It was a really nice experience and it looks like it will be useful in my future jobs because I have decided to go deeper into the financial stuff.

Jānis Upenieks

graduate of year 2010

Unfortunately, my lacking knowledge of the Estonian language and a slowdown of the economy ruined my plans to work in the northern part of the Baltics. Since the response from Hansapank was quite late I was desperate to find an internship, so I went to our pro-rector Diana Pauna. She posted a request on the Alumni webpage and after 2 days I received an e-mail from Rimi HR department. My first thought was something like: "I am President of the Student Association in SSE Riga but my internship will be in Rimi?!"

Anyway, since I had no other options, I agreed to go to the interview which I thought would most likely happen somewhere in Alfa above the retail store. I was surprised: they have a huge office building in Plavniekos! (see in the picture). The interview consisted of standard questions that we were taught in Career development, so I passed it and started to work the next Tuesday!

So, what did I have to do there? Well, my internship was divided in two parts: For the first two weeks I worked in HR department where I had to carry out a project "How to attract students to Rimi". Basically what I had to do was to come up with a plan how to make students like myself to imagine Rimi as a large international company not a working place where you have to carry boxes or work as a cashier. After those two weeks I had to present my plan and it seemed to me that they liked my ideas. In the next couple of weeks I was moved from the HR department to the Logistics department.

Before I went to Rimi, to me Logistics was only about carrying goods from place A to place B. It took my not more than 2 minutes to understand that it’s much more than that. My boss in Logistics was our graduate Anna (the Alumni who suggested me for Rimi). She explained me everything I had to know about Rimi Logistics (we even had an excursion to Rimi warehouse) and was very helpful during my stay in the company. Later "The Boss" Logistics & Supply Chain Director Bernardo Machado (he is Portuguese as all the Top management in Rimi) arrived and we also had an interesting conversation with him not only about Rimi but life in general. He also promised to help me any time in topics related to retail and/or logistics which was very kind from him.

My only task in the department was just to forecast the changes in the oil price in the Global market and then derive the possible changes in consumer behavior and shopping patterns. You think it’s impossible? So did I! I was very lucky to have a partner Thomas (nice German guy working from Rimi in Estonia which means I had a chance to work internationally) who actually carried out the toughest part of the report.

After the two weeks of hard work me and Thomas had to present our findings to the whole Rimi Baltic Logistics managing people. For this reason a rest-house was rented in a place called Medzabaki and I was given a company car to drive there and back. Believe me, to give a presentation to such an audience is both a challenge and fun together. After the presentation I was told that it was very good, which made me feel fantastic!

And now, some general stuff about my internship place: First of all, I WAS PAID A SALARY THERE! Moreover, we had free tea or coffee and later even free fruits (such as bananas, apples, oranges and peaches (beat that))!People working in Rimi were very friendly and helpful. In the first days I was told everything about Rimi back in time, now and in the future. Actually, if we would look at this company from an HR perspective I would say it would be almost impossible to find any drawbacks. I also learned how to use document clinching machine. There also is something SSE Riga and Rimi have in common: an Amica cafeteria.To end my story, I suggest everybody (especially year1) to have their internship in Rimi, since you are actually treated as a worker of the company and it’s possible to carry out very interesting and experience bearing projects.

I would like to thank once again Thomas with whom together we forecasted oil prices, my supervisors Rita and Anna who spent a lot of their time talking and explaining stuff to me I needed to know in order to carry out my tasks, and also Mr Bernardo with whom I hope we will meet in the future (he said he would like to give some guest lecture here in SSE). All in all, this was definitely one of my best summers!

Henrijs Jansons

the president of

SSE Riga Student Association 2007-2008

Although most of us still remembered something from the finance course, the internship enabled us to gain a much better understanding about commercial investing, especially about portfolio management practices in the Baltic countries and Sweden. In addition to working, we had quite extensive entertainment program which included joining our Robur colleagues to boat trip to Archipelago and seeing DG Galan sports competition in Sweden, Hansapank Summer Days, track and field-competition and driving karts in Estonia, and getting acquainted with Old-Towns especially in Lithuania and Sweden.

For me personally, this was one of the best summers I have had so far and I would propose everyone to candidate for the project in case it is continued this year as well. For further questions, you can approach me or my colleagues personally.

Harlis Velk

graduate of 2009

6 AM. One way ticket. Five hours flight. Proud feelings inside my heart. I did it.

Internship abroad in Almaty with a task to research economic, political, social and cultural environment in Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. No defined means how to do it – you are on your own to decide about every single thing you want to perform. It’s a challenge to all your previous experience – gather and analyze, think and conclude, lead and follow, see things differently and feel beyond ordinary; a marvelous opportunity to test who you really are. Without the Oriflame offer I wouldn’t get there; without the Days of Opportunities experience I wouldn’t succeed.

Deniss Aksjonovs

Days of Opportunities 2008

Chief Organizer

1) What were your main tasks? Did you have the opportunity to use the knowledge acquired in studies?

The main task was to explore electronic services in Estonian banks and telecoms, which includes data collection, analysis of the strengths and weaknesses, benchmarking each individual enterprise against its peers, and providing a comparative analysis of collected data points.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to use a lot of the knowledge acquired in my studies, however the internship itself was value adding, and the knowledge acquired will definitely help me in the further studies.

2) Did you receive training during the internship? Were you satisfied with your supervisors?
I participated in an organised training, which was held in Vilnius. We arrived in Vilnius one day before the training and had an informal dinner. The next day trainings started right in the morning, and lasted for around 5-6 hours. That was a great experience and helped a lot in my actual work.
Besides, all the costs, including travelling, accommodation, and meals were covered by Metasite.

3) What were your biggest challenges? How did you succeed?
I guess dealing with a huge workload was the biggest challenge. Although we had a very flexible schedule (we were working from deadline to deadline), the workload was twice as big as country managers in this position usually have. That was due to the additional research about mobile operators, which they didn’t have last year. Somewhat challenging was also the way of communication, because my boss, the project manager, was travelling all the time and we had to communicate via skype or email only.

4) Tell us about your colleagues.
In total, 2 country managers from Latvia, 2 from Lithuania, 1 from Estonia (me), and the project manager, who was Armenian, were working on the Baltic E-Banking report 2010. Everybody was very friendly, helpful, and understanding.

5) What did you learn during your internship?
I got many useful contacts! In addition, I got a better insight in Estonian banks, and acquired deeper knowledge about how they are working and with what issues they are dealing with.

6) Can you compare the intensity of the internship with the intensity of studies in SSE?
As in SSE, I had to face many deadlines while working in Metasite. When a deadline was approaching I had to work a lot (sometimes even overnights), but after that I got some time to relax.

7) What are your suggestions for your peers when looking for an internship?
Choose your internship in the field that you are interested in. Use every possible opportunity to expand your CV, and get useful contacts for your future career.

Madis Sulg

the sports committee chairperson of


SSE Riga Student Association 2009-2010

1) What describes the company best, in your own words?

One of the leading direct sales companies in the beauty care and wellness industry. Oriflame Latvia has the best colleagues you could dream of!

2) How long was your internship, and in which country?
My internship started on June 18th and finished on August 25th. The main office I worked at was in Riga, and I had several business trips to Tallinn and Vilnius during my internship.

3) What were your main tasks? Did you have the opportunity to use the knowledge acquired in studies?
I had three assignments and all of them required applying the knowledge acquired during my studies and previous work and internship experience. The assignments were as follows: conducting price research in the Baltics, customer service analysis in the Baltics, and a Competitors’ analysis in Latvia.


4) Did you receive training during the internship? Were you satisfied with your supervisors?
I had training for pricing research where the pricing manager taught me what data should be gathered and where, how the table files for the research should be developed, and how to analyze and draw conclusions for further price changes. I performed my three major assignments under the supervision of different managers. Sometimes I felt “lonely” on my projects due to lack of attention from the supervisors’ side, but I managed to complete the tasks successfully nevertheless.

5) What were your biggest challenges? How did you succeed?
Each day brought me new challenges. To name few, I would like to stress the way I started my internship at Oriflame. Before getting to the back office, I spent one day helping employees in the warehouse to collect orders. Afterwards, I spent one day helping customer operators to enter orders and provide information and testers if needed. Only after I had experienced the way business takes place at Oriflame I got my seat in the marketing department.

6) Tell us about your colleagues.
As I already said, people were just brilliant and I was going to work with a smile on my face since I was happy to see my colleagues and work with them. I felt as if my family had become larger during those 2,5 months, and I’ve been communicating both with my local and international colleagues after the internship. What is more, the majority of my managers were SSER graduates.

7) What did you learn during your internship?
A LOT! First of all, having freedom in the way you perform your work and, simultaneously, being 100% responsible for the outcome. Secondly, being able to present your point of view, argue for it, and make the best out of the feedback you receive. In addition to this, I developed the skill of cutting off irrelevant things and focusing on the main things still having the general picture in my mind. Finally, being able to work in an office and deal with any daily issues that might arise.

8) Can you compare the intensity of the internship with the intensity of studies in SSE?
It’s almost the same in the sense that if you do not finish something you work on you will continue working in the evening and during the weekend. Moreover, no one will persuade you to work this way; you yourself will feel the responsibility to do whatever it takes. The feeling when you present your project to the Senior Regional Management in Moscow (via a “skype-like” communicator) and they are stunned reminds you passing a tough and breathtaking subject in studies.

9) Are you satisfied with your choice?
More than 100%! Definitely YES!

10) What are your suggestions for your peers, when looking for an internship?
Don’t give up! If you feel that some internship place is made for you � fight for it and you’ll get it. It isn’t always knowledge or experience that matters. If you share the vision of the company and feel that it is the right place for you, don’t hesitate. As I was told during my internship � we can teach anyone, but we cannot change a person; if he doesn’t feel like one of us, no experience will bring him to our office.

Aleksandra Volnistova

Days of Opportunities 2010
Coordinator for Latvia

1) What describes Evli Securities best, in your own words?
An impeccable reputation, international presence, and long-standing expertise.

2) How long was your internship, and in which country?
I was free to choose the time frame for my internship and finally settled for 8 weeks. I worked in their Tallinn office; however, Evli Securities had summer analysts in Riga and Vilnius as well (Dmitrijs and Justas from Y3).

3) What was your criterion when looking for the internship?
As I already had some previous experience in equity research, I was looking forward to apply it in the context of corporate finance.

4) What were your main tasks? Did you have the opportunity to use the knowledge acquired in studies?
One of the main tasks was to compile overviews about Estonian companies. Basically I had to go through their annual reports and assess whether we could (successfully) offer them our investment banking services.
It involved some number crunching of course, but drawing conclusions out of them required a great deal of creativity. There was a broad range of possible cases, each unique: Merger & Acquisition deals, debt or equity issues, debt restructuring etc.
After I had finished with the overview and sensed potential in the case, I had to “sell” it to my colleagues during a meeting. If they agreed with me, I would help to prepare a “sales pitch” to the company we were dealing with. This would include the respective industry background, preliminary evaluation of the company, etc.
Obviously, one has to have a good grip on accounting, but it was more about interpreting the numbers. It is absolutely quintessential to keep yourself up-to-date with everyday business news from the Baltics so that you’d know the underlying trends.
Last but not least, all the materials were prepared in English; hence the ability to write in a professional manner was welcomed.

5) Did you receive training during the internship? Were you satisfied with your supervisors?
My supervisors were always willing to answer my questions. As far as the training was concerned, they had prepared for me a couple of thorough case studies and I had access to the stuff that they had done previously.

6) What were your biggest challenges? How did you succeed?
Preparing industry overviews for some industries that were really specific could sometimes be a pain in the arse, but eventually surfing on the Internet and going through various reports and news paid off. In that sense it was similar to some of the reports we write in SSE Riga.

7) Tell me about your colleagues.
They were young and hungry guys so to speak, but the cut-throat work culture in investment banks really is just a stereotype cultivated by movies such as “Wall Street”. Actually we had loads of fun and a really open and friendly atmosphere in the office.
I really enjoyed the fact that we had lunch together on a daily basis. This gave the opportunity to get to know your colleagues better and chat not only about work-related topics.

8) What did you learn during your internship?
It always pays off to develop yourself not only in the field of economics, but also in everywhere else, so that you’d be perceived as a well-rounded person.
One practical thing I learned was that one ought to make proper notes during the meetings so that you wouldn’t have to bother your boss afterwards asking the same things for the second time J

Sten Sonts

Days of Opportunities 2011

Coordinator for Estonia