Last year, I completed an internship at the MöllerGroup in Bielefeld in the HR department and wrote my Bachelor’s thesis there a few months later. As the company already knew me, there was no need for a separate application process and I was able to travel to the USA straight after submitting my thesis.

The application process for the PROMOS scholarship was also very straightforward, as the FHDW International Office explained everything to me in detail and provided me with all the necessary documents, which I then only had to complete and submit. A few weeks later, I was accepted for the scholarship. As the FHDW had even received additional funding shortly before the start of my internship, my scholarship was increased again.

I didn’t take out any separate insurance for my stay in the USA. The MöllerGroup took care of everything for me. I already had contact with employees in the USA before my trip, as I had helped to employ an employee from one of the US subsidiaries in one of the German companies during my bachelor’s thesis.

I arrived on a Saturday, which allowed me to get used to the six-hour time difference. I landed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and was then taken by shuttle to my hotel in Athens. I stayed there for the entire six weeks of my internship. The company paid for my flight, hotel, shuttle and rental car, including gas.

During my first few days at the company, I was shown everything and got to know the processes there. After that, the focus of my work was on human resources. My main task was to compare the personnel processes of the US company with those of the MöllerGroup. However, I also worked in payroll accounting.

I lived in Athens and not in Elberton, where the company is based. The reason for this was that Elberton is very small and therefore there isn’t much going on there. Athens, on the other hand, has its own university: the University of Georgia (Home of the Georgia Bulldawgs ;)). There are bars, restaurants, pubs, the campus and much more. In addition, downtown Athens was only about a five-minute walk from my hotel. As Georgia is in the south of the USA, the weather was mostly always sunny with at least 28 – 30 degrees. I was also in Atlanta, where I visited the Coca-Cola Museum and the aquarium with a few others from the company.