GuesttoGuest Clara Zajde - 2nd Co-op

What was your position and the

organization you worked for

on co-op?

I worked for GuesttoGuest’s marketing department as a Junior Marketer and member of the Happiness Team. The Happiness Team was made up of employees and interns alike.

How did you spend the

majority of your time in co-op? Doing what? With whom?

The majority of my time was spent working for the Happiness Team, GuesttoGuest’s customer service department. I was charged with answering the telephone in French and English along with responding to English customer emails. The rest of my time was spent performing various marketing tasks such as creating blog content, posting on GTG’s English social media pages, and assisting the country manager for the English market with any ongoing and new projects.

Did anything surprise you about your

co-op? Why?

GuesttoGuest is the first startup that I have ever interacted with. Although I knew that startup “vibes” are extremely different from corporate ones, I was not expecting to have as much unadulterated fun as I did. GuesttoGuest has a very open and welcoming environment; interns and employees alike are encouraged to be themselves and let their personalities drive their professional character. Going to work every morning was akin to going to a relative’s home where I would find friendly faces. I believe that this comfortable and appeasing environment is what propels GuesttoGuest’s productivity.

Discuss what you learned

about yourself and your

work/learning style on your

co-op.

I learned a lot about myself during this co-op. Much of the self-reflection I did was a result of my life in Paris in its entirety, including my work at GuesttoGuest and time outside of the office. I confirmed my wish to return to live in Paris indefinitely after my studies. This realization was fulfilled thanks to my interactions with my coworkers at GTG. I found myself thriving in a European community that flowed naturally with my own mindset.

I also realized that I enjoy working in an domain that is constantly changing. As an online platform, GuesttoGuest must constantly adapt to its users’ tendencies, seasonal campaigns, ever-fluctuating progress and failures… interns and employees’ duties vary as a result of these changes. One month might be focused on Facebook marketing while another may be geared towards running analysis on user feedback.

Please describe a job, task,

activity that you did during

co-op that you had never done

before.

Answering phone calls and emails was not new to me. I learned more during my varied interactions with the English country manager, David. David taught me how to create web landing pages using CMS, how to use WordPress, and about different resources used in web marketing such as email tools and global databases.

I had the opportunity to take online courses to learn how to use SQL, a coding tool. Although I never needed to use this tool in my own work I found it interesting and useful to at least be exposed to a type of technology that I was not familiar with before.

How was the preparation

(resumes, etc) and interviewing process (before this co-op) for

you?

GuesttoGuest required that I send a resume via NeuCOOL to apply for the internship. I received an email follow up from Kate O’Leary who eventually became my “direct supervisor” (GTG actually has a flat hierarchy where there are no true supervisors or subordinates). Kate contacted me to perform an interview and about one week later I held a second interview with David; they were the two native English speakers at GuesttoGuest with whom I would be working every day. The three of us made a great team!

How did your co-op

experience affect you?

This co-op broadened my horizons and reminded me that there are many more opportunities available to me than may be obvious. My internship at GuesttoGuest was based on customer service and basic marketing, two fields that do not at all coincide with my Human Services major. While I enjoy my course of study and wish to pursue my minor in Public Policy after my studies, I was relieved to learn that I can find a career, and happiness, in completely unrelated domains. Furthermore, I was reminded that the world is vast and I can thrive in any corner of the globe if I put my heart into it.

Did this co-op help you decide

what you want to do next (in terms

of career or work)? Any

plans?

Yes! As previously mentioned, this co-op solidified my desire to move to Europe indefinitely after my undergraduate studies. This includes finding a masters program in France where I can continue my studies (in English). I will therefore likely search for another internship in Europe for my 3rd and final co-op. My goal is to gain experience in a relatively unfamiliar field so that I may have a well-rounded CV before I begin searching for a masters program, and eventually a full-time employment.

Academic Reflection Question...

In what ways did your co-op experience help

you to better understand or notice the social,

political, cultural and/or economic changes

brought about by the forces of globalization?

I was impressed by the diversity of employees and interns at GuesttoGuest. As a home exchange company with members in 187 countries, GTG must accommodate members speaking many different languages and operating under various cultural norms and preferences. In order to best meet the members’ needs, the GTG team is equipped with an international staff; my colleagues were from Spain, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Ireland, France, Ecuador, Holland and the United States. Many of my colleagues participated in Erasmus programs all around the world and found themselves living and working in Paris. This impressive show of globalization highlighted the ease in studying and working abroad for students and young adults, even those living outside of the European Union. I was inspired by their stories and humbled to know that I was working in perfect harmony with such different cultures and perspectives as my own.