Absolute Groups & Incentives

Placement organization

Name of organization: Absolute Groups & Incentives
Town/city: S’Arenal, Palma de Mallorca, Mallorca
Country: Spanje
Website: http://www.a-incentives.com

Student

Name of student: Gianna van Arkel

Specialist area: ITTI
Placement period: 2012-2013

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Incoming DMC
Organization’s activities: Organize trips to Mallorca, Ibiza, Alicante, Barcelona, Valencia (MICE)
Target group of the organization: –
Company culture: As an intern you are really part of the team. You are not in any way treated as an intern and you will get to see each part of the company like clients, suppliers etc.
Number of employees: 5
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? No specific departments, one office with 5 employees, but most of the time we were doing project/ product management.
Brief description of your daily activities: Answering requests, making proposals including calculations, assist with groups,
Brief description of your company assignment: Competitor analysis including recommendations to the company. Find out what our competitors show on their website like partners, projects, clients etc. Is there any link between hotels and our competitors?
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: Really good. Dutch supervisor so that was nice. She is very helpful!!

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Independent, team player, flexible(!), representable as you will be working with groups.
Additional company requirements for this placement? Office programs, Internet and basic knowledge of adobe reader
English: Advanced
Spanish: Intermediate
French:
German: Intermediate
Italian:
Other languages: Dutch should be advanced as well. Knowledge of French is appreciated

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? I tried to arrange it myself but it was hard as a lot of people on Mallorca do not speak English. But the company director (my supervisor) had a friend who knew something was available.
How did you go to work every day? By foot

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? No
How long in advance did you apply for visa
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents:
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents?
Did you need certain vaccinations? No

Language course

Did you take a language course before you started your placement? No
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? n/a

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 300,00 (can be cheaper when flying with Ryanair)
Accommodation (monthly): € 300,00
Local transport (monthly): € 0,00
General costs of living (monthly): € 200,00
Costs of visa: €
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? EUR 200,00 per month

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I did not.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Not really but sometimes the mentality of the Spanish people was a bit hard to deal with (manana style). However this did not happen very often.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: giannaa@hetnet.nl

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Be open to whatever comes during your placement, you really get to see everything within the organization which is really nice. Furthermore, in February – April it is very quit in this area, there are no tourists and a lot of hotels, restaurants and bars will not open until April/May. It is nice to see everything live up but it is really boring at the beginning with not much to do so bring movies, series etc to entertain yourself in this period. From April on more seasonal employees are arriving in the area so then more people are here. In may and June the high season starts at the company so also prepare youself to work later and sometimes work in the weekend. However, you will always get a day back for that during the week, you just have to be a bit flexible but you will get to see everything.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Palma itself (capital city, 14 km from company) the island is not really big so by bus you can go to each side of the island and on each side there is something special to see.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link