Every student knows that participating in an internship is great experience to prepare them for their future careers (and looks good on their CV!), but getting an internship can be hard going.

If you are looking for an internship, you have most likely been looking for something in your home or University town/city. What you should be considering is opening up your horizons and looking a little further afield.

Lots of companies offer the chance for students to intern overseas and not only that, but there’s companies that help place you in an internship in your dream industry!

Interning away from home shows prospective employers that you are serious about your chosen line of work. I mean, you’ve upped and left for a whole new country for a chance to work in the field you want to work in, for a start.

But this also proves that you are capable of adapting to change, which a lot of employers will find favourable. Let’s face it, interning in Newcastle won’t be the same as interning in New York. There’s a whole different currency to figure out, and you probably don’t know anyone. Interning overseas will push you right out of your comfort zone and give you an immense amount of life experience. It will not only give you confidence – both professionally and personally – and offer up a lot of cool opportunities, but will appeal to potential employers too.

As well as dipping your toes in the professional world of work, you will gain precious experience that will be essential to your future career. You also get to travel, meet new people and experience an entirely different culture.

Meeting new people is always fun, interning abroad allows you to makes loads of new friends from around the world. It also means that you start building a network of professional contacts.

Have you thought about leaving home once Uni is over to work somewhere a little more glamorous? Well interning abroad gives you the opportunity to test the waters and find out if you could hack it.

Interning overseas gives you a chance to see what working abroad is like.

Leaving behind all the comforts of home can be hard, but you’ll be meeting loads of new people and exploring a foreign place – not to mention actually working – there won’t be time for you to miss home!

I know what you’re thinking – “but it’ll be so expensive!” Right?

It’s true, a lot of internships you have to fund yourself – if you get paid it’s a bonus! But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’ll be expensive. Most Uni’s have a grant or a bursary to help you with internship costs. There’s also a number of scholarships, such as Erasmus (for E.U students).

Of course, you could always build up your funds by working part time while studying – this will also look great on your CV and prove that you are self-motivated.

There are a range of companies that specialise in help you get an internship overseas, including The Intern Group and China Internship Placement.

You should always research the company carefully to make sure that you will get the best experience out of it.

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start looking for an internship abroad!

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