Internship Experience at Ericsson - Anežka
- Anežka
- Apr 8
- 4 min read
I remember the excitement and nervousness when going to the team of Digital Learning at Ericsson for the first time to meet my mentor, manager and colleagues. I cycled as usual. It was a sunny and warm day with the smell of autumn waiting at the doors. I took the boat from Stenpiren to Lindholmspiren and arrived in advance before the agreed hour. I expected to wait there for a couple of minutes, but my mentor was already there, waiting and welcoming me.
As is the nice habit in Sweden, we started to talk with a good cup of coffee ☕️
We talked in a professional and informal manner - also, a very typical approach I learnt from Sweden. Soon, my mentor and I found out that we share the same passion for learning design and cutting-edge technology. We clarified our mutual expectations, preferred ways of cooperation and communication, and I was assured that my mentor would do her maximum so I could learn what I am interested in and feel supported across the whole journey.
“Indeed a very promising beginning”, I thought to myself.
Soon after the talk, we went to meet my manager and a few colleagues. Everyone was friendly, optimistic and truly welcoming.
Once the practicalities related to the internship onboarding were solved, I started to work side by side with my mentor in the Connect to Learn program. This program aims to improve equal access to education and technology for all children and youth across the globe.
Within this program, my team developed various e-courses aiming at improving students’ and policymakers' literacy in:
AI
IoT (internet of things)
5G
...and more
Overall, the more I understood the scope and the impact of the program, the more I became proud that I could be part of it.
So what did I do at Ericsson?
Among other tasks, I:
Conducted market research about educational chatbots 🧠
Helped with the development of a micro simulation 🛠️
Led a knowledge sharing presentation 🧩
Read below for more details!
🧠 Educational Chatbot Research
The goal of the educational chatbot market research was to find an RAGbot that would personalise the learning experience and demonstrate how an AI can be applied to the real world.
During this process, I:
Learnt about many exciting educational chatbots
Recommended a chatbot that seemed to be the most promising and corresponded to the technical requirements of the team.
In the end, the team’s priorities changed, and they decided not to enhance the learning experience through a chatbot but through a micro simulation instead.
🛠️ Designing a 5G Micro Simulation
An e-course called 21st Century Technologies was designed for university students to learn about:
emerging technologies such as 5G networks
automation
the telecommunication industry
and more
The course’s micro simulation aimed to improve students' ability to apply what they have learnt about 5G networks. In the simulation, the user has to balance the critical needs of network users, maximize network performance and ensure reliability and connectivity of a network in a real-world scenario.
I ideated the scenario’s story and a feedback mechanism.
For instance, if the user places the correct type of antenna into the correct spot and sets an appropriate frequency band, the city satisfaction meter will rise because the connectivity issues are diminished, and vice versa. In this task, I also got the chance to cooperate with subject matter experts for gathering some parts of the content for the simulation.
🧩 Knowledge Sharing with the Team
Based on a personal discussion with my manager, I recognised a demand to increase the team’s knowledge in professional learning and learning design.
Hence, I took the initiative and suggested creating a presentation about digital professional learning for engineers based on:
Vähäsantanen and Eteläpelto (2018)
Hult and Byström (2021)
the 70:20:10 Framework and the Transfer of Learning by Johnson et al. (2018)
I incorporated this presentation into my final internship summary. Both the knowledge sharing presentation and summarisation of my conducted work were appreciated by colleagues, my project manager and mentor.
In that moment, I felt grateful for the opportunity to learn from my mentor and colleagues while also being able to contribute with my ideas and experiences to the project’s needs.
To those of my peers who might be considering applying to the internship at Ericsson, I can only recommend doing that. The combination of a supportive environment with knowledgeable professionals who are experimenting with the newest education technology while critically examining its assets for the learners, was invaluable.
I also experienced how academia can enrich industry and how industry can enrich academia by applying the research results and recommendations into real-world conditions.
Overall, this experience made me feel empowered as a master’s student, as an intern, but also as an individual starting a career in learning experience design.
Anežka
References:
Hult, H. V., & Byström, K. (2021). Challanges to learning and leading the digital workplace. Studies in Continuing Education, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/0158037X.2021.1879038
Johnson, S. J., Blackman, D. A., & Buick, F. (2018). The 70:20:10 framework and the transfer of learning. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 29(4), 383–402. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21330
Vähäsantanen, K., & Eteläpelto, A. (2018). Agency and Learning in the Work of Software Professionals. In C. Harteis (Ed.), The Impact of Digitalization in the Workplace (Vol. 21, pp. 161–179). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63257-5_11
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