Over the coming months we will be hosting Intern Options Summer 2010 Internship blogs to help our users who are looking to gain work experience abroad. Make sure you check them out, in order to hear from current students and graduates who are in Australia and New Zealand doing their internships, and those planning their internship abroad.

Firstly what is a summer internship and why should I do one? The major reason is experience, experience, experience. Anyone reading the papers these days would have seen article after article on the lack graduate jobs, on average 50 people applying for one job. In some industries like finance, accounting, marketing, PR etc that will be much higher.

So how do you differentiate yourself from your classmates, or the other thousands of students at UK universities who will be graduating with you, with the same degree on paper?

Well you might have guessed it already, work experience on your CV. A summer internship is a great way of getting some very good international work experience on your CV. This will not only greatly improve your chance of getting that all important graduate job, it will lead to you applying your theory, learnt on your course over the next year and give you the skills to shine in a job interview.

Paid Summer Internships or Unpaid Summer Internships? Well the first preference in this area is always to a paid internship. Obviously you want to be paid right? Well have a think about the other side of the coin for a second, I hear you, you can’t work for free!

The unpaid position you will be offered will be:

Customised – so will be in the area you want experience in, if you studying marketing then you could be placed into a sports marketing internship or an events marketing internship or fashion marketing internship

Higher starting position – much better starting position than you could walk into in a paid role with your job confirmed before you leave the UK

Focused on your Learning – your not working for a wage, you’re working to learn and get quality experience, so this is the focus rather than the “are you worth the £15,000 salary we are paying you”. So there won’t be any making tea or doing the photocopying, you will be getting stuck in to some really good work, in your career area.

To visit the original blog follow this link – Summer 2010 Internships – Where to Start