The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies (HCSS) is committed to nurturing talent within its ranks, often employing former interns. Starting as an intern in February 2021, Benedetta Girardi transitioned to a full-time Strategic Analyst in 2022, showcasing her progression from an intern to a valued employee. In this interview Benedetta discusses her career journey and time at HCSS with PR and Communications Assistant Alessandra Barrow, another former intern.
Hey Benedetta, so you’re a Strategic Analyst at HCSS, can you share your journey from being an intern to becoming a full time employee?
So I started as an intern at HCSS in February 2021, I came across the vacancy on LinkedIn, like one does, and decided to apply because I had to do a mandatory internship to graduate from my masters. The HCSS internship looked like the perfect fit for my interests, I have a background in International Studies for my bachelor and European Affairs for my masters and I’ve always been interested in issues of geopolitics and security. So as I said, I applied and ended up getting the internship at HCSS, where I worked from February 2021 to December 2021, so for a total of 11 months I was one of the interns at HCSS. Initially, I got a contract for six months and then my contract got extended for another five.
So, in December 2021, my internship officially ended. However, I stayed in contact with a couple of people at the firm and I saw them again at some events on the research topics of HCSS. I actually ended up getting another job, where I worked as a Green Deal policy analyst. About five months into that other job I saw that HCSS opened a vacancy for a Strategic Analyst position. While I did like my job at a time I really wanted to go back being part of the community of HCSS and continue on the pathway that I started on when I was an intern. So, I decided to apply for the vacancy in the summer of 2022 and ended up getting the position. I have been employed full-time as Strategic Analyst at HCSS since October 2022, so just over one year.
So, why did you want to come back as a Strategic Analyst after your internship?
Before my internship at HCSS I didn’t have a precise idea of the of where I wanted my career to go and for a while I thought, for example, I would like to work at a European Union institution given my academic background. However, during my time at HCSS I really discovered that I like to do think tank research and I really like to be positioned in between policymaking and academia. I also knew that I wanted to stay in the Netherlands and for this kind of research, HCSS is one of my best options. The second reason why I decided to go back as a Strategic Analyst is because during my time as an intern, I actually had the chance to work on a variety of topics, but one in particular caught my attention and my interests which is the relationship between Europe and the Indo-Pacific region. I knew after working on this topic for seven months as an intern, that I wanted to delve deeper into it and HCSS would allow me to do that. So, I decided to apply to continue to pursue both my interest in terms of topic as well as my interest in the type of work.
Did you have any mentors or supervisors who played a crucial role in your transition from intern to full-time employee? How did their guidance impact your development?
During my internship I worked, as I mentioned, in particular on topics related to the relations between European and Indo-Pacific states and I did that with Senior Strategic Analyst Paul van Hooft. He was definitely fundamental in guiding me and helping me realise that this is what I wanted to do. First of all he allowed me to do extensive research on a topic that I just discovered and I really liked and he took time to provide me with feedback and teaching me a a lot of things related to the content of my research. Second, he also helped me with refining my writing skills and my analytical skills. Working with him definitely contributed to figuring out that this kind of work was something I wanted to pursue on the long term. HCSS also provides interns with a mentorship system, so I was also assigned a mentor, Senior Strategic Analyst Laura Birkman, and she guided me through my personal development. We had a series of talks about my future career and how my professional path could develop inside or outside of HCSS.
Can you share a memorable moment or experience from your time as an intern?
One of my favourite moments at HCSS is for sure the Christmas outing in December 2021. So, HCSS always organises a series of team building activities and the one around Christmas time I took part in saw the entire firm doing a cooking class. Everyone from management team to interns did a two hour cooking class in which we cooked different dishes and then we ate them all together. It was very fun and it gave me the opportunity to talk to a lot of people that I didn’t usually interact with. It was a very cosy and Christmassy moment that made me feel really part of the company.
What are the best and worst things about being a HCSS intern and then being an employee?
So the best thing about being an intern at HCSS was definitely the intern community and having other people who are going through the experience with you and who you can have a conversation with. The worst thing was definitely the coffee from the coffee machine upstairs. The best thing of being an analyst is that now I get to be a mentor myself and have a mentee who I can offer guidance to and the worst thing would definitely be the increased amount of emails that I actually have to reply to.
How has your experience with this company shaped your long-term career goals and aspirations?
By being first an intern and then a strategic analyst at HCSS I really had the chance to discover my topic of interest and the type of work that I know I’m good at and I want to further develop in. So in this sense being an employee at HCSS has given my career a more defined direction and has also put me in contact with so many professionals in this sector that I can look up to for guidance and inspiration.
Learn more about the HCSS internship programme here
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