How to find an internship abroad?

How to find an internship abroad?

It takes some time and work to get from an idea of internship to an actual internship. The first step is finding a perfect offer, or even better a few of them so that you had wide array of possibilities. That is why it is important to know where to look.

Where do offers pop up most often?

• Universities, colleges, academies
• Companies
• The Internet
• Internship programmes

University offers

It is a good idea to start with checking what our uni has to offer. Some universities (and their faculties) have companies that cooperate with them. They also lead special programs that focus on organizing practices and trainings for students. Still - more often than not it is student that has to find himself an employer, not the other way round; the academy’s role is only to help. It gives relegation, sometimes prepares a contract or even grants us a scholarship. Thus it is a good idea to check out university’s bureaus of career, dean’s office and so on.

Door to door

Ones that prefer to look for their offers in real world may also visit headquarters of the company they would like to receive their internship at. Some companies place information about practices somewhere in their premises. If we would like to work abroad, we should of course look at Polish departments of international companies. Quite a lot of offers can be found at local employment agency. Some may feel afraid of those places, but they shouldn’t be – the advisor will not only present us with offers suited for our needs, but will also help us and give whatever explanation we need. The downside of this method is that it is extremely time-consuming.

Possibilities of the Web

Since we are all living in the future, it would seem logical to make use of the internet. Offers may show up at the pages of specific companies or institutions (see Hardest internship to get). Checking them out is a method for those that have very precise requirements concerning the place of their training. Besides, just as in the case of “door to door” method it consumes quite a lot of time. If you want to see a lot of such offers in one place and do not spend too much time on it, you would be better off using one of the offer-gathering websites.

Sites you can find offers of practices and internships abroad

• Feender.com (www.feender.com) – it is fast and has offers that come straight from companies

• Global Citizen (http://globalcitizen.pl/) – made by students, but you have to pay from using it.

• Eurodesk (http://www.eurodesk.org) – supported by MNE and EC

• ProjectsAbroad (http://www.projects-abroad.org/) – while expensive it looks after those that use it

Do I have to choose quickly?

You most assuredly should not take the decision of going abroad for internship lightly. To make sure you have chosen the offer and the country well, you should look through as many offers as only possible. What if there is a chance of going abroad as a part of a project organized by your academy? Then you will quite possibly not only get paid by your employer, but also receive a scholarship! There are a lot of possibilities and it pays off to look through all of them.

photo source: gigaompaidcontent.files.wordpress.com

See also: Non-tech internships