This article was written by Keely Blanchard , published on 7th June 2021.
Hi! I’m Keely, and I did my year abroad in the 2019/20 academic year. I spent half of it studying at university in Madrid and the other half in Dresden on a work placement, above is a picture I took on a trip to “Saxony Switzerland” a national park on the outskirts of Dresden. The work placement was an internship at a museum and I found it myself (i.e. nobody from York had been before and it wasn’t one advertised via the department). I thought I’d write this blog post to give some advice about what to consider when looking for a placement and how to go about finding something!
What do you really want?
This might sound like a silly question, but there’s a lot to consider when you’re searching for a job, and you might have to compromise on some things. Some things to think about are:
- Where do you want to be? If there’s nowhere specific you want to go, make sure to look all over, don’t forget there’s a world (and plenty of jobs) outside the capital!
- Do you want/need to be paid? You can do an internship in Germany without being paid (I think it’s different from places like France), so worth bearing in mind that they don’t all offer money!
- How much English do you want to speak? Remember that you’re there to practise your language – we didn’t have too many English-speaking visitors in Dresden, so I got lots of practice, but had I been somewhere like Berlin, it could have been different.
- What skills do you want to develop? Is it speaking with people? Something with customer service might be good. Maybe it’s your writing skills? Perhaps something more office-based would be better for you. Make sure to ask questions if you’re unsure what the job will entail – it’s just as important for you to like the job as it is for the employers to like you!
- What do you want to do after you graduate? If you’re not sure, don’t worry, just try and get something with lots of transferable skills. If you do know – great! You can look for something that’ll be good preparation for that. Do remember though, lots of jobs have transferable skills, so you can do something just because you like the look of it – I spoke about my time at the museum in my interview for Speech and Language Therapy!
Problems to be aware of
It can be tough to find somewhere – be prepared to send lots of applications! I can’t speak for other countries, but two of the biggest issues I had with Germany were the dates internships offered and the qualifications required. While there are a lot of internships available in Germany, because German university semesters are at different times to ours, lots of them started before I’d finished exams, or they ran too late and would have clashed with Spain. This would probably be easier if you’re planning to work for the whole year and aren’t bound by university term dates! Also worth noting, sometimes there is flexibility, e.g. if it says “maximum of 12 weeks”, explain that your university is happy with/would like longer, so worth checking! The other issue is that in Germany, people generally tend to be very specifically qualified, so lots of jobs want very specific degrees. Something worth remembering is you can big up certain aspects of your degree, even if it isn’t perfectly what they want. We’re never going to be qualified for a job searching for maths students, but I made sure to highlight all the history I’d done!
Where to search
There’s plenty of sites available for searching for internships and placements – the year abroad coordinator should give you a list. These are a great help, and definitely worth looking through. You can also look on general job hunting websites and on companies’ websites. I found mine by searching for museums on Google Maps, then looking at their websites to see if I liked the look of it and if they had any jobs going. There’s also always the good ol’ Initiativbewerbung, where you send an application without there being an advert. While you might be ignored, plenty of people do land great jobs this way. It can be hard to put yourself out there like that, but if there’s a company you want to work at and they aren’t offering internships, you’ve got nothing to lose! This can also be good if there’s specific dates you want to work.
Ask your lecturers!
Obviously you have to get your placement approved before you can go, but make sure you ask the lecturers if you’re not sure of anything. They can give you pointers on what’s considered the norm in certain countries, and whether something looks good to apply to, or if there’s anything you should ask at an interview.
Good luck!
Like all job hunts, job hunts for a year abroad can be hard. Don’t forget to make sure you look up how to tailor your CV/cover letter for the country you’re applying to, and don’t forget to sell yourself! It might not happen instantly, but you should be able to find something great, so persevere and best of luck!
Languages Year Abroad (Uni of York) 