Our coworker and communicator Matilda Hofvander met Ninon Moraw from France to hear all about her experience of having completed an internship in Sweden. Ninon is a strategic and multidisciplinary designer who after her internship at IDEON innovation in Lund got an employment as an UX-designer at the company Storvix in Lund. This is what they talked about.

 

What motivates a student from France to travel all the way up north

and have an internship in Sweden?

For me it was the lack of opportunities to work in France that motivated me to travel to another country. I wanted a proper and interesting opportunity after my graduation. I wanted to be close to innovation and to work with projects that were more like the ones that I wanted to achieve. Then I decided to start the Erasmus (Hosting) program, which I am very happy for today.  

Ninom
Ninon Moraw. 

 

Tell me about yourself;  what have you studied and what were your ambitions before coming to Sweden? 

So I started with a bachelor in Product design, it's more like an industrial vision of design. After that, I continued with a master in Global design, with a focus on social innovation. Social innovation is my main ambition I would say, to meet inkubators and to work with different start-ups was a pretty good start for me! 

 

What is your professional role today and what do you mainly work with? 

Today I work as a UX-designer (Customer Experience Designer) at Storvix in Lund, so mostly I'm working on the identity of the brand. But lately I have been focusing more on improving and understand the customer's journey, kind of. 

 

Have you always known that you wanted to work within communication and design? 

It depends, within design yes. Today I am working within the IT sector at Storvix, it's a bit more IT specified than I used to think. The IT part was not planned at all, but I'm pretty happy about it because it is still a part of design!

 

Did you find it difficult to adapt in Sweden, when it comes to the Swedish language and the Swedish culture, for example? 

I haven't started the SFI courses yet... Because I actually think that the English language is working perfectly fine here in Sweden, haha. It's very nice to learn and see the Swedish culture, I survived my first Midsummer! 

 

How fun! Did you think it was nice? 

Yes, it was very nice! But I was a bit scared before, to be honest! I had flowers in my hair, danced around the midsummer tree, tested drinking schnapps, and ate classic midsummer food! I also tried the long fish… the eel...I prefer NOT to eat that again, haha!

 

What do you remember most from your time as an intern in Sweden?

The most valuable experience that I had was the project that I joined with Magnus at the company Cellevate, which is a company that is a part of Medicon Village. They were working with Nanotechnology, which was a very interesting project to be involved in. I’m grateful that Magnus introduced me to them, otherwise Luca, the owner of Storvix, never would have invested more time in the customer part of his company.

 

How did you find the internship? Was it like you expected, matching your aspirations? Any surprises?

Before I left France, I did not have much information about the internship. I had no expectations either, I was just hoping that the internship journey would be interesting. 

 

Sweden has a flatter organization compared to other EU-countries, was that something you noticed, compared to France? 

Yes, I took notice of that! Especially with the close relationship to the last boss here at IDEON innovation. Even in the team, it was a flat way when it comes to how we shared information and divided the work. It's something that I still experience at Storvix. 

Ninom_Marco
Ninon and Marco in their office

 

Do you recommend the experience to other students?

Yes, and I have already done so, haha! 

 

Do you feel you were prepared enough before coming to Sweden? Anything you would change?

I think that I was pretty comfortable in the program. But also because everyone was very welcoming in the beginning, and everything started slow. I was not pushed or forced, at all! 

 

You obviously had a very good experience in your internship, but now tell me, anything you didn’t enjoy, that didn’t meet your expectations?

There is nothing that I did not like that was related to the program. The only thing that has affected the time negatively is the pandemic that has been going on during my time in Sweden.

 

Any last words for students thinking about this programme?

Go for it!! It is a very good experience to have!