How that foreign summer internship can change your life!
Your academic year is sailing along like a yacht in a summer breeze. The course you charted is the course you now follow. Things seem perfect and you wish the status quo could last forever. And with the summer break around the corner, you are looking forward to a great time lazing around, improving your tan or just partying and perfecting your bad habits. But, given the choice wouldn’t you want to do something extraordinary during your college years that would catapult your career and life skyward – beyond the earth-bound mundane grind of studies, exams, and placements?
Well, that is where getting a foreign summer internship abroad can help. Yes, the whole process of finding a summer internship can be daunting, and you might wonder whether you’ve got what it takes to pull this off – but the benefits of interning abroad are so amazing, that it is worth every bit of effort you put in. You get to travel, experience a new culture and lifestyle, and bring home an experience that will last a lifetime.
Here are 12 ways that a foreign summer internship can put a smile on your face that might very well last forever
Create a global professional network:
An internship abroad will expose you to people and organizations internationally, allowing you to network with people whom you may not meet in your home country. A foreign stint will also place you in good stead when you plan for a career abroad – your perspective employers would know that you already have a good understanding of their culture, and can integrate with them. Knowing that on Thursday afternoons in Budapest all the delis are closed to the public might put you ahead of the competition.
Learn exceptional interpersonal and corporate skills:
What might be ok in one culture may offend in another. In some cultures, breezing into a meeting twenty minutes late might be de rigueur, while in others this would be as rude as pouring the contents of the water jug over the chairman’s head. And you’ll need to know whether to address new colleagues by their first name or more formally, such as in Mr. Anderson. Avoid ‘Hey buddy,’ on all occasions.
Your internship stint abroad will broaden your perspective, introduce you to people from different cultures and backgrounds, and help you break down cultural barriers to achieve a common goal. This will hone your interpersonal and corporate skills.
Earn academic credit:
Many of the internship programmes abroad help you earn additional credits, hence making them a great way of enhancing your academics while getting to travel and experience a new culture. What’s not to like about that? In addition, the skills and knowledge that you get from your internship can help you do better in your college.
Cross-cultural skills and adaptability:
One of the biggest advantages of interning abroad is that you learn how to adapt to surroundings which are different from what you are used to. Be it picking up a new language, developing your social skills, coming to accept people who are from different racial backgrounds – you learn how to deal with people and adapt in ways that may not be possible if you stay at home.
Better chances at the interview:
Taking up an international internship shows that you are a risk taker. Not the kind of risk taker than would willingly climb into a barrel and roll over Niagara Falls with a smile on your face. Rather, the kind of risk taker that’s willing to jump out of their comfort zone and do what it takes to get what they want – a trait that interviewers and prospective employers appreciate. It also puts you in good stead at the interview where your internship could be a topic of discussion, something about which you have the upper hand.
Expand subject knowledge:
The way you are taught about a particular subject would be different from how you would be expected to approach it during your internship. This helps you broaden yourself beyond just book knowledge, and teaches you how you to apply it to different scenarios.
Create a resume that stands out:
Everyone has a resume, but what will make yours stand out from the rest of the crowd won’t be the twenty-seven fonts in a variety of pastel shades you downloaded from blockbustercvs.com specifically for the purpose of creating your multi-media CV. It’ll be the experiences that you have had. An internship stint abroad will do wonders to enhance your resume and tip the scales in your favor.
Improved language proficiency:
Researchers from Penn State University have found out that picking up a new language alters the structure and function of the brain, thus strengthening it. While you can learn languages even back home, there is no better way to pick up and become proficient in a language than by practicing it in everyday life. Want to learn German? Move to Berlin. Spanish? Barcelona’s nice. And, in the process of picking up a new skill, you get to enhance your grey matter as well. That’s a bonus.
Self-discovery:
When you are at home, you tend to take for granted a lot of things about others and about yourself. However, getting out of your comfort zone will help you discover what you are good at, how you can manage difficult situations, and overall help you become a better person professionally and personally.
Boost your confidence:
You’ve been there, done that. Possibly you bought the T-shirt too. And what better way to boost your confidence. An internship stint abroad will help you tackle challenges, meet new people and learn to survive without much help, thus making it a great lesson in independence.
A lifetime experience:
Foreign internships are not just about academics – you get to travel around, immerse yourself in the culture, learn many survival skills, meet some wonderful people, and otherwise have the experience of a lifetime. Who wouldn’t want some of that?
Discover if this is what you want:
You may have thought that this is exactly what you want to do as a career, but unless you start working, you can’t really be sure if you are cut out for it. Summer internships help you decide whether or not you have made the right choice before it is too late.
The youth of today often demand choices. Well here’s one of the biggest you’ll ever make: Use your summers to relax, or get on your feet and get your dream summer internship going. Remember, the experiences that you take back home after a summer internship will help mold your career and life.
About the author:
Getting through that coveted summer internship programme can be a daunting task for many. While most students are unaware that they can get a paid summer internship in a foreign university, even those who do know don’t apply, because they fear that the field would to be too crowded. That is where motivational speaker and coach, Aniket Singh, comes in. Armed with a treasure trove of experience and knowledge through his internships in Southampton England & Lausanne, Switzerland, Singh has made it his mission to help students take the right path during their formative years, and avoid anything that is not conducive to long-term growth.
Singh holds a Bachelor of Technology degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, Chennai, and a Master’s degree in Wireless Systems and Related Technologies from Politecnico Di Torino in Torino, Italy. He has interned at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom and Ecole Polytechnic Federale de Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland.
For a rewarding summer internship and career, take the first step, explore internabroadthissummer.com and get in touch with Aniket Singh.
