Internship in Luxembourg

Anderson Frohlich is pursuing a degree in Business Administration Online. The curriculum of this degree program includes a professional internship in the 6th semester, which he completed in Luxembourg. How he came to this internship and why exactly Luxembourg, he tells in this interview.

Tell us more about the application and choices to do the internship in Luxembourg.

I applied to this internship through LinkedIn and was contacted by the company at the time when I was still at the 5th semester abroad, in Sweden, then I had to make the decision between going for it and leaving Sweden or leaving the internship for later. Since I knew already that for the time being I was looking forward to work on a private business, giving the first step and getting an internship was important, this would also fulfill the mandatory requirements from MCI, furthermore, I had an interest for the area of finance, and the application for the internship in Luxembourg was previously thought, as the country is a very important finance hub in Europe, with multiple important and relevant companies for the field, so in this sense, the choice was pretty much planned in sight of my future career, also with an eye to stay after the internship.

How have you organized everything?

Since I was in Sweden when I decided to move to Luxembourg for the internship, the organizational aspect required a great effort, the MCI team was obviously amazing in this sense and always supported on everything. In any case, I had to go from Västerås back to Salzburg, where I was living before, to pick up some luggages and drop off others, as well as to organize some required documents for the moving, in Luxembourg everything was planned with quite a short time, as the decision was made very fast, so I could only find a place to stay for the first three months initially, this was never a problem though, as I could manage everything after in an ongoing basis.

Were there any challenges finishing the 5th semester?

Some of the challenges came with regards to time management, as the internship was a full 40 hours per week, plus a couple of extra hours when necessary, finding the necessary time to finalize the subjects of the 5th semester was sometimes hard.

What content were you able to bring into the internship from your studies?

Probably the main parts that I brought from the studies to the internship are law, finance and business communication related, with the first one being the large majority, as anti-money laundry is heavily based in regulations, directives and laws, the classes on this area were key for the understanding of the position requirements. Also, a good comprehension of finance, its terminologies, and foundations, helped me to quickly get familiar with all the structures around me and therefore getting into the pace. Finally, the business communication classes were fundamental to help me develop a professional relationship with clients and investors, thus assisting me to thrive in the internship.

What did you learn during your internship?

Due to the close contact with the private investment market, I could learn a lot about this field, how investment funds are planned, structured and marketed, furthermore, the majority and main part of the job is legal based, therefore, the many different companies structures, beneficial ownership of a business and what this represent in terms of taxation, and mechanisms that are applied to detect and avoid potential money laundry were the most important aspects that I could learn during the internship period.

To conclude the interview, tell us about your impressions and what you got to know about Luxembourg.

In Luxembourg I found a very dynamic country, with a lot of young people, similarly to me, so I adapted and learned to like the country very quickly, although very small, there are a lot of things to do and explore there, with people from nearly everywhere in the world, the culture diversity is magnificent, so one can easily experience a lot of sensations. In general, the locals are very welcoming, always prompt to help and almost always able to speak English, so no issues for whoever cannot manage the local languages.