I did an internship in Learning & Development at Freshfields from October 2019 to March 2020. I became aware of the firm thanks to a job advertisement on StepStone. Even during the interview, I was sure I would enjoy working here because of the aspects of the work that were described to me and the warm atmosphere. Both were fully confirmed during my in-ternship.
In the process, I gained a comprehensive insight into the various aspects of the work in per-sonnel development. One of my many highlights was our onboarding programme throughout Germany and Austria, where I was involved in everything from planning to on-site support and follow-up, and was able to take on tasks independently. However, Freshfields stands out for me as an employer not only because of the exciting work in an international environment, but also because of the open and inclusive corporate culture. In terms of Diversity & Inclusion, for example, the firm offers an impressive range of different schemes. I was also able to provide support on these and contribute my own ideas. For example, I organised an initiative for International Women’s Day.
But the internship would only have been half as nice if I hadn’t had such a great team around me. I was fully integrated right from the start and was able to learn a lot from my colleagues. In addition to my own team, I was also in frequent dialogue with the interns from the other HR departments. Friendships have developed from this that remain today. This made the intern-ship fly by and I had to say goodbye at the end of March with a heavy heart. It meant I was all the more delighted to be offered a permanent position in Learning & Development four months later. After completing my master’s degree in business education, I started as an HR Executive in November 2020.

After successfully completing my studies, I decided to do a six-month internship at Freshfields. I started as an intern in the Legal Careers team at the Park Tower in Frankfurt in September 2020. Right from the first day, I felt very well looked after and supervised by the team. I was able to take on various processes independently as well as support the entire team on a wide variety of HR issues. In this way, I got to know the HR processes at Freshfields very quickly, and at the same time gained a comprehensive insight into HR work. For example, I assisted with applicant management, administrative processes such as contract and reference preparation, and entries into Workday. What I particularly liked, however, were the personal interactions within the team and the independent way of working.
Eventually, the opportunity arose for me to become a more permanent part of the team, so I ended the internship a little early and have been an assistant ever since.