How to find a placement abroad - things to do & things to avoid

In case this is the first one of my articles you’ve read (shame on you) I am currently interning at Erasmusu in Murcia, Spain, as part of my year abroad. However, although I’ve settled in now, and really enjoying it, finding a placement was far from easy and this article aims to help you have a better time of it should you give it a try.

No help from home

Finding a university for the year abroad is easy. Your home university gives you a list of partner universities abroad and all you have to do is pick, the only bit of stress coming in the form of waiting to see if you managed to get your first choice or not. Preference aside, you’ll never be too disappointed in what you end up with, as I said, there are so many options so landing a decent one isn’t too tricky.

The same can’t be said for work placements or internships however. In contrast to the flurry of emails revolving around picking and choosing your ideal university, when it comes to information about work placements, you’re left out to dry. The odd offer might find its way in to your inbox, but don’t get too excited. The majority of these will be teaching assistant jobs, or au paire stuff, that quite simply, isn’t what I was hoping to do when I said I wanted to work abroad.

Don’t get me wrong, the teaching assistant jobs can be amazing, and if you are interested in that area, or at least think you’d be able to bear the relentless energy of screaming children, day in, day out, then go for it, I commend you for your patience. However, if like me you’d prefer to avoid being asked your favourite colour four times a day, then finding a placement outside of this area is particularly frustrating.

The Middle Men

There are plenty of websites that can help you find your perfect placement, or at least claim to, and the fact I only started using these towards the end of my search is perhaps why they left me with a bitter taste in my mouth.

The one good thing about finding a work placement is that there is pretty much no time limit. As long as you complete at least 4 months (or less if you’re planning to fill the time so other way) then you can go whenever and wherever you want. So, being what some may call lazy, although I prefer patient and effective under pressure, I left it to the proverbial last minute to whore myself out to these websites. My patient wait for the perfect position popping in to my inbox was fast becoming an impatient panic and as I was planning to travel Central America in the summer I needed to find a placement as soon as possible (I may have gone overboard with the alliteration, but, I bet you loved it).

The first company I found was www.spain-internship.com and after a promising start, they really started to annoy me. They have hundreds of placements listed and should you see one you like you have to send them an email declaring your interest. This is where promise and hope quickly turns to frustration and rage. Despite being available on the website, every one I applied for was either in fact unavailable or I just didn’t receive any information about it.

The thing that really pissed me off though was that as part of the application process you create a profile stating what areas you would like to work in. I chose Journalism and Social Media, excited by the prospect of finding something that would help me pursue a career in the future. However, spain-internship, despite the information I provided and the numerous emails I angrily sent their way in typical English fashion, they proceeded to send me hospitality placements, one after another, until I had simply had enough.

Despite my issues with spain-internship, it was in fact one of these websites that helped me secure my placement. I started to bluntly search google for what I wanted to do, with ‘journalism internships in Spain’ eventually leading me to http://www.trainingexperience.org. The actual offer that attracted me was again unavailable when it came down to it. But despite seeming to fall at the first hurdle, in my desperation I put myself through the same application process that had proved so ineffective before, and this time they were more accommodating. Relatively quickly they sent me an offer for this placement and, relievedly so, I applied and got the job. It showed me that these websites can actually work, it’s just a case of applying to loads of them until you find one that is actually competent in what they do.

Finally, with regards to websites that do the looking for you, it would have been much easier if I had known about Erasmusu before coming to work here. They have a section for pretty much every city you can imagine, and within that, you can find a page full of job offers, specifically for Erasmus students. It gives you everything in one place, allowing you to look at and apply to all those that interest you, and even search by city if you have a certain place in mind.

When to get worried

Now that I’ve given you some things to be worried about, why not add one more to the mix? As I mentioned earlier, there is no real deadline to find yourself a work placement should you have taking the plunge, swapping 5 to 9 hours a week for the daily helping of 9 to 5.

But when should you start looking? And when should you start getting worried? From personal experience, I’d recommend signing up to all the aforementioned websites as quickly as possible. Not only does it mean you’ll probably end up less frustrated than I was, but the more time you give yourself, the more likely you’ll find your perfect placement.

The leisurely approach I took was probably too relaxed. You need to be proactive as just waiting for something to fall in to your lap will most likely land you in a similar position to the one I found myself in. No one wants to be scrambling around looking for any old placement, trawling through numerous websites trying to find the best of the worst. Luckily for me though, I got exactly what I wanted. That’s not to say that I couldn’t have done it much sooner, and much less stressfully.

Starting your search as soon as possible is definitely the best course of action, and just to reiterate, the more time you give yourself, the more options you’ll have. The one thing I would say though, don’t just accept the first decent looking thing you come across. There’s a balance between being well prepared and too eager. You may think it’s the best offer you’ll get, but sorting out a placement a year before you have to go isn’t necessary, you might even end up regretting it.

Too long, don't read

If you bothered to read everything, thank you, here’s a brief recap of what I’ve said. If not, then here’s a short list of the three most important points things to bear in mind, presented in an efficient, yet much less enjoyable way.

1. Don’t rely on your university to help: the onus is very much on you to find your placement. Waiting for emails from your home university will leave you disappointed and frustrated.
2. The more the merrier: if you want to to use websites to help you find work, then go crazy. The more you apply to, the more offers you’ll get. Simple.
3. Have patience, but not too much: waiting for your perfect placement might seem like a good idea, as does locking down the first offer you get. The way to go is finding the right balance between the two, making sure you’re certain it’s the best for you whilst not leaving it too late and taking whatever you can find.

Working abroad is definitely worth the trouble, especially if you have to split you year between two countries. Doing at least some work will open many doors for you in the future, giving you an impressive experience to pimp out your CV.

I hope this post helps you find what you’re looking for, and helps you do so without wanting to pull your hair out.