Average Rating
The following graphic describes how current or former employees rated aspects of their work experience from 1 to 5.
What Our Team Say
(4 reviews) Write a reviewAll reviews are written anonymously
Things I liked most:
I was given total control over a project. Unfortunately this was because I had no supervisor and no guidance, but I suppose the autonomy was better than fetching coffees. I also really liked my co-workers. It was honestly a great squad.
Things could have been better:
When I was there, there were 4-6 unpaid interns, and 1 paid employee (who did administrative work and HR, and wasn't really a supervisors for the interns). We received no training, no guidance, very little feedback (and never any constructive, useful feedback). The atmosphere was degrading. The director would talk about interns behind their backs to the rest of the staff (even though we were all interns), and so it didn't feel very safe in that regard. We were told to work without speaking to each other. The director is very defensive against any suggestions to improve how the organization is working, and considers even the most constructive of criticism as an attack. Therefore, trying to develop projects and make improvements is almost impossible, because of the mindset at the organization. The organization itself is poorly managed. There is little communication between HQ in Brussels and the field sites in Belgium. Various interns have done substantial amount of work in HQ (such as developing an entire M&E framework for our work), which was supposed to be used in Lebanon. The director said that the framework was being used, which it wasn't, and would often tell other interns that this intern hadn't done her job (which she had, and had done it really well). Later, once that intern left the company in Brussels, a new intern was hired in Lebanon to do an M&E framework, and wasn't told that one already existed. This is just a small example of how interns' work at this organization isn't valued, isn't checked on, and isn't used. It seems as though the tasks we are doing are better than getting coffee and making photocopies, but the director doesn't take interns' skills seriously and doesn't work with them and treat them as capable employees, and it's demotivating and demeaning. There is a strong resistance to improvement in the organization, which is frustrating as an intern tasked with grant-writing and getting more funds. There are industry standards that need to be met when asking for public funding, and changing things around on a document doesn't mean anything when our projects aren't up to standards. It's not nice to be an intern writing down something when you know that management doesn't care enough to actually put it into practice. For example, to get ECHO funding, an intern was told to write an evacuation and safety plan for zones with security risks. Never mind the fact that she has no experience as an intern, and can't just make up a plan like that by herself. More so, the issue is that she knew the plan would never get used, because the organization doesn't value the work of interns. And so she very quickly lost all motivation. I've written hundreds of pages of documents and reports and proposals and work for this internship that I know has never been read. There's nobody there to read it, nobody there to check it, nobody in management who cares about the quality of the internships. There is no effort made here to provide a quality internship, and the result is obvious: poor internships, demotivated interns, high turnover rate. I have so many issues that I could cite with how this organization is being run in general and how bad the internships are, and I think they're related issues both connected to the general atmosphere and philosophy of the organization. Unfortunately, insisting that things are perfect when they're not doesn't fix anything, it just makes sure that they stay broken. I really hope that this organization and its director realize that they have the capacity to do better, and choose to make those improvements instead of just insisting that they're not doing anything wrong. 0/10, would not recommend this internship to anyone. I would strongly suggest staying away from this organization for internships.
Things I liked most:
Meeting new people but that was due to the high staff turnover since no one could stay long.
Things could have been better:
The employer was misleading with the information they had in the contract. No clear job description, no clear expectations, benefits are not communicated right. No supervision. No actual staff. Interns are working as unpaid consultants. Teamwork is hampered by the mamagement. No transparency. Bad communication. Vague goals and no real impact.
Things I liked most:
Was able to meet several people my age attempting to get their start in the field.
Things could have been better:
Management strategy is incompetent and not open to criticism or complaints of any kind. Lack of respect for the work interns do. Massive, almost impossible tasks, are given to interns who are then reprimanded when they cannot achieve expectations. Complete lack of monitoring and evaluation procedures. Project implementation is spotty at best. More focus on getting more funding (which is misused more often than not) than on actually doing good work.
Things could have been better:
Supervision, transparency, respect