Serieke Ruyter, Intern at Crest Premedia Solutions, Pune / India (Aug. 2010 to Feb. 2011)

My decision to apply for the Cross Cultural Internship of Springer was fairly spontaneous. I studied Latin American Languages and Cultures and Portuguese Translation, so going to India did not seem like the most obvious decision to make.
However, after all those years of book learning, I felt the urge to gain some practical experience. As I had always been interested to know more about publishing, it seemed like a wonderful opportunity to be able to combine this interest with another passion of mine: getting to know foreign countries and cultures. Furthermore, the total package of the internship was very complete, containing among other things great housing facilities close to the office, introduction days in Heidelberg, the journey to India and several sightseeing trips to beautiful places.
During the first couple of weeks in India we attended several lectures on the different departments of Crest Premedia Solutions. For some of my fellow interns, who had previous experience in the publishing business, a lot of this information was known already. However, for me everything was new, and I gained a lot of knowledge about the working structure within a pre-press company.
After the introduction weeks we were to be placed in a department. I was working in the Project Management Department, handling the contact with the Dutch publisher Bohn Stafleu van Loghum (BSL). I did this job together with another Dutch intern, and with our Indian colleagues. We received and checked all the different incoming jobs from BSL, ranging from the typesetting of books and image processing to data conversion, and we made sure they got to the right department. We managed deadlines, and maintained the communication flow between Crest and BSL regarding delivery dates and production queries. In this function I learned a lot about the general structure of the company, and about the work involved in publishing books.
Of course it was not only during working hours that I learned, also the experience of living in India was very enriching. Some of the things I learned are how to haggle about prices (especially with rickshaw drivers), how to eat spicy delicious Indian food using only my right hand and how to drape an Indian-style scarf over my shoulders. The contact with my friendly Indian colleagues gave me a greater insight into Indian culture and customs. All in all, it was a very valuable experience to work and live in India. Something I’ll never forget!