Internship: Just like footprints in the sand, each step signifies the journey taken.

There are so many reasons to apply for an overseas internship. One of the most popular reasons is the language, especially if you want to learn or improve it. Another big reason is the opportunity of getting practical and international experience. Nowadays the professional world is high competitive and the smallest difference on a resume makes a difference. Not everyone has the opportunity to achieve experience immersed in a different culture with new challenges and for some people, the opportunity of discovering a new lifestyle is their goal. Is not easy to leave everything and start in a new place alone, however, thanks to agencies, international agreements and government grants it’s easier to start this adventure. Honestly, the application process is quite tedious, it is necessary to fill a lot of documents, get all the certificates in English (depending on your country that’s not always easy or free), arrange interviews and deal with relatives, friends and farewells (it doesn’t matter if the undergo is for one month or one year, everyone wants to be part of it). Saying this, the experience is absolutely worthy. See why!

“The true challenge that I met with was the language barrier: adapting myself to each different accents being in a multicultural country of Australia and working at Quay Appointments. Listening to a mix of Australian, Irish, South East Asian and a range of other accents, but even if sometimes they were hard to undestand, they were always lovely. Thanks to a friendly team at Quay Appointments, the hard work was easier to get through. I feel myself improving every day whilst being in an internship, I have not only grown work wise but also personally with building relationships.” Soumaya

In first instance, the feelings are a mixture of happiness and fear. Will my performance be good enough? Will I understand everything? Will I make the biggest mistake of my carrer? And so on. Nevertheless all the doubts disappear at the greeting of your tutor, the person who is going to teach and guide you along your internship. At Quay Appointments everyone is a key member for each intern, because everyone has different skills and abilities that are highly valuable. The first week is a 360 degrees training session, where you learn different aspects related with the company; culture, core values and workstyle. They base the training in lessons and shadowing. Lessons are related with hard skills such as administrative process, computer systems, policies and documentation. On the other hand, the soft skills rest on the shadowing. This system consists in following one consultant at time and performing all the different tasks together. Thanks to this system, in less than one week you can afford enough knowledge to be autonomous at certain levels. As the weeks go by, you have as much responsibility as anyone in the company and the differences between real workers and interns are almost priceless.

“What is most motivating for me whilst at Quay Appointments, is meeting the client and the candidate face to face on site in the newly placed position and receiving positive feedback from both the client and the candidate about the placement that I was involved in. It is important for me to get the right fit for all involved. This has been my first time working in recruitment and I am grateful for the opportunity of this internship as I can positively say that I want to pursue this field of work in the future.” Katharina

Everything goes so fast that by the time you realise you aren’t the coffee guy or the printer master, it is inevitably to feel some pride. You are there, working with people who trust in your job, overcoming the cultural and language differences, achieving goals and the company running (apparently it is not that easy to make the biggest mistake).

“During my previous positions, I have dealt with a number of agencies but I have found Quay Appointments to stand out above the rest. Thanks to my internship I am able to understand the process that requires finding the perfect candidate for the right role. Being a consultant doesn’t mean you have to collate a number of candidates, it means you get to know as much about the candidate as you do with the client. What their needs are and how to match the ideal candidate with the ideal client. I find this process fascinating and I am grateful for the opportunity.” Fabiola

Months after, when the excitement of the first placement or the nerves of a first meeting with a client is left behind, this is when you realize that the internship is coming to an end. At this point you don’t only know how to deal on the phone (in English) or the whole process since we get a vacant position until we fill it (with all the work that it implies, search candidates, arranging interviews, administrative process and so on), but you learn things that are not in any subject at the University or training session. No one explains how important the culture in a company is, how we celebrate birthdays or special days like Chinese New Year’s Eve or the Irish day with typical food and its traditions makes the workplace a better place. In the same line the core values start to make sense. For example, one of them is “being generous with time, information and help”, which means that we are not here to compete with each other, we are here to compete as a team for the best results. Weekly meetings for catching up or team training on Fridays are only a little way that Quay Appointments as a company take care of each worker. Each intern loves the company that gives the very first opportunity and it’s hard to say goodbye (maybe due to the Stockholm syndrome), but the end of these amazing adventure is the start of a new one. It’s time to bring back to your country the best of your experience and transfer all those skills and amazing domain of the English to the new step in your professional career. It could be one of the thousand companies that are in Australia, however, in this case, the company is Quay Appointments and sincerely there are too much to thank, not only as a workplace, but as a place with incredible people.



Fabiolla Sotillo in collaboration with Katharina Trabert & Soumaya Benyassine