Putting theory into practice at BIMcollab

As a Creative Business student with a focus on marketing, Jamie was looking for a graduation internship where she could gain practical marketing experience in an international environment. At BIMcollab, she found the opportunity to take ownership of her own project: researching how BIMcollab can approach the growing BIM market in India. 

Looking for an international experience

I study Creative Business in Breda, with a focus on media and marketing. I’m currently in my final year, so I was looking for a company where I could complete my graduation project and gain experience outside the classroom.

An international environment was important to me. I previously spent six months studying in Stockholm, and that experience made me realise how much I enjoy working with people from different countries and learning about different cultures.

I already knew about KUBUS through my mother, who used to work here. Instead of applying for an existing internship vacancy, I decided to send an open application. I eventually got in touch with the Marketing team, and things moved quite quickly from there.

India became my graduation project

When I started at BIMcollab, the exact direction of my graduation project was still open. The company was already exploring several international markets, and India became an interesting opportunity. BIMcollab had recently attended events there and also welcomed a colleague based in India.

That became the starting point for my research. My assignment is to look at BIMcollab’s current marketing activities and determine what could work in India. Which approaches can we reuse? What needs to be adapted? And where does the Indian market require something completely different?

Eventually, my research should result in a practical marketing plan and guidelines that BIMcollab can use to further develop its activities in India.

Marketing works differently in every market

One of the things I’m learning is that you cannot simply take a marketing approach from one country and expect it to work somewhere else.

You first have to understand the market. Which channels do people use? How do companies communicate? What kind of content works? Even social media can play a very different role. In India, for example, Instagram can be more relevant for B2B marketing than you might initially expect from a Dutch perspective.

At university, you learn a lot of marketing theory. During my internship, I get to find out how that theory translates into practice. Working on a real market with a real business challenge makes that much more tangible.

Freedom, with a team around you

I get a lot of freedom in how I approach my project. There is no fixed programme telling me exactly what to do every day. That freedom does mean you have to take initiative yourself, but you are not on your own. If I need input, want feedback on my research or simply have a question, I can easily reach out to someone. That combination works well for me. I have the space to make the project my own, while still having people around me who are willing to help when I need them.

Learning what working in marketing is really like

My internship has taught me more than how to research a new market. I’m experiencing what it is like to work in an international B2B Marketing team and seeing how decisions are actually made within a company.

I’ve also learned that working on a project in a real organisation is different from completing an assignment at university. Things develop while you are working on them, priorities can change and sometimes you have to adjust your approach along the way.

That is what makes the experience valuable to me. I’m not working on a theoretical case with a predefined answer. I’m researching a real opportunity for BIMcollab, while getting the freedom to find my own way of approaching it.

For students who enjoy working in an international environment and want to put what they have learned into practice, BIMcollab offers plenty of room to do exactly that.