As you might have read in my other blog posts I did an internship in London. I always love reading about someone’s experience abroad and I hope that if you want to go abroad someday I can give you some helpful tips on how to organise an internship in another country based on my experiences.
My Story
Why?
As I told you in this blog post I did an apprenticeship as a Foreign Language Correspondent and I did an additional qualification to become a European Business Assistant as well. For both apprenticeships I had to do an internship abroad so I thought about all possibilities. I knew that I wanted to go to an English speaking country because English has always been my favourite language ever and I’ve studied it for the longest time. I’ve been to the USA and Canada before but I knew that it would be quite expensive to do an internship there for a couple of months. I’ve never been to Australia or New Zealand but those countries were just too far away. Now there were just two places left that I could take into consideration – the UK or Ireland. I always thought that if I go abroad I would like to work and live in a big city so that’s why I tried my fortune and sent out about 30 applications to various companies around London…large companies such as Universal Music but also to some smaller businesses. I received some rejections to my applications and some companies didn’t even respond. I was gutted because there was not a lot of time left to search for an internship. The reason for their rejections was mainly that two months for an internship are too short. They prefer interns who stay for at least six months. I could understand that so I wasn’t disappointed about it anymore but I was still afraid that I won’t find a company in London. I told my teacher about my situation and she gave me the e-mail address from one of her former students who did an internship in London and is now working there. I messaged her right away. She was really nice and eventually she set up contact with the company she used to work for.
When?
The period of time was given by my school. That was between the summer and autumn holidays in 2012. I went to London in August and September which was the time of the Olympics and I didn’t even know (ups!). I’m not that into athletics and stuff but in the end it was amazing to be there at that time. I even went to the Paralympics which was a lot of fun! I would always suggest to do an internship in London in summer. You won’t believe it but it can get really hot in England 😉 In my opinion it’s the perfect time of the year to do an internship aroad but it’s up to you really.
Where?
The girl from my school gave me an e-mail address of a tour operator for holidays by rail. As the job market in London is pretty tough I was happy to get the chance to apply for an internship in the travel business as I am a huge fan of travelling (as you might know haha). I sent my application to their HR team and after that they asked me for a telephone interview. I was so happy but super nervous at the same time. We have practiced phone calls in our phone booths in school (we didn’t have actual phone booths in our school but tiny rooms with a desk, a chair and a phone and we could talk to another student in the booth next door. Cool, isn’t it!?). Enough of that ;-). The day of the telephone interview came and of course it wasn’t as bad as expected. We always expect the worst, don’t we? And in the end everything will be alright. After my call with the lovely HR manager she promised me to talk to the Office Manager and tell me about their decision via e-mail. I got it!!!!!!! I was so relieved and happy and just so excited for August 2012 🙂
My Tips For You
How to find a company for an internship?
Finding an internship is not an easy game especially if you are looking for a company in a city like London. The competition is huge. I don’t want to scare you though. I’m sure you will find an internship at least always with the help of an organization.
Now let me give you some general tips:
- Choose a country/city you would like to go to
- Allow enough time for your search for an internship
- Search for companies in your field of interest (on Google etc.)
- Also search for companies you know and have a look at their internship offers (if they don’t have any vacant positions you can still send them a speculative application)
- Don’t send out only 10 applications. The more the better!
- Don’t expect replies from all companies. Large companies get hundreds of applications and they don’t waste their time on responding to every application they receive.
- It can be quite frustrating to look for different companies and to write so many applications but there’s simply no way around. And I hope that in the end it’s worth it!
- If you haven’t received a positive reply and you’re running out of time you might want to get in touch with an organizazion who helps you. You will get a guaranteed internship placement but the downside is that you have to pay a certain amount of money for organizational costs. But on the other hand you have a contact person if you’re unhappy with your company. If you would like to go to London like I did try Internship in London. I have heard they are good!
Tips for a telephone interview:
Prepare for the call by taking notes of…
- facts about the company like their history, what they do, their customers or subsidiaries
- replies to questions they might ask you (e.g. Why do you want be an intern especially at their company?)
- facts about you (Usually they want you to introduce yourself and give them a few infos about your school education and career)
- at the end of your interview they probably ask if you have any questions. Think about it in advance. Maybe there are some things you would like to ask or need to clarify.
Where to live during your internship?
I can only talk about my experience in London and I can say that London is very very expensive when it comes to accommodations. When I did my internship during the Olympics prices were three times as expensive as usual but I have to say that London’s rents are usually already very high. The best thing to do is to search for a room in a flat share. You will most definitely only get a tiny room with a shared bathroom for a ridiculous price but that’s how it is in London – the most expensive European city.
Due to the immense prices 2012 I stayed with the nephew of my English neighbour here in Germany. I lived in St. Albans which is located north of London and was just a 20 minutes train journey away from King’s Cross/St. Pancras (you can read more about St. Albans in this blog post).
Concerning the flat share I can only give you some tips from what I’ve heard is the best place to search for a room in London. Websites like SpareRoom London or flatshare.com are recommended.
Expected costs?
That’s an important topic. As I said London is very expensive when it comes to prices for flats, transportation or food. When you’re a student you might be able to apply for a scholarship. That’s what I did and luckily it worked out. On the other hand it is essential that you have saved enough money for your stay if you don’t have a paid internship. Maybe it’s a good idea to think about your expenses before you do your internship and calculate all possible accruing costs. This might help to get an impression of what to expect.
Questions?
Wow! There are so many things you have to plan before going abroad for an internship. I hope I could give you some useful tips 🙂
If you still have any questions I’m more than happy to answer them! Just leave a comment below, tweet me or write an e-mail to londonlalife@gmail.com
I hope to hear from you!
xx
Alissa
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