Astrid works at Leiden University within the Faculty of Humanities, where she is part of the Career Service. Her role combines internship coordination and career guidance, supporting students in gaining practical experience and preparing for their professional paths.
She joined the Una Europa Live My Life programme to explore how career services, internship support and student guidance are organised in a different institutional context, and to exchange practices with colleagues working in similar roles.
Through the Live My Life exchange, Astrid engaged in a one-to-one job shadowing experience that offered a deeper level of interaction compared to more traditional staff mobility formats. While she had previously considered participating in staff weeks or broader exchange programmes, she found this initiative particularly valuable because of its focus on direct collaboration. Spending several full days alongside colleagues allowed her to better understand not only specific tasks and responsibilities, but also the wider working environment and decision-making processes behind them.
Astrid was matched with colleagues at the University of Bologna, where she experienced a welcoming and collaborative environment from the very beginning. The programme allowed her to closely observe daily activities and to engage in meaningful discussions with different teams, moving beyond theoretical comparisons and gaining practical insights into how services are actually implemented.
One of the most striking aspects of the exchange was the difference in organisational models between Leiden University and the University of Bologna. At Leiden, Astrid’s role combines several functions—internship coordination, career guidance and student support—within a single position, whereas in Bologna these responsibilities are distributed across different specialised teams. This contrast provided an opportunity to reflect on the advantages and challenges of both approaches, particularly in terms of coordination and efficiency.
Another key difference emerged in relation to the connection between the university and the surrounding labour market. During her visit, Astrid attended a Career Day event that highlighted a strong link between the University of Bologna and the regional ecosystem, with companies mainly rooted in the Emilia-Romagna area. Compared to Leiden, where the national context allows for broader sector representation, this offered further insight into how geographical and institutional factors shape career services.
Astrid’s participation in the Live My Life project proved to be a professionally enriching experience that encouraged both reflection and exchange. Immersing herself in another institutional environment allowed her to critically assess her own role, gain new perspectives on service organisation, and identify ideas for further development within her home university.
At the same time, the experience highlighted the importance of openness, adaptability and active engagement in making the most of job shadowing initiatives, particularly when they involve close and continuous interaction with colleagues in a different context.