An internship abroad can be the perfect solution for students and graduates who want to gain work experience in their fields in a foreign country or just experience a new culture in a work environment.
Students can intern abroad while they spend a semester abroad or a summer study program abroad.
If you’re a recent graduate, an intern abroad program is a great way to gain valuable work experience abroad that will help you as you start out in your career and go forward towards your future.
What Kind of Internships Abroad Exist?
There are intern abroad opportunities for work during the school year or even during the summer that you can plan for before your studies commence, while your program is in session, or after your program wraps up.
You can intern:
- At a company in the field you are studying in.
- At your host school.
- With an American college abroad in a dual internship/learning environment.
In addition to those internships available to current students, many companies will employ recent graduates as interns for little or no pay. Although not very lucrative, this is a great way to get your foot in the door of a company that you’d like to work at full time, as good interns can be hired as employees after the internship abroad is complete.
Whichever path you take to participate in an internship abroad program, you will have to figure out how you’ll make ends meet. This is because living expenses and private and federal student loan payments are a fact of life no matter how much of your time you donate to a company as an intern.
So have an earning plan in place before you accept any internship offer. Find as many ways to cuts costs as you can, while living abroad. For instance, use a low cost provider like Railpass.com to buy your rail pass tickets when you travel.
How to Intern Abroad
There are a number of different ways to go about finding and participating in an internship abroad program.
- If you are participating in a study abroad program you can check with your program’s coordinator to see what internship abroad opportunities exist for program participants.
- You can also create a hit list of companies - both American companies with foreign offices as well as foreign companies - that you’d like to gain experience at. Find out if they have existing internship programs that you can apply to.
If not, identify the departments you’d like to work in and find appropriate contacts there. Approach each with a phone call or email outlining your employment objectives.
If you are willing to work for free, you might be surprised to see how many companies respond positively to this tactic.
Many of the same U.S. schools that sponsor study abroad programs also sponsor intern abroad programs. Many times these types of programs couple an internship with in-class or other in-the-field learning.
Use the following brief list to get your search underway:
