, ecology, working with children. You can read a couple of articles I wrote for ProfIntern in their Blog.
My experience is absolutely positive, I grew up both humanly and professionally, and I recommend ProfIntern for anyone who would like to improve himself.

I would like to share my thoughts as feedback for my Internship Program.Those words are very true and it is not fake.I feel very pleasure and warm to write this mail as a feedback.

1.City
Firstly the city. A nice place to live the life. Being Cultural Capital of Russia Saint Petersburg is a cool and pleasant city to live in. I have never seen such a beautiful city. Eventhough i haven't visited many places but i love to come there work for my dream. I cannot work for the field in which i am not at all experienced and least interested. That's what the only reason made me to exit the city and nothing else.. If i get another opportunity to work for any other i assure that i will spend my remaining part of my life in OUR cultural city.
2.Cultural Experience
The most important thing i admire in Russian people is that they respect me very well. They helped me in many ways to survive there in the city. Whenever i ask some help to somebody they never hesitate to help me and even more some tried very hard to explain me, they repeated to make me clear till i understand them.
3.ProfIntern
The Organization which paved way for my carrer. Thank you Very much for your Support and Belief on me. I made my dream come true to work for a Foreign Company. And i am sorry that i couldnt continue it unfortunately. Because being zero knowledge in that field i do not want to work in that. And especially i need to thank Maria Madam who accomponied me the first day, you spent your valuable time for me the whole day then Mr.Zhenya the Calm man who received me in the airport and helped me to reach my flat helped me to know some important cities banks in the city. Thank you so much sir. And last but not least My dear Friend JULIA for her effort to bring me there to the city. You made my Dream come true. Thank you a lot for helping me in many situations. A whole hearted thanks for all the things you have done me. Thank you ProfIntern without you i could not have been able to Start my carrer.
4.Plan
To be frank really want to come to Petersburg again guys. Will you help me please?? I need to work for my dream there in the beautiful city. I am really very much interested to come there again as soon as possible. My target is to arrive there in JANUARY.. With a new job. Dreaming about my future in Petersburg.

Now this is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down, and I'd like to take a minute just sit right there I'll tell you how I fell in love with Saint Petersburg!

Hello everybody! My name is Nicole, and I'm from Italy. I would like to introduce you the great experience I had in Saint Petersburg, the Venice of the North...But let me say it's much better than the Italian one!

When I decided to apply for an internship program my principle aim was to improve my Russian, my communicative competences, but I also wanted to explore the particularities of contemporary Russian culture, which one can never read on books or in newspapers. I can say that I reached my goals!

The ProfIntern staff carefully organized my stay, followed me day by day since my arrival, and found a working place for me in a company which turned out to be a great partner!

I had the opportunity to carry on a working experience in a field which perfectly suits my interests and where I could really feel as a part of the team!

Let me spend some words to describe my duties there. As I interned in an advertising agency, I contributed to organize some events, such as banquets and corporative parties. My task mainly consisted in finding suitable places, and reaching agreements with their managers; after that I was asked to prepare an offer for our customers, indicating all the best variants. Once I even actively took part such as entertainer, which was incredibly funny!

Now that this experience is over I can loudly say that I could not better decide how to spend these last two months!

At the beginning you read a part of the nice song from "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"... I took inspiration from it because, like Willy, I also feel that my life has changed: in Saint Petersburg I found my Bel-Air, which is the reason why I decided to continue studying here for the next 18 months!

If you are reading this maybe it's because you're are thinking of the chance that ProfIntern suggests taking...
Don't think, just go for it!

It was an amazing experience! Russia in particular Saint-Petersburg is a perfect place to live in and to grow professionaly. Thanks to ProfIntern we visited a lot of sights in the city center and in suburbs. I would say it is really the cultural capital and I enjoyed it a lot .
About Internship - it was a very nice experience, I took part in developing a new destination of the company with real professionals and I learned a lot! Moreover I was responsible for several tasks in the field of marketing and I can say I gained a perfect working experience!