{"id":3060,"date":"2018-02-28T19:33:19","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T19:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/?p=3060"},"modified":"2022-04-13T15:42:22","modified_gmt":"2022-04-13T15:42:22","slug":"paris-month-one-finding-my-internship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/paris-month-one-finding-my-internship\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris month one: finding my internship"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time flies\u2026 but it feels like it goes by even faster on the year abroad which is why I cannot believe I\u2019ve not written a blog in three months. There are a few reasons for my lack of blogging. In December, I was still finalising what I was going to be doing this semester so frankly it was a stressful time, what with also having to sort out exams before leaving Nantes as well as thinking about the essay for Cardiff uni. In January, however, it was busy for a very different reason\u2026 I arrived in Paris! I cannot express how much I love being in this city and over the course of the next few months (I\u2019m here until mid-July), I\u2019ll be sure to update you all on the adventures I get up to exploring this wonderful city!<\/p>\n

Firstly, however, I thought it would be a good idea to discuss work placements and advice for finding and choosing the right one since this is what I am doing here in Paris. As a French and Economics student, I knew I would be spending the entire year in France therefore I also knew pretty early on into thinking about my year abroad that I wanted to divide the year into a semester at uni and a semester working. Whilst Cardiff is massively supportive in whichever route you decide to take, it\u2019s a lot easier choosing a university abroad simply because more students go to university and also you have the list in front of you to choose from. When it comes to work, it\u2019s a case of researching, applying and obtaining the internship by yourself. I\u2019ve come up with a list of tips and advice that I wish someone last year had given to me. It would probably have made my second year a lot less hassle!<\/p>\n

1) Use the resources available<\/strong>
\nThis is stating the absolute obvious but it\u2019s knowing where those resources are that can be difficult. I began my search with the folder on work placements found on Learning Central and as it so happens this is where I found the company I have come to work for. I would certainly recommend beginning the search as early as possible as by the time I was looking for jobs in this folder (around December of second year so pretty early), some jobs were already unavailable as they had earlier deadlines. Still, don\u2019t be discouraged by this as the folder is regularly updated so it may be that the job you\u2019re looking for will come later down the line.
\nIndeed is also a really good website and I applied to a couple of job advertisements on there. If you\u2019re interested in a particular company, I would also recommend looking directly at their website for any jobs going and don\u2019t dismiss the idea of working for charities. Yes, it is almost certain you won\u2019t be paid but you could gain some valuable skills and it will look great on your CV. I would suggest speculative applications to some firms if you\u2019ve seen that they accept interns. Finally, use your contacts! You never know- your neighbour\u2019s aunt\u2019s brother-in-law might have an internship going at the company he works for.<\/p>\n

2) Une lettre de motivation et votre CV s\u2019il vous plait\u2026<\/strong>
\nSo you\u2019ve found a job you\u2019d like to apply for and you\u2019re scrolling through the job description until you reach the end where you find you\u2019ve got to write a CV and cover letter in French (or insert any other language you\u2019re studying). Again, this may seem rather obvious (though I did have to apply to a few in English), after all the placement is going to be in a francophone country, but taking the time to write a CV and cover letter in French can be lengthy and be a longer process than anticipated. I remember when I first started looking at jobs and naively believed I could juggle second year work with applying to about two or three posts in a week. It\u2019s unrealistic!
\nThe time spent writing a cover letter that fits the job you\u2019re applying for as well as writing it in a non-native language, before finally getting it checked over by someone who may be busy themselves will probably take a few days to a week. Then you\u2019ve got to do it all over again! It was a stressful period in my life (as my flatmates would probably tell you) but I cannot thank past me enough for going through all that effort.<\/p>\n

3) Think ahead<\/strong>
\nRather than applying for a job for the sake of it, try to think of some of the skills you wish to develop or even better, try to think of a job that you\u2019d like to do post-university and see if there are any internships centred around it. I was selective in the posts I chose to apply for because I knew that my main goal on my year abroad above anything else was to improve my French proficiency. Despite being in France, there are a lot of companies that value English interns for their English alone so definitely be aware of this if you feel this could hinder improving your French.<\/p>\n

4) Be warned!<\/strong>
\nI definitely don\u2019t want to scare anyone off working abroad because I\u2019m absolutely loving it but I\u2019m also glad I was told these things before coming on my year abroad so that I could adequately prepare myself. Firstly, check how much and even if you\u2019ll be paid for the internship and then think of where the company\/establishment is based. It\u2019s important to think of the costs of living abroad, especially if you end up in an expensive city like Paris! Secondly, the majority of private companies do not give time off purely because the internships usually only last about 6 months so bear that in mind when applying for a post if you think this could be a problem.<\/p>\n

5) Enjoy!<\/strong>
\nOnly because I wanted to leave this blog on a positive note. I am having such a fantastic time in Paris which I\u2019ll be sure to let you know more about in the coming weeks and months. My internship is wonderful and I really love working with my team. Do try to find a job you\u2019ll enjoy because you\u2019ll likely be working five days a week for at least six months straight and it really makes the experience much, much better!<\/p>\n

Until next time\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing worth having comes easy.\u201d \u2013 Theodore Roosevelt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Time flies\u2026 but it feels like it goes by even faster on the year abroad which is why I cannot believe I\u2019ve not written a blog in three months. There […]","protected":false},"author":1420,"featured_media":3061,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[268],"tags":[88,75,280,120,197],"class_list":["post-3060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-paris","tag-france","tag-internship","tag-work","tag-year-abroad"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4QQbz-Nm","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3225,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/selecting-a-programme-abroad\/","url_meta":{"origin":3060,"position":0},"title":"Selecting a programme abroad","author":"Kimberly Field","date":"March 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi everyone! 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Les deux mois que j'ai d\u00e9j\u00e0 pass\u00e9 \u00e0 Paris ont \u00e9t\u00e9 fantastiques. C'est une ville magnifique et il y a beaucoup \u00e0 faire ici. Je suis toujours tr\u00e8s occup\u00e9e soit en travaillant \u00e0 l'\u00e9cole ou en explorant la ville, mais je ne changerais pas cela!\u00a0Le\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "European Placements"","block_context":{"text":"European Placements","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/category\/europe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2018\/04\/french-flag-450x299.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/281\/2018\/02\/IMG_3716-e1519845422746-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1420"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3060"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3062,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3060\/revisions\/3062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/globetrotters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}