AIFS Abroad Internships in Milan, Italy

Interning abroad is definitely a once and a lifetime experience that I would highly recommend to anyone who is interested. Working within Italy definitely gave me incredible life and professional skills that I’ll take with me for the rest of my life! Italy is such an incredible country with an incredibly rich culture making the past three months unforgettable. My internship definitely gave me more professional skills I was looking to gain and the work atmosphere was perfect for my personality!

If you are hesitant on deciding if you should join the program then I'm here to tell you that you should do it.

I wasn't sure at first, but this was one of the best decisions I have ever made. The company i worked with was very reputable and let me dive right into my field of studies and helped me learn how to apply my knowledge from the classroom to the work place. Also there isn't a better city for fashion than milan. All of my coworkers were so friendly and I didn't need to know italian to get around the city (plus they were more than happy to help me out).

Milan is a beautiful place to live, explore, and cherish, but what makes it an even better experience is attending the program through Global Experiences. I had a fashion internship while abroad and GE worked to their greatest extent to place me in an environment that catered to my specifications. I learned, grew, and was challenged throughout the summer and ultimately gained new insight on the industry and the detailed components of running your own company.

The city itself is the perfect place to get to know in a few months. A larger city with a small city feel. Anything you would think of wanting for a place to temporarily call home, Milan has it. From shopping, AMAZING food, deep culture and history, lovely museums, sites, and parks, and so much more.

One of the perks of joining GE is the fact that the program is offered to students all over the country as opposed to enrolling through your school (if they have a program like this). I got the chance to make friends with some awesome people from so many different places and backgrounds and cherished the connection with them as we all figured out how to navigate a new setting and blossom in the workplace. You also get the chance to participate in pre-planned excursions outside of Milan. We spent a day in Venice, visited Lake Como which led to a night's stay and trip to Switzerland the next day. Just a few opportunities made possible through the GE.

Join this program and have the time of your life in Milan. It will grow you, work you, and open up your eyes to all the amazing possibilities that lie ahead. I promise you won't regret a single bit.

This international internship experience through Global Experiences has been better than I could have ever imagined.

I aspire to work in the consulting field and getting on the job experience while crucial to securing a job, is not very easy to find. The staff at Global was incredibly honest with me during my application process. They told me they might not be able to place me at a job in the consulting industry, especially since I had chosen Italy as my desired location. However, they advise I apply to the Milan location (due to it being the business center of Italy) rather than Florence, which was the initial site I had listed for placement. I listed other areas of business as my backup option, but somehow they found me a position with a local consulting company in Milan! I was beyond ecstatic when I found out I had secured the position with the such an organization. The experience I gained through working with this company was irreplaceable; I feel much more confident going into my job search now. I have learned skills that will not only assist me in my professional career but also just help regarding living life in our ever increasingly globalized society.

The staff at Global are always there for any questions you may have along the way as well. From my parents and Grandma requiring me to ask a million and one questions during the application process, to when you are on the ground in the city, the staff members I talked to were always kind, patient, and quick to answer any questions I had. They made calling another country home for two months not only manageable but incredibly enjoyable as well!

The other interns in the program also made the experience great. It was so great to get to meet so many funny, kind, and caring people from all over the world!

If you are contemplating participating in an experience like this, I highly encourage you to take the leap of faith and go! It's a decision I know I will look back on and smile at for the rest of my life. Thank you Global!

I definitely enjoyed my time with my Global Experiences internship, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a unique 'study abroad' experience!

I was an intern in Milan, Italy for a PR and marketing agency. At first, I was nervous about this, as I had preffed a retail marketing and/or merchandising experience so I thought I would want to work in a showroom there. However, I decided to just go with it because the company seemed great to work for, and it was just a more general example of what my marketing major could teach me. This brings me to my first piece of GE advice: Be open to whatever opportunities may come to you. Maybe it’s not exactly what you had in mind, but being open to more experiences can introduce you to new passions or even further reassure you that the career path you’re on is the right one for you.

After my decision, I can honestly say that I was not disappointed at all once I began my internship. I could not have asked for a better placement after working at this agency. My co-workers were all so caring and immediately made me feel welcome, which eased another worry of mine. I showed enthusiasm everyday for the work given and they responded to that by giving me meaningful work to showcase what I could really do for them. My second piece of GE advice: I would encourage anyone thinking about going through the program to do the same and show enthusiasm as it really does pay off. You won't enjoy your work 100% of the time, but I think that definitely helps you grow and realize that this fact follows you everywhere. It's best to make the most of it! Because of this, I was able to later handle blogger collaboration negotiations, potential client presentations, website development for the agency, help with photoshoots, attend a fashion week event as a guest, and even celebrate my boss’ birthday with my co-workers on a weekend vacation to Tuscany. All of these things helped me realize that I really, and surprisingly, enjoy this line of work.

As far as the accommodations from GE go, I was very pleased with the location of my housing, my roommates, and the socials that the program had planned for us. They definitely made it easier to connect with others, and there is absolutely no need to be worried about not finding a great group of people to spend your free time with. My third piece of GE advice: I would highly recommend getting everyday advice from your co-workers and your program coordinators. They are more than likely willing to help if you just ask, and since they live in your internship location, they can definitely tell you how the locals live which can make your time adjusting much easier! Even if they don’t know the answer right away, your program coordinators will do their best to help you- that’s what they’re there for.

Overall, I had an unforgettable summer of learning and growth with Global Experiences. I made great connections, saw some beautiful sights, and discovered new professional strengths and passions. You might be nervous to be away from home for so long or about the internship in general, but I really don’t think that should stop you from joining this program. It is different and it will take some adjusting, but I promise you that it is so so worth it. Go GE!

My experience has been amazing!
Nothing really about the internship that I didn't enjoy. If anything it was more like certain types of blog posts were less fun than others, but that's the same with any job. Writer's block was an obstacle for me when I wasn't terribly inspired by the project and I really had to kick myself in the pants sometimes to just get it done!
As for the Global Experiences parts of the internship I loved the outings, big surprise huh? Having Eleonora as our overseer was amazing, she's the best! Friend, tour guide (because she knows alot about the places we go!), guardian angel. We were lucky to have her, she's very sweet and kind and it was great knowing if we needed something or had questions she would be very prompt with her responses.
The schooling sadly did little for me, maybe it was just my learning style didn't fit but I regret not using that two weeks to just travel. The instructors themselves were very friendly though.
Another thing, the metro card, guys this saves us so much hassel! Never get rid of this! Ever!

Talking about my internship:
When I arrived and began working with my supervisor, a fashion blogger, we jumped right in to things. She had me up an running with all the log in's for her email, wordpress, pinterest, twitter, and instagram in the first few days and by the end of the first week I was keeping her calendar, reasearching trends, writing blog posts and going along for outfit pickups and events. I also helped her shoot a look book for a designer she was consulting for which was pretty cool.
Fashion week itself was a different kind of schedule altogether. Before fashion week it's all about the prep work like picking up fashion week outfits from press rooms, writing about what trends we will see in the show as well as keeping up the everyday work like shooting and writing about different outfits. We also try and lay out a tentitive scheduale as best we can before fashion week with the events and shows we know about before all the last minute (like 'day of' last minute) emails come in and we are scrambling to make sure they all make it on the calendar. Then it's a week of running to this show or that event, fighting for a seat amongst the seasoned fashion week photographers, and hagling with security. Exchanging pleasantries with PR, picking up press releases and goodie bags and doing all this while constantly updating twitter and instagram stories from every event you go to along the way.

After fashion week everything slows nearly to a halt for about a day or two, while we catch a breather, doing clean up work like retrning borrowed designer peices and organizing the million goodie bags with product and press releases. Then things in the writing sector take off and, because we now have so much material to work with our topic pile is overflowing, the blog post frenzy begins. So it may seem quieter because no, you aren't running around hopping on and off public transport til 8,9,10 at night, you are technically staying in but you're staying in because you have several hours, days of writing that needs to be done haha!

Working with this supervisor there's a role you don't find in a lot of work environments, she really wants you to be soaking in a learning as much as possible. It is actually a must for her, as oppossed to a lot of places where it is more 'here's the work you have done by this time, oh and hopefully it will help you learn something'. No she wants you to understand what you are doing, the reason and purpose behind doing it and how to do it well.
She also gives you a lot of independence, if you have a list of events to go to, you go on your own a lot of the time, and unless told otherwise you pretty much decide which order to go to them and when. You're job is just to make sure you make it to all of them and do the job right. So an important role here is to really keep yourself on task.

Patience, perhaps stemmed from years of retail work, has helped tremendously in this line of work and in a new country. Patience with the people, patience with the public transportation system that has an agenda of it's own and is at times utterly confusing, or on strike! Patience with those who send last minute emails but fully expect you to attend their event, and those events that don't start on time by like a whole hour. Patience with the workload, and with yourself for not having more of done.

My advice to any intern: Communicate, keep yourself in line and organized and be useful! Because it will all help you in the end!

I just want to say that from the beginning to the end Global Experiences was very helpful and accommodating! I am so thankful to have joined this internship abroad program for it brought me a new worldly perspective without all the hassle of having to plan the trip on my own. My internship placement was perfect and my coworkers were all so welcoming and accommodating. If you are thinking of doing an internship or a study abroad program Global Experiences is the way to go !

This was a great experience that not only taught me more about the Italian culture but the work life and every day life in this country. I am grateful I was able to spend the past 3 months here and the huge personal and professional growth this experiece has provided me.

I definitely recomment this program to people who want to take a gap year, who just graduated and are not ready to go into the work force/ grad school, or to juniors and seniors who want to gain some more experience and explore the area in which they want to work.