Internship

During the summer 2019 I worked as a business development trainee at DSV Turkey, Istanbul office.

DSV, once a small Danish union of hauliers, now is a rapidly growing multinational logistics corporation with global presence, which has one of the biggest shares of a freight forwarding market.

I worked in a commercial department, whose main goal is to facilitate cooperation between different branches of a company, creating sales opportunities for our colleagues from abroad. Moreover, some promotional and marketing activities related to our office were conducted by our department as well.

After a-bit-more-than-a-week-long orientation period, I began my duties. I was mainly responsible for generating sales leads and creating different kinds of visual materials. Besides, sometimes I assisted in reports writing.

Few more words about my orientation week – I was introduced to my colleagues from other departments of our office who told me about their jobs and explained me how their duties and challenges they face look like. And even after my orientation week formally had come to an end, I still learned a lot about the organization and work at freight forwarding from my colleagues from other departments. Literally everyone I met in the office was very friendly, welcoming and ready to help me or to answer any question I came up with. This welcoming attitude was just invaluable especially since I am an IB student who had very shallow knowledge of the freight forwarding market and logistics.

I really enjoyed the corporate culture DSV has – employees are empowered to make their own decisions and overall environment felt quite laid-back and democratic. Interestingly, at the same time the company shows impressive performance and growth by gradually overcoming its competitors and strengthening its positions, which can be seen both from internal reports conducted by the company and external evaluation made by various independent agencies and firms.

In addition to the corporate life, I surely fell in love with local people, culture and cuisine. Prior to my arrival, I’ve heard and read that Istanbul is one of a kind place, but my experience of life in that city has certainly exceeded all my expectations.

All in all, I enjoyed every moment I spent in Istanbul, both at work and outside of it. I can certainly recommend Istanbul as a place to visit and DSV as a company to work for.

Author: Ilya Nekrasov