Thinking About Completing an Internship Abroad?

Although exciting, completing an internship abroad is a decision that should not be taken lightly. You must be made aware that with these types of internships, you most likely will be far away from your home and familiar surroundings for a significant period of time. That said, thorough consideration must be given to the numerous advantages that arise from completing this type of
internship.

What are some of these advantages you ask? Some of these benefits include:

Learning New Skills:

With this type of internship, you will gain international work experience, learn about a new culture, and possibly learn a new language as well.

Increasing Your Social and Business Network:

Without a doubt, you will meet a variety of new and interesting people through your international job placement and extracurricular activities. In fact, many people report to making lifelong friendships while completing an internship in another country. In other words, you will most likely make numerous contacts that can only help your career in the future.

Seeing the World

Since you most likely will not be working on a 24/7 basis, you can take advantage of your weekends and other holidays to travel in your chosen location. IF you were to accept a local internship in your home country, you would not have the opportunities to experience and enjoy these types of activities.

Impressing Future Employers:

If you have international work experience on your resume, any potential employer will be sure to take notice. After all, this type of work experience demonstrates that you have global work experience and in turn, you look at situations with a unique perspective. Along with this trait, your foreign work experience also says something about your personality. For instance, an international work experience can show employers that you can deal successfully with both change and challenges.

That said, while working in a foreign country has many career-related advantages, some people may be wary of these types of opportunities as they may have monetary or time constraints. Fortunately though, there are a variety of different types of internships available – including internships that have shorter time durations. In other words then, these shorter internships would definitely benefit individuals with financial - and other - obligations.

To conclude, if you are able to and willing, an international internship can do wonders for your career – and enrich you as a person at the same time.

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Larisa Redins is a full time writer and editor with degrees in both Arts and Biological Science. She writes about career issues and other topics for a variety of international websites, magazines, and businesses.