From rejections to a change of direction

Adam had been looking forward to his internship for a long time and was eager to finally try out everything he had learned. He also felt sure about the path he wanted: an international internship in the political world. But after several rejections, he realised he needed to rethink his approach:

“That’s just how it goes – there’s a lot of competition. So I had to rethink things. I’ve always been drawn to political communication and public affairs, so I started applying in areas where I could use my skills and work with clients who have a political focus.”

Instead of relying only on academic credentials, he began highlighting his personality and what he was curious to explore:

The new focus led to more interviews and eventually brought him to a communications agency where he could combine his interest in politics with new professional perspectives – and where he ended up with an internship that, in many ways, exceeded his expectations.

 

When PBL starts to feel like "real life"

Already during the initial interview at Grey, Adam began to sense the value of the problem‑based projects he had worked on at AAU – they became a strong starting point for the conversation.

This insight only grew stronger during the internship, where he realised that PBL processes were surprisingly similar to his new workflow: moving from knowing very little to gradually gaining an overview and being able to solve tasks that matter to others.

It made it easier for him to throw himself into everything from new cases to subject areas he had never worked with before.

“Going from not understanding something to being able to deliver on it – that journey was exactly the same,” he says.

 

Curiosity as a driving force

During the internship, Adam realised that curiosity can be just as important as subject knowledge. He asked questions, contributed actively, took an interest in the whole organisation and stayed open to things he might not normally have gravitated towards. This helped him quickly become part of the team – and part of a workplace filled with many different professional backgrounds.

His dream of an international career working with politics hasn’t really changed, but he has had a genuinely positive experience at Grey. It has opened his eyes to the fact that his skills can be used in more ways than he had expected:

“I can easily see myself building a career in this field. The work is genuinely interesting, and my internship has shown me that I can use my academic background in ways I hadn’t really imagined before.”