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Studying Abroad: How To Prepare For Your Internship Overseas

The crazy yet the most thrilling part of studying in college is the opportunity that you get to travel and spend your internship in a whole new environment. Yes, many colleges and universities offer internships overseas, which makes some students excited when they reach their junior or senior year.

It’s liberating to spend your internship abroad. Students get to personally experience how it is to live independently and to be fully accountable for themselves. And we’re not just talking about their education but also their future career. So, if you’re one of the many excited students getting ready to take that internship in France, Rome, and Australia, you need to be fully prepared and gear up for that once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

Check this out as we lay out all the important things to prepare for your internship abroad.

The Basic Preparation

Let’s start with the basic documents that you need.  First of all, you can’t travel internationally without all of these when applying for an internship overseas.

Visa, Passport, and Admission Papers

These three should be considered as your holy grail when you decide to have an internship overseas. Visa and passport go hand in hand, and you can’t dare to misplace these two, while admission papers or a learning agreement can be obtained at your university.

This includes having a valid passport, securing the necessary admission papers, and most importantly, working with a skilled student visa attorney to navigate the complex visa requirements of the countries you’ll be interning in, such as France, Rome, and Australia.

These are few things that you should remember:

  1. Your passport must be valid within the year of your internship; also, check the country you’re flying to as they require your passport to be valid for at least six months from the date you plan to leave the country. This is a case to case basis as passports now have a long validity period, so it’s less of a problem.
  2. Your visa validation depends on the country you’re visiting. You can apply for a student visa; some consider a tourist visa, while others accept a working visa. All of these cases depend on the requirement and the policy of the country. Make sure to research it as you need to have the RIGHT visa before you travel.
  3. Make sure to read all the stipulated information in your learning agreement, as you must know everything that’s being outlined in the document. Your learning agreement should be valid and be handed to you by your school administration and should include clauses on what specific tasks, objectives, and learning you will get after the entire duration of the internship.

Financial Resources

The most important part in making sure that you can spend an internship overseas is to secure your financial resources.

Your financial resources can be either from your salary if you’re a working student or from your parent’s monthly payment if they are still supporting you, or maybe you’ve been saving for this yourself for years.

Paying for an internship abroad is no easy feat, even for parents or guardians with stable financial resources. It can be a challenge to afford  to send their students to a different country.

However, personal loans offered by many lending institutions such as CreditNinja make it bearable and possible. Personal loans can be very useful to finance daily expenses, buy plane tickets, and are good enough to provide a daily budget allowance.

If financial resources are an issue, you can also discuss with the college or university where you’re enrolled to see if they have a structured internship program that supports students who would like to experience their internship abroad.

Also, there are organizations that support schools by sponsoring eligible students for an internship abroad.

Become Familiar with Your New Environment

You’re in a different country, a different city, and with different people.

Feelings can easily go from being excited to being anxious. But that’s okay, being away from home often gives you that uncertain feeling. If you immerse yourself in the things you know about the country, it gives you a sense of familiarity.

Read about the country you’re visiting and treat it as if you were traveling, but this time you need to work and earn experience related to your career choice.

Learn their culture, try speaking their language, and take notes; it really does help.

Conduct a study of the company you’re applying with.

Treat the internship like you’re applying for a real job.

Research and study the company you’re working with, read about them, know their culture and tradition, what they do, their principles, and everything that is made available to the public.

It pays to be ready and armed with information that can help you gain some advantage even if you’re a foreign member of the tribe.

Final Thoughts

There’s something about studying in college that makes almost every individual go back to it.

It’s the vibe of independence and the thrill of experiencing new things and getting into new adventures that can only happen during these times. And one of them is the internship.

It’s like stepping into the real adult world but not entirely in it. It’s scary, but it’s exciting. Preparing for it is daunting, but it is also liberating. A college internship abroad is not for the faint of heart, but is very rewarding. It’s a stepping stone to the real world, which is why you need to do the best, prepare for it, and get ready to face it head on.

Jeff Campbell