Why an internship?

As I have described in the previous posts, during my master's dregree's 2nd year's 1st semester we have the opportunity to either stay in Linköping studying more subjects, going in an international experience as an erasmus student or simply doing an internship.

My choice was the third one and in this post I will explain my main motivations to do so.

When we were offered to choose one of the options my first thought was: "I should stay in Link¨ping, I'm already abroad and this is already an expense for me and  my family so I should try to stay here". However, a few weeks later, when the period to apply for an erasmus was about to end, I decided to apply for erasmus; even if it sounds a bit contradictory, I applied for a spot in Lille (France) and fortunately, I got that spot.

But again, a few days later I though: "Okay, so now I will almost surely go abroad, but wouldn't be more positive for my career and CV to try to do an internship abroad again?". Well, so Irati started to search and search, to send emails as crazy (I sent around 80 emails in order to get a response) but it wasn't successfull.

Nevertheless, I had some replies: some Spanish embassies replied by saying that they didn't have any knd of agreement with my University, so it wasn't possible to join them in an internship. However, one of the embassies, the Spanish embassy in Sweden told me to go to Stockholm, to have an interview with them and to see if their offer could fit my priorities.

The same week, I got a response from the Bureau International des Expositions. To be honest, BIE was my highest aspiration, which was recommended by a friend living in Paris who knew a lot about the institution and who told me, literally: "having an intern position in BIE is like having the lottery in your hands". People from BIE offered me an interview (via skype) in order to meet me and see if I could fit in the profile they were looking for.

I went to Stockholm on friday, 24th of February, I went to the ABBA museum and the Vasa Museum to relax before the interview (they were in the same island as the embassy) and I went to the building. I met the girl with whom I had been in contact a few weeks before and she ook me to her office. We were talking for 10 minutes about my studies in general and my reasons to work in an embassy. However, she was super honest with me (what I really valued) and she told me that the internship there wouldn't help me a lot to gain international experience since it is all focused on Spanish and Swedish relationship, and the environment of work is just Spanish. She told me that she was very happy to accept me but that first, I should look for more things.

The week after, on Tuesday, I had the interview with BIE, as I said, via Skype. The interview was very short but very concise. They asked me what they wanted, I showed my knowledge about the institution, the expos they organize, I spoke in both english and french and my sensations were pretty good. Nevertheless, I didn't have the response until next wednesday, what made me stay nervous during the entire week.

But finally, they told me they liked my profile and that they would like to count with my colaboration for the autumn semester internship. Yes, I was chosen as their intern!!! I was soooo happy.

But then, why is it good to do an internship?

• If you haven't had any experience in the field you are studying, doing an internship opens a new world to you, it teaches you new things relaed to the field and opens a new door for future jobs in that field.
• You learn from professional people and you learn how to work as they do
• Improves the CV
• You meet new people and make new contacts
• You have more possibilities to be chosen after the internship as a regular employee.

Doing an internship has lot of advantages. As I said, if it's the first woking experience in the field, it is a good way to start learning about the way they work in the institutions as such. Many new people, contacts, opportunities, new languages and opens up a new door for the future career. Moreover, if you are in a master's level like me and you don't want to continue studying after it, it could be a great opportunity to be taken as an employee in the future or just having contacts for future jobs.

Don't doubt about becoming an intern, it has only positive aspects! You just ave to work 40h/week ;)