Hi all!

My name is Daphne De Bie, I am 23 years old, and I recently graduated from the KU Leuven with a master’s in applied economics – major in marketing. After my graduation, I went on an extended master Erasmus in Parma (Italy) for 6 months. To make the transition from student to working life a bit easier, I decided to look for an internship for the second semester. As my interests run very broad, and I did not yet have a specific job or position in mind, it was not the easiest task to find something. But that is where LAUREA came into the picture. They offered me a 6-month traineeship in project management and marketing.

Working in a start-up immediately gives you a lot of responsibility, and you need to be willing and able to be involved in a variety of tasks. This really spoke to me, as I am a bit of a generalist, and I was hoping to find out what my strengths actually are. Unfortunately, I still do not know what I like to do for the rest of my life, but I do have more direction in the way I want to go.

As stated before, I had many responsibilities during this traineeship. As I was still in Italy the first month, I got onboarded by joining the weekly meetings and reading the knowledge material that LAUREA has gathered over the years.

Later, I became more involved in the World Employment Conference as project support. This project was great for sharpening my organizational and multitasking skills. Even though I had worked on big events before, I have never been so closely involved with the details of organising an event at this scale. The importance of attention to detail and clear communication soon became very apparent. Next to the logistics of organising a conference, I learned how to build a website, support customers with all sorts of questions, and how to make sure people have the best time possible during an event. Learning to prioritise the right things and attend to urgent matters were a daily matter.

Next to the World Employment Conference, I got onboarded on Moontrail, a new learning management software developed by LAUREA. Following in the footsteps of my predecessor, I reviewed the go-to-market strategy and developed a marketing plan. Trying to launch a product in a highly competitive market is definitely not easy, and I applaud Stefaan and his team for taking on this challenge. Therefore, it was challenging to develop a plan that was ambitious yet realistic. But together with the team, I believe we have come up with a great base for the rollout and growth of Moontrail in the near future.

In addition to the marketing for Moontrail, I also supported Sotiria in managing the social media campaign for both LAUREA and the LAUREA Academy. This, together with my basic knowledge in the field and the LinkedIn Marketing courses I was able to follow during my traineeship will definitely help me in being a future marketeer!

I have learned a lot about myself during these 6 months, and I am grateful to the entire team for giving me this opportunity and supporting me along the way. I want to thank them for being flexible when I flagged that the workload was a bit much for me, and for adapting in a way that was manageable for everybody. There is definitely a lot I can still learn, and things I need to change about myself, but I feel like this experience surely made me grow as a person and provided me with some valuable takeaways for my future professional life.