AIFS Abroad Internships in Sydney, Australia

Honestly such a great experience being abroad and having an internship in a foreign country. I was in for a surprise with the huge work load I had coming into my internship and not knowing a lot of the things I was doing on a daily basis. My director was able to find what I was good at and develop it through the course if 3 months being here. Although a big work load there was always a sense of positivity in the work place and out from my program coordinator. I made amazing friends and have amazing memories that I will carry on for the rest of my life. Difficulties I have encountered? Not many. One that in coming in really quick that I can't avoid, is FOMO (fear of missing out) but hey, looks like you're doing it right Australia! It is very difficult to put into words all the things i have learned and experienced on this trip, all I can say it that it was absolutely amazing and you need to get out there and experience it for yourself!

My two months as an intern in Sydney can be summarized as a great experience. The company I was placed with had great people that were interested in giving me as much work and provided me with as many learning opportunities as possible. In this, I thank Global Experience for placing me with this company. Of course, what follows are downsides that I felt throughout my overall wonderful experience. Each point is presented in order of relevance/importance:

1. Although I understand that our initial living accommodation was supposed to be a great or better place, 2013 Summer interns (myself included) were placed in Jack's place due to renovations being made in the initial lodgings. The living experience there was all in all, close to horrible. In the first week, the electric outlets didn't work and the internet had problems. For the entire two months of stay, one of the window of one of the Girl's shower rooms had a window lodged/stuck open. This was an issue because not one girl showered in this room because the window's direction is faced parallel to the window of one of the resident's room. In other words, using 2/3 shower rooms meant a morning rush where a floor predominantly filled with girls fought to use the two shower rooms (Of course, I and a few others showered at night). I also vividly recall of how messy 'we' as 'a group' were via neglected dishwashing, accumulating garbage, friday night indoor parties that left the public space in utter chaos. Not all of us (myself included) were involved in circulating mess but it doesn't help the fact that the majority was like this and therefore resulted in an unhealthy relationship with our landlord/supervisor and location coordinator. I feel conflicted between the shabby conditions of Jack's Place (as compared to how much we pay) and unhygienic or careless habits of many of my co-residents. I can't really point fingers but this greatly impacted my indoor lifestyle. Maybe I (we-Summer 2013 interns) were just unlucky with our residential placement but I sincerely hope that future interns did not get placed into Jack's Place or an alternative, similar accommodation. An important note: Jack's Place is situated in King's Cross--a party and 'red light district' hub--not such an appealing location. I know I had a location coordinator who had my back (which I thank for), but with the local station smacked in the center of the red light district area, everything seemed creepy and unsafe as soon as daylight descends. Even my company felt sorry that I had to live in Kings Cross for two months (note: I have zero affinity for the party scene).

2. Due to no.1, I couldn't help but feel that we were paying way too much for this experience. Furthermore, Sydney is indubitably an expensive city and this emphasizes the total money that was spent in one's Global Experience journey. There was a fellow GE intern who had his university or company sponsor the internship (so all accommodations were covered) and just having a fellow intern having a free ticket (which is amazing for him!) made me feel like I could have opted for an alternate, less pricey, internship path in Sydney. This makes me truly feel like it is wise choice to first choose a country, research companies (you wish to intern in), review visa application process, find a suitable lodging , plan places where you, yourself want to go to and then weigh the total cost of it--I feel like doing all this labor is much more cost-efficient (and worth every penny for me) than paying so much to get an experience you might not be too happy with in the end. This point pretty much summarizes why I do not recommend GE to others. This sentiment is better phrased as critically research and weigh your options first and then jump in the awesome experience that is Global Experience :)

3. This is minor but being new to Global Experience back then, I became paranoid when I did not receive updates on how things were going for my Sydney internship. Furthermore, my GE advisor changed twice which made me feel uneasy. All of this dissolved when I landed in Australia :)

I may seem overly critical and negative but I want to stress that I really did enjoy the company GE introduced me to--it was a wonderful memory filled with lessons and I thank them very much for it.

In Sydney we had a great experience. This was a tremendous growing opportunity both professionally and interpersonally as we were immersed in an environment with a multitude of different cultures. The internship was great to get hands on working experience but the program was more enjoyable because of the other interns I was able to share the summer with and also bonding with Australian colleagues at work.

I will never forgot my summer in Sydney! It was amazing. Global experiences did an amazing job finding the perfect internship for me. The accommodations were perfect and the group trips were great. I had the best time of my life that summer and that is why I teamed up with Global Experiences for a second time for an internship in Dublin. I recommend Global Experiences to everyone!

I didn't know quite what to expect when flying to the other side of the world to embark on a full time internship in a city I had never visited, however it was by far the best experience I have had so far. That may sound very cliched, however I genuinely did enjoy every moment of my Global Experiences internship. I had applied to the internship program back in December 2012 and considering I had simply typed into google 'internships in Australia' and GE was the first to come up there was some doubt in both mine and everyone's heads around me about how this would turn out. However from the outset the support I have received from the Global Experiences staff whether this was all the preparation prior to arriving in Sydney or on the ground making sure we were all doing well was next to nothing. I can't think of anything to really fault them on.

I felt well prepared arriving in Sydney in January with an internship at a legal organisation arranged for me. Although I come from a politics background I have always been interested by the legal system and even at one point considered going into law and although this internship made me realise that may not be the immediate path I want to go down I still gained a great amount of invaluable experience that I am thoroughly thankful for.

On a day-to-day basis I assisted the senior solicitors with some of their legal submissions and even had the opportunity to work closely with some of their clients. Aside from this I also did administrative work and reception cover. Although you may think that they are stereotypical intern tasks, it has given me the experience there that I can at least put down on my CV as a skill that I possess. Overall I learnt so much from my twelve weeks and also made a some great connections and friends within the company.

Of course my experience wasn't only moulded by internship but also the social aspect. I have made some great, life long friends through living with my fellow interns and as I always say you get free accommodation around the world. Having the opportunity to live alongside the other interns in the program was great and as we were all in the same boat we were able to help each other through any problems we had whether this was homesickness or simply trying to understand the Aussie lingo. Global Experiences also provided us with a number of activities that we did as a group organised by our location coordinator. These were executed well with the excursions showing us a great array of Australian culture and definitely being aimed at what our age group would be interested in. This included a paddle board lesson, a tour around the opera house, a trip to the blue mountains, the chance to meet koala's at the wildlife park and even a professional netball game. Having these activities allowed us to see around Sydney and do all the touristy type things but at the same time we weren't overrun by too many organised activities. There was definitely just the right amount so that we had our own time to just chill after a full working week or explore and hang out with friends. It was definitely a great balance.

I hope this has given you just a little bit of an insight into my amazing time in Sydney and honestly I would do it a hundred times over if I got the chance. If you are interested in doing an internship abroad I would say go for it and I would thoroughly recommend you considering to do it through GE.

I was looking into several different groups to take me overseas to an internship. Global Experiences stood out for a few different reasons.

First of all, someone was able to talk to me and give me real details about the program and what I would be doing before I even paid a cent. Other companies require you to put down a deposit before they can give you anything. In particular, Kevin Pickett was kind and understanding when it came to what I wanted to do.

After I secured an internship, Emily Oliver talked with me whenever I needed and went the extra mile when I needed help. She was always on Skype when I was and responded to emails within a few hours. I wouldn't have had any peace of mind if it wasn't for her.

All of this was even before I got to Australia. I have to say that my internship in video production has taught me more than any class at my university. Global Experiences hooked me up with an amazing company with an incredible boss where I got so much more than I thought possible. I can honestly say that I am prepared for a real job back in the states and I wouldn't be here if not for the amazing people at Global Experiences. Thank you!

I decided to use Global experiences to get real work experience while traveling to a new country. I found their pre-departure webinars helpful and was able to ask questions online and over the phone. While in Sydney I faced a lot of challenges in the internship (chiefly, the lack of organization and structure to the company and also their motives for hiring interns were obviously financially related) but the local representative, though new and inexperienced, did a fantastic job of being available and offered as much help as she could. She made me feel that my concerns were being expressed to the rest of the GE team which in turn helped me feel confident in the company. I found myself in a great learning experience and used it to work on my talents in organizing, planning, and strategic thinking to overcome negative situations.
The living situation is about what you'd expect from an international long-term hostel. And the social activities were good, when everyone could agree. But I highly recommend saving enough money to do more 'tourist' activities on your own, or with a few other interns.
Sydney is an expensive place to be and the GE program was quite expensive too, but I definitely feel that it was worth it.

Although my internship technically wasn't in Sydney, I was still able to enjoy my experience to just about the fullest extent. Working in Manly did leave about an hour and a half trip to and from work, and those three hours every day would have been great in terms of more fully engaging with Glebe, where my accommodations were, and Sydney. There was still ample time to do so, particularly on every free weekend. Taking the ferry through Sydney harbor twice a day was also nothing to complain about, and working at a small company really allowed me to engage in real and meaningful projects to my employer.