Why did you apply to Jobbsprånget?
– As a small lab we have a lot of big ideas with hardly any free time to pursue them, especially with patients sample collection taking up half our week. We knew that if we had a little more time to get some preliminary data we could apply for more funding and grow the lab. Once we found out how we could help those struggling to get into the Swedish workforce in exchange for an internship position through Jobbsprånget we realized this is just the kickstart we needed.
Did it take a lot of time?
– Not really no, Jobsprånget tries to take on as much of the paperwork as possible. If you can’t make sense of the tutorials provided you can email and/or call them they can always tell you exactly what the next step is. The Department of Clinical Sciences in Lund HR staff were also very helpful in onboarding. Jobbsprånget then provides guides and Teams sessions on how to help the intern throughout the four months including ensuring expectations are met from both sides, passing your knowledge about the employment system you are a part of, actively networking, increasing their skills set, learning Swedish and much more. It is important to be aware of your role in the process as a makeshift “recruitment officer”, whether you are trying to recruiting into your own group or helping them find a job in another group/company.
In what way have you benefited from having an intern?
– Rana has been an immensely valuable researcher for our lab. She has not only taken on all the patient samples, allowing us the free time to run the experiments we desperately needed to do but has also moved forward two projects I feared were on permanent hiatus. If other companies don’t hire her soon then we hope to gain the funds to do so ourselves – once we convince her to stay in academia a little longer!