Internship in Berlin
Valentyna Kondratenko
I never expected to have an internship in Germany since my knowledge of German language as well as legislation are near zero. Although during my studies at VU I started to research such an interesting area as blockchain technology. So I had to contact to a bunch of specialists keen on this topic to conduct my research. Thus I was lucky to contact to the organization which accepted me as an intern.
My application for the voluntary traineeship went smoosly as long as I abided necessary deadlines and requirements.
To the point of traineeship which I started in June at <blockchain.lawyer> it was really interesting and explorative. The receiving organization is based in Berlin, hence I was in the epicenter of innovative startups rise. I got opportunity to visit numerous meetups within topic I am interested in, find new contacts, finally have a look on various organizational metters.
My receiving organization mainly concerns on blockchain stuff as well as legal tech area. I was involved into so called Advocacy Group for blockchain in Germany <bundesblock.de>, for which I was exploring pilot blockchain projects undertaken by various governments. In the nearest future the mentioned Advocacy Group will present consolidated report to German Government.
Also I was performing tasks focused on research within internal activity of the law firm. The final but not less important thing about my experience at <blockchain.lawyer> is that my supervisor acted as a core organizer of <swisslegal.tech> Conference and Hackathon where I participated in the beginning of October in Zurich. The event gathered participants from at least 15 countries who shared there experience about industralization and law automation, blockchain implications, e-government etc.
No doubts this experience is valuable for my professional weight. It allows me to watch on my potential career from different angles.
Advice for other students: be specific with their research and area where they are looking for placement 🙂