Today we meet Stefania Della Rovere, who interned with ITL Marketing in the spring of 2021. Maria Rebecca Raspa, trainee in ITL Marketing in 2023, moderated and Irene Pepe supervised it as Marketing and Communications Manager for ITL Group. This video inteview is part of our ITL Group Alumni project.
Stefania’s keyword was Creativity during our 2021 Welcome to ITL Marketing Meeting with Asselya and Michela: all three demostrated to be very special assets to our team.
Stefania, how did you come in contact with ITL Group, and why you chose this company for your internship experience?
I came into contact with the company as it was advertised on the University webpage. It seemed like a very unique and international environment, and I chose it because my interest was to engage in Marketing experience.
Which has been the best project while working for ITL Group?
My main task has been the remodeling of the webpage and I rIn general working on projects with interns from all over the world and in different areas of the marketing department was very very exciting it was never boring so I loved it all
Your internship has been entirely online… Would you suggest other aspiring trainees choose this solution, and why?
It’s a great alternative to being in person in the office and it’s equally effective in my opinion and it was very very interesting very well organized within the company and just a very very enjoyable experience because it’s very flexible you can work from home at your own pace and so it was incredibly just a great experience in general because we were given so much room to operate as interns.
Was the internship an overall satisfactory experience for your personal growth as an independent professional?
As an independent professional sure very manage to work with management which had never done before it made me better my relational skills communications skills my teamwork skills so from a professional point of view it was incredibly helpful it was a great starting point and it really helped me develop soft skills in a way that I was not expecting so it was absolutely satisfactory really great okay now I know that you’re working in a specific field and how did you choose this field of expertise and did this internship help you find our clarify your future
Did this internship help you to find your clarify your future interests?
The Internship has been really really pivotal in the sense that it’s been it really helped me find my marketing skills and those were really helpful especially if you’re a freelancer and you have to find clients for yourself it’s very important to be able to promote your Brand and promote your work in the right way so that was very very helpful
You’re a freelancer, why did you choose this type of work? How do you manage your time? What are the pros and cons of smart working?
The pros are definitely that you can manage your own time, and you can choose when and how to work which is great. Not having a boss is a big plus. it’s definitely a job that is very demanding especially when you have to chase clients. You have to basically be on top of all the work planning meetings and schedules. The way I organize my time is: I set specific hours. I dedicate specific times of day to new clients and some other hours to existing clients and I also try to keep some time for invoicing, email answering, and all the work that’s behind, you know, the actual work that I do upfront.
Which advice would you give to young people that aspire to become their own boss?
I guess it depends on what you want to do. If you want to build your own company that’s very hard and that’s a whole different story, but if you just want to be a freelancer which is sort of the easiest way to start working on your own I would say the biggest piece of advice is: have a value proposition. You need to have something that differentiates you from the competitors, something that people will choose you for. Something that really distinguishes you is the first thing you need to have, and then obviously lots of grit. You have to work really hard, you have to persevere because some weeks you can’t find clients. Definitely get marketing skills, and develop your marketing skills because you will need to promote yourself, somehow, especially online nowadays. You have to find a way to promote yourself, this is my advice.
I have been working as a CV writer and working basically as a career coach so basically supporting people and their personal brands for three years I have almost four years I’ve also been working as a post office director for a year now so I’ve been juggling two jobs now which has been great.
Irene Pepe: ‘I’m sure you are doing it successfully so congratulations for finding your balance in juggling with the two jobs. Thank you Rebecca, you can continue…
Given your current field of expertise, (CV consultant) What are the top 5 features that render a candidate attractive in the labor market today?
So that highly depends on the field and the sector that the person works in, but let’s say in general if you want to be attractive, especially maybe as a newly graduated person for example who doesn’t have a lot of experience or is considering multiple fields, I would say, the number one thing, again, have that one thing that differentiates to or find a way to really make you stand out from the crowd somehow. It can be just the way you present yourself or skills that you have that other people might not have; that’s the number one thing you need to have.
I would say always be flexible because you might have to travel for an internship or travel even just for an interview. You have to be flexible to adapt to different work environments. There are companies that work remotely in smart working. Some companies ask you to come in person, so be flexible and open to any kind of environment or opportunity that you might find.
Number three I would say have an updated CV your resume has to be updated it has to be clear and concise. It has to present you in the right way and basically contain the keywords that would make you attractive to the recruiter. Because recruiters read a resume in 30 seconds, you have to highlight the aspects that really make you stand out.
Fourth thing, I would say, again it really depends on the seniority and the field, but be ready for a challenge like that’s the number one thing. If you are always ready to change, grow and learn that’s a really really positive aspect.
As the last thing, I would say: know what you want and know how to get it. Nowadays I think it’s really important to be able to know how to attract the right recruiters, know how to apply for jobs, and know what kind of jobs you’re looking for. That requires a little bit of experience, but after you’ve learned what you want and what you don’t want, be really clear and direct in that and also know what kind of contract you want and know how to negotiate a salary. So, in general, all these things are really important.
Would skills that don’t have anything to do with the work but say something about your personality and attitudes as a whole be important? Would they make you look weaker?
It makes you look like somebody who has lots of interests and definitely from the jobs that you’ve done, even though they’re not specific to your career, they’re always associated with positive soft skills that you might have developed. So for example, if you want to work in marketing and you have done acting jobs in the past, you might have gotten a great degree of spontaneity or have great public speaking skills or you might know how to present yourself, which is really positive if you working to promote brands and things like that. So definitely highlight these sorts of different jobs and different fields and especially the soft skills that you’ve developed while working at those jobs.
Do you have any other plans for the future or any other project that you would like to share with us?
So for the past year, I’ve also been doing some real estate investments, and this is a great side hustle of mine that I’ve wanted to do for many years now. In the near future, I want to start a podcast to interview people with unique careers.
‘the biggest piece of advice is: have a value proposition. You need to have something that differentiates you from the competitors, something that people will choose you for.’
Stefania della Rovere
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