Archive for October, 2010
Spotlight-Dream Careers
Friday, October 29th, 2010
Dream Careers History & Overview
Dream Careers has been providing internship programs around the world for over 10 years. Over 10,000 students have participated, and each program provides internship coaching and personalized internship placement in 26 industries, group housing, a meal plan, weekend trips (varies by city), weekly careers seminars (CEO’s, industry experts, etc), transportation to and from work, and more. Each program is customized to make sure you have a safe and fun experience in the city, as well as an in-depth outlook into your industry through your internship.
Locations
Domestic Cities International Cities
New York London
Los Angeles Barcelona
Chicago Hong Kong
San Francisco Sydney
Washington DC
Dallas
Boston
Las Vegas
Typical Opportunities
We offer access to over 5,000 internship opportunities, ranging from Fortune 100 companies, to innovative start-up companies. Each experience has been screened to ensure that it provides a valuable learning experience. To learn more, contact a program advisor at 800-251-2933 to discuss specific internships, or visit our Facebook Page to talk with our alumni about their experience.
Other Services Provided
The program includes:
• Group Housing, a meal plan, transportation to and from work, on-site staff
• Weekly Career Seminars
• Internship Placement, resume revision, internship coaching, interview preparation
• Planned Weekend Excursions (sporting events, cultural activities, overnight trips, celebratory events, varies by city)
PSU Alumni
Penn State University
Senior, Nicole Kristel
nmkristel@gmail.com
2010 London Program Participant
“Spending a summer interning in London was an amazing and life-changing experience. Not only was I able to apply what I had learned in class in another country, but I made life-long friendships. Dream Careers was very professional, and made this opportunity possible, as my transition abroad was seamless.”
Posted in Internship Opportunities, Opportunity Spotlight | No Comments
Student Perspective- Bradley Matthews- Connect 1-2-3
Thursday, October 28th, 2010
Where is your internship located?
Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa
What company or organization are you working with?
Accelerate Cape Town
Which internship provider did you obtain your internship from?
Connect 123
What was the application process like with Connect 1-2-3?
As far as the application process goes, it’s really simple. I made it up to be something that was bigger than it needed to be but connect really just takes the information a person sends them (interests, work experiences, areas of study) and uses that to help outline a variety of opportunities that the applicant can pursue. It’s really not a matter of getting accepted into the program, but more along the lines of them setting you up with what you’re most interested in once you pay the initial fee. There are probably about 20 areas of focus that an applicant can choose to pursue. I chose economic development as my first choice, finance as my second, and something else I can’t remember for my third. They ended up giving me about 3 or 4 opportunities to pursue further, and I ended up going with ACT. After my skype call with Eimear she put me in touch with one of the people at ACT. After Skyping with that person they got back in touch with Eimear and said that they would take me on board. Then it was just a matter of setting up my housing contract through connect 123 and then getting my flight arranged. Pretty simple.
What all have you been working on during your internship?
My internship itself has been pretty incredible. It’s actually turned out to be more of an event planning role that I’m in right now due to the opportunistic nature of this huge event going on in town that I can’t remember the name of, something about a cup?? Anyway, I’ve been working really hard to get our company ready for these networking international business breakfasts we’ve been putting on. We’ve done 3 over the past 3 weeks. Speakers for our events have included Boris Johnson (mayor of London), Lord Digby Jones (business ambassador at UKTI), Clem Sunter (google the guy, he’s amazing), Helen Zille (Premier of the Western Cape), and a French diplomat. They’ve all been incredibly insightful people to hear speak. Right now that we’re done putting on these breakfasts, which were incredibly demanding of my company of 5 people, including myself, I have to help them define what I’m going to do for the rest of my internship.
What has been the most challenging professional task within your internship?
In general, uncertainty, and specifically, being able to recover and put on a smile when things didn’t go how I planned during one of our breakfasts.
Can you speak about an experience you had that allowed you to learn about the working culture in the country your are living?
I worked simultaneously with people in both provincial government and the private sector. The two are very different in the way they do their practices and the speed at which they do things. It was also special to see how my company operated in a unique dimension where they bring the two entities together to make the city a better place to do business.
If you were interviewing for a position in the US, what skills would you say this internship helped you to gain or improve upon?
One thing that I didn’t expect to gain was improving my ear–that is, really sifting through different dialects to make sure there wasn’t a loss in communication when work needed to get done. I also gained a lot of confidence in general that I can now adapt to environments that are very different to the ones I’m most comfortable with.
What are some exciting adventures or travels that you have had while on internship?
The big one is obviously the World Cup. I went to 4 games, which as huge soccer fan was an experience of a lifetime. Hiking Table Mountain in Cape Town was also an amazing experience that I’ll never forget.
View Brad’s blog for more details on his experiences:
blog: http://acceleratecapetown.co.za/forum/article-brad-matthews
Posted in Student Experience | No Comments
Spotlight- Grupo Cajola, Guatemala
Monday, October 25th, 2010
History/description
Grupo Cajolá is a community-based organization founded in 1999 by immigrants from the town of Cajolá, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, who lived in Morristown, NJ, in order to help each other in times of need. As they worked together they began to educate themselves about their history and why they needed to migrate to the U.S., and to work for the development of their town. When some members began to return to Guatemala in 2005 they opened an internet center and then formed Association Grupo Cajolá in Cajolá. The primary areas of work in Guatemala are in education (scholarships, actively promoting the improvement in the quality of education), political formation, recuperation of the Maya Mam culture, and economic development. The work in economic development is focused on starting cooperative businesses — the first businesses in Cajolá to offer any regular employment. Currently there are three small businesses in various stages of start up, an egg farm, a textile business, and a carpentry business whose core product is an ergonomic bench for backstrap weavers (backstrap weaving is the traditional Maya weaving).
Locations:
Morristown, NJ and Cajolá, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala (internship location in Guatemala)
Cajolá is an extremely poor community of about 15,000 people located in the western highlands of Guatemala. Nearly 40% of her people have migrated to the U.S. The community is primarily Maya Mam (the Mam are the second largest of the 21 different Maya people in Guatemala). All visitors remark about the warm hospitality that you will find here.
Typical opportunities:
Internship opportunities are in the area of business startup and/or teaching English (nearly everyone in the community wants to learn English!). Current opportunities specifically in marketing or finance in the carpentry or textile businesses.
Other opportunities on site:
Working with Grupo Cajolá in Cajolá is an opportunity to be immersed in a Maya community, to experience a completely different culture and way of life. In addition, Guatemala itself is a small country and there are many interesting touristic opportunities ranging from hot springs to spectacular Lake Atitlan, local and tourist markets, Maya sacred sites. Nearby Quetzaltenango is Guatemala’s second largest city and offers many cultural events.
Website:
http://www.grupocajola.org/Home.html
Posted in Internship Opportunities, Opportunity Spotlight | 2 Comments
Student Perspective- Julia Snyder, Intrax
Thursday, October 21st, 2010
Where is your internship located?
My internship is in Paris, France. I work right in the heart of the city
What company or organization are you working with?
M&C Saatchi which is an advertising/marketing agency
Which internship provider did you obtain your internship from?
I’m here through Intrax Internships Abroad and I highly recommend them to anyone interested in working abroad
What is your role/responsibilities within the organization?
I am a marketing research intern and I am working for Havana Club which is a Cuban rum company
What has been the most challenging professional task within your internship?
I had to deliver a big presentation in front of my bosses that consisted of 75 slides and three weeks worth of research. It was scary, but it went really well.
Can you speak about an experience you had that allowed you to learn about the working culture in the country your are living?
I’m not sure that every company works the way mine does, but the French intern next to me found a website where you click a button and a horn sounds. She thought it was so funny and so she posted it on facebook. Minutes later the entire office was sounding the horn. This just goes to show that my office is really relaxed and people love to laugh and have a good time while still getting all their work done.
How is the working culture different than your experiences in the US?
The pace at which people work is a lot slower. I feel like in the US people are all about deadlines and perfection, but in France people will reschedule meetings last minute if something comes up, they love to laugh and have fun in the office and they take one and a half to two hour lunches.
If you were interviewing for a position in the US, what skills would you say this internship helped you to gain or improve upon?
M&C Saatchi has given me a lot of independence to tweak the research project I’m working on to be what I think is best. The company has given me a lot of responsibility and they trust that I’ll make sound choices. It’s a lot of pressure to know that Havana Club is going to see my research when it’s all finished and they might incorporate some of my ideas into their company. Therefore, M&C has provided the opportunity to greatly enhance my public speaking abilities and my independence as a worker. (which is hard because a lot of the French bosses I’ve heard about are incredibly vague, so it’s important to be able to pilot your own work without asking questions every 5 minutes)
What are some exciting adventures or travels that you have had while on internship?
Intrax took us to two champagne tastings our first weekend here which was a lot of fun. We also went to see the Chateau Fontainbleau which was gorgeous and then we saw INSEAD which is an international business school located in Reims, France. They do MBA and PhD programs and it was really nice to see that that is an awesome opportunity that I can take advantage of in the future. This Saturday Intrax is also taking us to see Monet’s gardens! All of the above were excursions that were included in the cost of our program and they even give you free lunch 
Posted in Student Experience | No Comments
Spotlight- Intrax Internships
Monday, October 18th, 2010
Intrax Internships Abroad is a professional development program in which students do business-oriented international internships with great host companies in major cities around the world:
Barcelona
Beijing
Berlin
London
Paris
Tokyo
Madrid
Santiago
Internships are in functions such as Advertising/PR, Business Development, Entrepreneurship, Finance, Human Resources, Marketing, Non-Profit Management, and Operations. Host companies range from multinational firms such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Morningstar, Microsoft, Ogilvy (advertising), Deutsche Telekom, Northrop Grumman, Desigual (fashion), the UN Environmental Program, and Red Bull to smaller entrepreneurial firms, high tech startups, venture capital firms, and advertising agencies. Detailed individual job descriptions are listed on our site by location and by function. Students who are accepted into the program pay as they would for study abroad and receive a personalized internship match, Global Skills Training, housing, excursions, and have an on-site coordinator. Looking ahead to a challenging job market, international work experience can give participants an edge. For more information call 800.777.7766 or visit www.intraxinternshipsabroad.com.
You can also contact the following Penn State students who have participated in our programs:
Julia – Marketing major, interned with M&C Saatchi Advertising in Paris
Joshua – Finance major, interned with Morningstar Finance in Madrid
Intrax Internships Abroad is a division of Intrax Cultural Exchange, a company with 30 years of facilitating over 300,000 cultural exchanges in study abroad, work abroad, volunteering, and language instruction.
Posted in Internship Opportunities, Opportunity Spotlight | No Comments
Student Perspective- Andrew Fedele- KPMG
Thursday, October 14th, 2010
Where is your internship located?
My internship was split between Chicago, Illinois, and Johannesburg, South Africa.
What company or organization are you working with? How did you obtain this internship?
As an intern of KPMG LLP, you are invited to apply for the global internship program. Upon receiving the email, I looked at the different locations offered, chose what I thought suited me best and applied. A few weeks later, I was contacted to set up a phone interview and informed of the decision shortly after the call.
What is your role/responsibilities within the organization?
My role as an audit intern was similar to that of a first year audit employee. Tasks ranged across the entire audit depending on the client and their fiscal year. However, since South Africa does not have any position similar to an intern, and because my senior thought I was 28 for the first two weeks, I was given full sections of the audit to complete while abroad.
What has been the most challenging professional task within your internship?
The most challenging professional task with my internship was the type of work I was given in South Africa. As I mentioned, my team thought I had more experience and was much older than 21, thus more responsibility was given to me and more was expected from me.
Can you speak about an experience you had that allowed you to learn about the working culture in the country you were living?
I would not say that there is one specific experience that defines the working culture of South Africa. The country is so immense and diverse that it changes depending on where you are. For example, the first week I was on a large coal mine that was far from any major city. In contrast, the remaining three weeks I worked in Johannesburg.
How is the working culture different than your experiences in the US?
For the most part, the working culture is similar to the US but a little more relaxed and as the Sotuh Africans might say “cheeky.”
If you were interviewing for a position in the US, what skills would you say this internship helped you to gain or skills you realized you needed to improve upon?
I think my experience with KPMG’s global internship program helped me understand global business from a first hand perspective and how the world really is become a global economy. My time in South Africa forced me to start thinking beyond the US and about what business will be like in the future. I truly believe that having these types of experiences are going to be a major asset to one’s career and company. Furthermore, I think that being able to adapt to new situations is important, and what better way to demonstrate an ability to do so than a global internship.
What are some exciting adventures or travels that you have had while on internship?
While in South Africa, the other global interns and I went on three trips: Kruger National Park for a safari, Cape Town and Victoria Falls on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. In Kruger, we saw all of the “Big Five” animals that tourists hope to see (lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo and rhinoceros). One of the people on the tour we took our second day had be coming to the park every year for 40 years and had never seen all five, so we definitely lucked out. In Cape Town we toured Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner, we checked out Table Mountain for awesome views of the city and also went diving with great white sharks. At Victoria Falls, we all went white water rafting and took a helicopter ride to view the falls. In addition, I went bungee jumping.
In addition, we took one of our last days off to help out with a school in one of the depressed areas around Johannesburg. It was an amazing experience to be able to go into a school that had nothing and help build and stock a library as well as plant flowers in the school yard. Most of the 1,200 students were orphans and there are only four teachers for the entire school. Their faces and appreciation is something I will never forget.
If you were to talk with a recruiter what would be the one thing you would want to tell him/her regarding your international experience?
I would want to convey how much I learned while working on the client and outside of the office about the different people and culture of the nation.
How do you think this experience has helped prepare you for life in the real world?
I absolutely believe this experience has helped prepare me for life in the “real world.” Penn State sometimes can seem like a bubble and the reality is that you are going to have to work with many different people from different backgrounds. Working abroad forces you to leave your comfort zone and accept someone else’s culture and norms.
Advice for students considering a study abroad or international internship?
My advice would be to research where you are going before you go. Make sure you have a good basic understanding of the culture, people and language. Once you get abroad, for either experience, take every opportunity given to you. Do not waste a day – the time flies by.
View Andrew’s videos from his time in South Africa:
For more information on these opportunities, check out KPMG’s global opportunities website:
http://www.kpmgcampus.com/kpmggo/gip.shtml
Posted in Student Experience | No Comments
Organization Spotlight- Long Way Home, Guatemala
Monday, October 11th, 2010
Long Way Home is a US based 501c3 non profit development organization working in the rural village of San Juan Comalapa in the Western Highlands of Guatemala, about 2 hours from Guatemala City. We believe it is possible to eradicate the cycle of poverty existant in this community.Long Way Home has dedicated itself to building a school in this town to bring education and job training to the people of this Mayan community. The education will in turn help them find employment.
The intergenerational benefits of the opportunities provided by education have broken the cycle of dependency and poverty in many areas of the world, and have a tremendous opportunity to do so in rural Guatemala. Our organization has already successfully built an ecological community park for the community with a booming reforestation program that adds 10,000 indigenous trees a year to agricultural lands. We also work with 2 elementary schools in the village, allowing our volunteers from all over the world to participate in our ongoing English and Environmental Awareness classes.
Our newest project is the construction of a new elementary, middle and vocational school utilizing materials that would otherwise be burned or discarded near water systems. San Juan Comalapa also has a garbage problem that can cause illness and disease. By using alternative construction techniques with materials that would otherwise be burned or enter the water supply, Long Way Home has created a solution for part of this dilemma.
We have internship opportunities in a variety of projects from Nonprofit administration to Alternative construction to Educational outreach. Please view the Smeal Symplicity System for information on our internship opportunities.
Around Guatemala, Lake Atitilan is only a 2 hour bus ride away and offers kayaking, volcanoe hikes, swimming, shopping and shrines. Antigua is a colonial city and has over 10 Spanish cathedrals, numerous coffee farms to visit and tons of shopping only 1 hour away. The ruins of Iximche are only 1 hour away and was once the Mayan capital when the Kaqchikel people ruled for over 700 years.
View the videos below for more information on the opportunities with Long Way Home:
Posted in Internship Opportunities, Opportunity Spotlight | No Comments
SGI Organizations
Thursday, October 7th, 2010
Below is a comprehensive list of the companies and organizations that have internship opportunities that are posted in the Smeal Symplicity System. In the next few weeks we will highlight these organizations and for some include student perspectives.
Posted in Internship Opportunities | No Comments