Aalborg Zoo

- Chief Information Officer Søren Sørensen

 

Aalborg Zoo

Established in 1935 and with up to 375,000 visitors a year, Aalborg Zoo is one of the largest all-year tourist attractions outside Copenhagen. It has 1,200 animals of 138 different species, and 55 staff members.

 

Versatile

Chief Information Officer Søren Sørensen thinks that students from the Service, Hospitality & Tourism Management programme are versatile and are well-suited for a business like Aalborg Zoo where staff each have their area of responsibility but are also expected to be able to take on a variety of tasks when needed. That is why he could see himself hiring a Service, Hospitality & Tourism Management graduate if that person had the right profile.

 

Søren Sørensen sees different possibilities in the three specialisations offered by the programme since the zoo has many different kinds of work areas. He is especially interested in the specializations of tourism and service management which also contains experience economy.

 

Basically, Søren Sørensen thinks that the Service, Hospitality & Tourism Management programme lives up to the demands that the zoo might have to an applicant and points to the fact that an applicant’s personality is also of some importance.

 

Internship at Aalborg Zoo

Aalborg Zoo has had several interns and it is Søren Sørensen’s impression that they have been independent and have undertaken many initiatives of their own accord. They have been able to participate in the company quickly which is important as an employee in Aalborg Zoo.

 

Søren Sørensen is very aware that internship companies should consider what they want interns to do and what goals they want them to achieve, because companies have an influence on how much use they will make from an individual intern… “If the company has good, well-defined tasks it can benefit from having an intern”.

 

Søren Sørensen also underlines the fact that an intern is unpaid and that interns will see the company in a different light since they are coming from a study environment with new ideas.

 

Intern tasks at Aalborg Zoo

The interns that Aalborg Zoo has had have prepared user surveys concerning the Zoo and the, now closed, amusement park Karolinelund which used to fall under the remit of Aalborg Zoo.

 

Furthermore they would answer the phone because that is a good way to get to know the company and its staff. This year’s intern also participated in planning and executing several events over the course of the summer. This is why, according to Søren Sørensen, that interns too are ready to help out and lend a hand when tables and stages need to be put up and removed again afterwards.

 

Søren Sørensen also mentions a user survey in which an intern counted non-Danish cars in the car park to get an impression of where visitors come from and then compare the numbers with the results of other surveys. That intern also wrote press releases because he mastered the Danish language so well.

 

On the basis of these experiences with Service, Hospitality & Tourism Management students Søren Sørensen would definitely recommend other companies to hire an intern.