Today we will discuss a topic that will interest a number of you, including students looking for an internship abroad.
For this article I decided to interview one of our authors, Melanie. Who better than someone who has lived this experience to talk about it?
Melanie, can you introduce yourself to our readers?
I'm 24 and I currently work in a large IT company. I have an engineering school in 5 years in the field of new technologies.I graduated in September 2012.
Your internship abroad, compulsory education or desire to travel?
My school requires a foreign experience of minimum two months during the course, a little summer job do the trick, the only condition is that it is an experience.
I chose to go abroad in the fourth year because I had to do three months of training and I was 4 and a half months to complete it, potentially leaving me time to travel where I am. I intended to make my career in France so it seemed logical to my end of study in France. The course of the fourth year should be focused on the art.
Where have you done your internship? What for?
I left New Zealand. I had no idea where to start in particular. I wanted to go to an English speaking country primarily to test and improve my English. So I used the alumni network at my school. I have sent dozens of emails, and I received a positive response to New Zealand. The company concerned was seeking several people, so we went to three students in my promo.
I was in a large French group but recruitment was done only with the local branch. A team was formed specifically to Auckland for the project under the responsibility of the Australian subsidiary. So I mainly worked with Australians, Kiwis and Chinese, Korean and Indian. Beautiful multicultural context!
How long does it last?
The course lasted four months, during the winter in the southern hemisphere. Not the best season so, but the New Zealand climate is mild all year hopefully!
Administrative side, how's it going?
The administration has not been easy since the company has been very slow to send us internship agreements and we finally got our plane tickets and made our visa applications three weeks before the start ...
For New Zealand, as in Australia, there is a "Working Holiday Visa" that allows young Europeans to come for 1 year with a work permit. The steps are very simplified and not everything is done online in a few days. Briefs, in 3-4 days we had received our visa. Regarding insurance, we had approached our student social security which is used to this kind of case.
On arrival, in order to be paid, we had to open an account in a local bank, our colleagues have great help for the first steps.
Once there, how was you coming?
The journey is long from Paris to Auckland ... We left Paris on a Friday night to arrive in Auckland on Sunday afternoon, and we began to work on Monday. The first few days have been exhausting!
Fortunately, the old school that allowed us to find the internship we hosted the first week, time to get organized.
We spent the first week looking for an apartment. We found the following Monday, we had spent 1 or 2 night stay in a hostel for the transition. He quickly had to call the power company, the first language test! English face to face is good, the phone is much more complicated ...
Tell us about your daily life there? Your typical day?
A typical day starts at Work course. Not always lunch break, it's not France! The advantage is that you went out early for work. It allowed us the time to go for a walk in town, the harbor. And in the evening we often had drinks in trendy bars.Fairly standard in all!
Financial side, you had foreseen this? How do you go out in you?
Life is not extremely expensive in Auckland, with the salary we had, we had no problem. Probationary status does not exist in New Zealand, we had a salary of junior engineer, which is quite comfortable when you have the habit of studying style!
The hardest part was to pay the ticket and the first month, before receiving the first paycheck. Fortunately, we had the support of our parents first. It would have been difficult without it, especially for the plane ticket!
Did you do a lot of meetings? Was there a language barrier?
For my part, I was pretty comfortable in English, that was not the case of the friend with whom I left. At first, he mostly had to adapt to the kiwi accent has nothing to do with the school British accent or an American accent series ... But because of meetings at work and in bars, we finally get out! The weekend traveling, rather we met other young Europeans and therefore have continued to speak English.
For rugby fans, you know what that means ... September 2011 World Cup in New Zealand! The link between the blues and blacks is quite unique. Say that I was French was often a good conversation starter!
Did you really have time to explore the country?
Every weekend, we visit a new place! We rented a car for the weekend and slept one or two nights in a hostel (backpackers). The prices were very low, especially for car rentals, you could get by for 30 euros on weekends, from memory.
We visited all the North Island. Time for a weekend was too short for a trip to the South Island, so we planned it for the end of the trip. Unfortunately our finances we have failed. But the North Island was enough to us to impress!
And of course, always the rugby, we had the chance to see at Eden Park Stadium several games including a memorable NZ-Australia for the tri-nations! The end of our trip was marked by the opening of the World Cup. Wearing trembled many haka in a crazy atmosphere!
In hindsight, it was a good experience? What does it brought you?
An unforgettable experience!
I discovered a country of incredible natural beauty and I met some great people. Moreover, it is this course that allowed me to discover what I really liked in the world of computers and the job I wanted to do.
Of course, on the resume, I think this course at the other end of the world is more important.
And as traveling make you want to travel, I now have the desire to work abroad, at least temporarily.
This trip has given me want to visit dozens of places on the planet. But I also greatly desire to return to New Zealand to explore the South Island and review the places that I was most marked on the North Island as the cape Reinga.
You advise this type of experience to our readers? Advice to give them? Warnings?
I think it is an amazing experience that everyone should have the chance to live. Even without starting too far, especially for financial reasons. I would rather have lived an internship abroad as a university exchange. Of course, I probably missed big parties, but I think I really discovered the country and not just a group of international students. The salary also allowed me to be totally independent.
If you have the chance to go, I wish you to live this experience with a friend. However, I do not recommend colocation between French. We would have more meetings and would have grown much faster in English if we had lived with kiwis.
Our main challenge was to find the company that was willing to accommodate us. If you hire this kind of approach, be aware that it can be long and difficult. Of the tens of mails I received only three responses, two negative. And the road was not finished because the recruitment process now lasted several months. But the result was worth all the effort! So please do not give up, attack from all sides, arm yourself with patience and you will end up getting much the winning ticket!
