Hello everybody and welcome to this new post! Today, I want to tell you about my experience with internships and the job market here in Sweden, as well as provide you with some information regarding what KTH can do to help you in the endless journey of finding the perfect job.
My Summer internship experience
Just like Samantha told you in her post on her internship journey, I was also fortunate enough to secure an internship during Summer 2023, as well as a thesis proposal for 2024. In particular, I found a job in the Fluid Simulations and Acoustics department at Scania, which is very related to my Master’s programme. In this post, however, I don’t want to focus on the internship itself but on what it taught me – and that’s a lot!
Firstly, working truly is different than studying. In my personal opinion, having a fixed schedule such as the typical eight-hour working day is really beneficial for your mental health! You can just log into “work-mode” at the beginning of the day and then log out in a much easier way than what happens when studying. This is something that I’m trying to carry over to my study life: being able to log out from school is essential to enjoy your weekends, free time and all that Sweden has to offer!
Another thing that I found is how similar KTH education is to a job environment. At KTH, you are required to deliver a lot of projects, and a great amount of your study time is spent group working. And this is basically what happened in my Summer internship, too! Also, presentation skills (especially synthesis ability) will very likely be required in your future job, and thankfully KTH’s got you covered.
So, would I recommend participating in a Summer internship? Yes, definitely! However, I would not dedicate the entire Summer to it. KTH is a high-pace study environment, so some rest during the vacations is necessary – at least for me 😅. My experience lasted a couple of months and I think that’s a decent length. You have enough time to develop an interesting problem, but you are also left with some weeks where you can just rest and recharge.
One final consideration: bear in mind that your Summer internship period will probably overlap with the company’s Summer vacations, meaning that most people will be away (especially towards the end of July). So, when having interviews for the job, always ask info regarding this! Will you be supervised during those weeks? Is there anybody left in the office to help you? These are important questions that you may want to be answered.
How KTH can help you secure an internship
KTH hosts a lot of work fairs during the year, as well as many industrial collaborations in the form of projects, seminars or events. I would 100% recommend you to join these gatherings as often as possible, so that you can grow your network and get to know more and more people in the industrial world. Also, they will allow you to get to know different companies, and this is essential when looking for a job: not all offers are published on LinkedIn!
Finally, don’t forget that at KTH it is fairly common to write your Master’s thesis in a company, which is probably the best way to stand out and show everyone what you can do!
That is all for today, thank you for reading! Don’t forget to check out Samantha’s last post on the Finance x Consulting day (just one of the many events I was talking about!) and Sai’s last post on his culture shock from India to Sweden.
Stay tuned – many posts on application are coming – and have a nice week!
// Lorenzo
I am not a student but a parent to students who is dreaming to do their master’s in KTH. This blog was really eye opening with lots of pertinent Q/As. Thank you guys for making the life easier for new comers. I would live to get more information about part time job opportunity for students.
Dear Sharif, thank you for your comment! We will surely talk more about part-time job opportunities. In the meantime, you can check a previous blog post on the topic here. Have a good day!