Interning Abroad in Sydney Australia

If you would have asked me at any point of my life “if you could travel anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?” My answer would have been the same every time. I dreamed of going to Australia, I knew I would one day, but never thought it would be so soon.. Interning Abroad.

I interned in Sydney in the summer (their winter) of 2019 and am finally sharing my experience. I started working at 16 so the idea of interning for free was never a consideration but my only exception was if it was the location of my dreams.

How did I find out about global experiences?

I got an email from my school about an internship in Russia. I have heard about study abroad programs before but this was the first time hearing about interning abroad. I was super excited to even think about the possibility to work and live in another country I didn’t care where it was. That email got me thinking, if I could intern in Russia, I could probably intern in other countries. I found global experiences through my schools website as others at my school have went through them before. Once I saw Sydney, Australia on the list it was done. I had made up my mind and was ready to do what it took to get into the program.

How did I start the process?

It helped that my school had an existing relationship with global experiences which made the process easier that others had went through it before me. If you aren’t sure exactly where you want to go, you just know you want to intern abroad then ask your self these questions

Would I work in a country that English is not their first language?
Are there visa requirements for this country?
How safe is this city/country?
Will this location be beneficial for my field of study/career interests? Ex. If you select Paris but only fashion internships are available but you are in the medical field.
Whats my budget? Some programs/countries have different costs and lengths

Once you narrow down where you want to go and the field you are interested pursing, next you’ll focus on the self development and resume process. Global experiences worked with me on perfecting my resume and highlighting my strengths that would be helpful during the interview process.

The next step of the process is the interview with the employer. Global experiences essentially sends out my resume to employers and finds the one they think I would be best fit for and vice versa. I had the interview with my employer and got to ask them any questions and learned more about what I would be doing for them.

Here are some of my top questions I would recommend to ask your employer during your initial interview to get an idea of the type of work and environment

What would my schedule be like?
What is the office culture?
What is your favorite part of your job?
What will my daily tasks include?

How Could I Afford This?

This is something I am sharing because I had absolutely no idea how people paid for this stuff, and where to even begin. So I hope this helps!

My first thought when I found out this internship; I HAVE to do this. This would be life changing. Second thought, how the heck am I going to pay for this. Initially I went to my schools financial aid office to seek guidance on how to move further with interning abroad. The response “usually parents pay for these type of things” okay, I am going to go ask my parents for $13k. Lol not. But luckily I had my dad as a co-signer. I applied for a personal loan and got approved. After that I applied for many scholarships and actually got my last year of college free. So it all balanced out.

The study abroad department of my college gave me a budget which was helpful I had something to go off of: (every school is different, so use these costs just to estimate):

Program Cost (including housing): $7,490.00

Application Fee: $50.00

School Internship Fee: $250.00

Study Abroad Fee $190.00

Meals: $1,500.00

Airfare: $2,000.00

Misc Expenses: $1,000.00

Total: $12,480.00

Aside from the program cost and required fees the rest was over budgeted for me. Which ended up perfect so I was never stressing about money and I had all the money to do everything I wanted. I end up scoring a $750 flight to Sydney International from BWI airport in the US just by checking flight prices daily. So I saved there, already had a passport too which was budgeted under misc. And $1,500 for food was plenty. The spaces where I saved I was able to travel with.

Now if you look at the total you are going to think how expensive this is. So did I. In reality, you cannot put a price on this experience. It will give you more than money can buy.

Did I need a visa?

Yes. I got the Work and Holiday (subclass 462) visa.

What was my living situation like?

I lived in a cute quiet neighborhood, Glebe, in an apartment/condo building. The apartment was two levels and 2 bedroom 1.5 bath that I shared with two women in the same program from global experiences.

What was a typical day like?

I thrive off of routine, most of us do. So it was important for me to create a routine while I was there. I would get up around 6am, eat breakfast, go to the gym which was a little over a 1 km walk, hop on the bus to head to work. Most mornings I would grab top juice after my workout. My internship was right in the middle of the CBD (central business district) I would either pack a lunch or go to the Westfield Sydney mall that was 2 blocks away. After work, I would take the bus home. From there either cook dinner or grab dinner out.

What was my internship like?

I worked for an events management company as a marketing and sales intern. My schedule was 8:30am-5pm Monday-Friday.

Any regrets?

My only regret was buying a brand new phone before leaving for the trip. With AT&T I had to completely pay off the phone in order to put an international sim in it. Or pay a daily rate which would have been over $600 in total where I might as well just paid off the phone at that point. I wasn’t planning on paying it off so quickly. Luckily my dad had an old Iphone I took with me. Not so luckily it was so old that 90% of the time it was crashing. So I spent many hours at the apple store while I was in Australia. So I alternated between that phone and my brand new one just on Wifi.

What did I do in my free time?

I created a bucket list of things to do for while I was in Australia so each weekend I picked things off the list. Ive created a list of my top 10 recommendations:

Visit the Currumbin Sanctuary.

You cant legally hold a koala just anywhere. So make the trek!

2. Visit the opera house

Whether thats for a show or just to grab a drink at the Opera Bar.

3. Go Skydiving

4. Go on a Wine Tour in Hunter Valley

5. Take a weekend trip

6. Go snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef

How could I go all the way to Australia and not visit the Great Barrier Reef? You never know when you will make it back somewhere, so do all you can while you are there.

7. Bondi Beach

Bondi’s Iceberg Pool Club is a must see whether thats while the sun is rising, the sun is setting or anywhere in between.

8. Hike to the Figure 8 pools in Royal National Park

Its a hike but well worth the views.

9. Walk the Sydney Haurbor Bridge

10. Hike the Barrenjoey Lighthouse Walk

What if I wanted to take a day off?/How did I have time to travel?

You make time for whats important to you. I prioritized Just like any job just give them as much notice as possible and my company was understanding that I was visiting this country for the first time and there was so much to do and see.

My advice:

Be open minded.

Say yes to everything. Well not everything. But everything lol.

Network!

Step out of your comfort zone. It is a beautiful place, but you will now grow there.

Create a budget before you go. You most likely wont be making money while you are there so you want your money to last you the entire trip.

Do what you want to do – this was the first time I’d travel by myself and really only have to worry about myself – so do what makes you happy

Weekend Trip Ideas:

There is so much to do and I felt like I had so little time so I picked two places I really wanted to visit and could visit during a weekends time.

Sydney to Cairns

Some of other interns in the program and myself booked a weekend trip to Cairns. I took the Friday off work and made it a 3 day weekend trip. My flight was at 6am Friday morning, Sydney to Cairns. My flight left Sunday at 6:45pm Sunday.

Friday:

After the early morning flight, we had two excursions planned for the day. ATV and white water rafting.

Saturday:

How could I go all the way to Australia and not visit the Great Barrier Reef? I booked a Full Day Great Barrier Reef Tour – 9 hours through Passions of Paradise.

Sunday:

Beach day at trinity beach. Theres a little hiking trail at the beach you can explore as well.

Sydney to GoldCoast:

As my internship in Sydney was Monday-Friday I didn’t wanna take any time off work. So my flight was at 8:10pm Friday to Gold Coast. The Flight home was at 7:05pm Sunday evening.

Where to stay: Hilton Surfers Paradise The best view of the beach.