Internships. It’s hard to tell what they’ll be like because they are all so different. One key reason for this is what the definition or perception of an intern is. Many people and companies think of it as free labor for someone who wants to gain industry knowledge, and therefore create the work for the intern based on what needs to be done regardless of wether or not the work is actually meaningful. On the flip side, the other view is the same as another employee with strict daily duties and tasks just given to someone in need of credit and/or experience. Either way, the experience can be good or bad. Living abroad and having an internship adds another complex level based on the cultures in a foreign city. For my case, I have a supervisor who puts trust and faith in me to diligently work on in depth analysis of the infrastructure investment industry. However, a key difference between London work culture and that of the US is the vagueness of instruction. We were warned about this prior to the start of the internships, but it has definitely manifested itself through my work. It is a constant struggle to keep asking for more explanation of the sector since it is a very niche market that I am responsible for analyzing. It is so important to work on communication no matter your position in a company. Especially for interns because of the ambiguity of the role. Dealing with this in a foreign country is even more difficult. For me, I have to take the tube in London to get to my internship. The first week, all of us interns that live in Maida Vale together decided we would spend a day going through our commutes to work so that when our first day came, we would be prepared and knew how long roughly it would take us to get to the sites. This was immensely helpful, because the first day I felt as if it was my second because I had already visited the area and became somewhat familiar with the commute and the area. Other than the accents and cultural differences; however, interning in London doesn’t seem to be much different than in the united states. You’ll still get the experiences that make you want to come back, and those that make you rethink that, but that’s what this time in our lives are supposed to be. We work at a lot of different places and In different industries so we can find out what we really want to do with our lives. So far, it has been a completely worthwhile endeavor because I not only have additional work experience, but also experience commuting and living abroad.
