Maximizing Your Study Abroad Internship Experience

Contributors: Jahnavi Srinivas (UCLA) and Ashley Lopresto (UCI), UCEAP participants

Story highlights:

• How setting goals for your internship leads to success.
• Ways to stretch yourself and learn the skills you want.
• What to do when the internship is over.

It’s become beyond important to have professional experience before you graduate and start applying for your dream jobs.

The tangible benefits of interning abroad, rather than in the US, are priceless. On an internship abroad, you stand to gain:

• Multicultural workplace experience
• A diverse network of contacts
• Useful skills and perspectives
• In some cases, language expansion and/or proficiency

Here’s how to make the most of your study abroad internship experience.

Set some goals for yourself

The goals are individual to you and what you want to attain from the internship.

• If it’s about skills development, list those skills and what specifically you want to be able to do with them after the internship. Example: “I want to be able to draft video scripts and become a better editor.”
• If the internship is about language development, write that down and be specific about how proficient you want to be after the internship. Example: “I want to be able to have everyday conversations with co-workers in German.”
• If it’s about networking, write down how many contacts you want to have at the end of the internship. Example: “I want to have two contacts who will share job postings and at least one who would be willing to write a recommendation.”
• If it’s about clarifying your career options, write down your concerns and what you hope to learn from the internship that will help you with your future career. Example: “I want to see how I can put my biology studies to use in a community to solve real-life problems.”

Whatever your goals are, make sure they are concrete and clearly defined. This is your roadmap for the internship experience.

Prepare for a great first impression

When you arrive on that first day, it may feel scary–exciting and hopeful–but probably a little scary too.

The best way to overcome those fears is to be prepared to make a great first impression—here’s how:

1. Research how to dress ahead of time. If you had an in-person interview, you already have a good idea of how people dress in the workspace–match that to the best of your ability.
2. Learn how to politely greet new people in the local language and culture. The US practice of smiling and shaking hands isn’t appropriate everywhere in the world. Practice with your friends until it feels natural.
3. Know your travel route–consider a practice run the day before!
4. Get plenty of sleep the night before. Nothing ruins a good first impression like being tired or hungover. Don’t do that to yourself.
5. Arrive early but don’t go in right away. The goal is to get there on time. If you’re early, take a break, get a coffee, use the facilities, and take a breath.

Pro tip: Save your supervisor’s contact info in your phone on the first day. You don’t want to realize you’re accidentally locked out of the building without some way to let them know.

Practice curiosity, positivity, and open-mindedness

When you’re interning abroad, you’re experiencing a new culture, possibly another language, and a different environment. In short, it’s a lot!

It’s important that you see yourself as a kind of sponge, taking it all in and at the same time, seeing how you fit in. Patience will be essential and observing with curiosity will be critical to your success.

It’s also important to maintain a positive attitude, even if you feel overwhelmed or down sometimes.

Even if you’ve worked in similar workplaces in the US, the work culture abroad is going to be different–guaranteed. And you won’t know exactly how different no matter how much research you do ahead of time until you experience it for yourself.

Interning abroad is going to add a whole new dimension of culture shock, and it’s a good thing if you approach it with curiosity and open-mindedness. It’s OK to be surprised in the moment, and even a little confused, that’s all part of the experience.

Stretch yourself

Some internships are well organized and others, not so much. At the end of the day, you’ll get the most out of your internship by putting in all you can.

• Not sure what that term or concept meant? If it’s not a good time to ask, take a few minutes to do some independent research. You’ll understand the intentions and assignments better if you do.
• Don’t have enough to do? See where you can volunteer on projects.
• Want to learn something specific? Look for colleagues who have that experience and ask them to show you, or propose a project where you can focus on learning that skill. For example, if you want to learn copywriting, propose a new webpage or article you could write. Even if the content doesn’t end up being used in the way you propose, it’s still a practiced skill and something you can add to your resume.
  

Practice patience to avoid miscommunication

It’s unlikely that you completely understand the cultural norms or jargon of the workplace environment–that can take months or years! Here are some strategies to avoid miscommunication in a diverse workplace:

• Listen actively–focus steadily on the conversation at hand, then summarize back what you heard to verify.
• Ask open-ended and curious questions about the project or task to receive a more complete story.
• Collaborate creatively–actively look for and gently suggest solutions to issues to respectfully achieve common goals.

Miscommunication in a new, diverse workplace is common, and it can feel even worse when you know you are only there for a finite time and are still learning the cultural nuances. It’s important to be patient with yourself and others as you go through this process.

Enjoy the moment

Later on in your career, you’re not as likely to have the opportunity to live and work abroad. Time flies and your internship abroad will be over before you know it.

Each day, try to stop for a moment, look around, and appreciate how far you’ve come and what you are doing right now (even if it’s hard).

These are the moments of your life–don’t let them slip away!

Create connections

Connections with people take active nurturing.

• Get to know your supervisor and check in with them regularly.
• Spend time with your new coworkers as often as possible. If they invite you to do something outside of work, go with them!

Pro tip: Get to know your supervisor’s assistant (if they have one) and any office managers. These are the folks that know everything!

Build a network

This internship experience isn’t just an 8-week slog–it’s a networking opportunity for your future. Your colleagues, supervisors, and all the people you meet along the way are a chance to build your network. You don’t know what role these people will play in your future yet, and that’s why it’s important to include them in your network.

Creating professional connections is about opening doors, for yourself and others.

• Take active steps to connect with individuals and get to know them.
• Ask for a letter of recommendation (two is better!) at the end.
• Send a thank you note to specific individuals and the entire team when you leave.
• Share your contact information and invite them to connect online.

Your internship is likely to be a hard experience where you’re learning what you want to do in the future and sometimes what you don’t. It’s a real-life challenge to see what you can do with the academic learning you’ve compiled and with your life.

Reflect on what you learned

Don’t take this step lightly. It takes time to absorb and understand all that you experience on study abroad and your internship.

When the internship has concluded, return to your list of goals and reflect on what you enjoyed and what you didn’t. What you learned and what gaps you may have discovered. All of those are important takeaways and key points to include in your resume.

Bonus: The Navigating Reentry course is a great way to reflect on all that you learned on your study abroad experience.

Stay in touch

If you learned and achieved what you set out to, then you may be fine with your internship ending there.

Otherwise, if you want it to continue, stay in touch with the people in your network and what they’re doing and achieving. You never know where those connections will lead.

Bonus: Did you know that you can apply to receive an award from UCEAP for your internship? Check it out.

Learn more about study abroad internships

• See recommendations for internships you can do abroad, according to UCEAP returnees.
• Steps to follow if you want to add an internship to your study abroad experience.
• And when you return, you can apply for a UCEAP Internship Award!