Hard Work Pays Off!

Being a senior and choosing to study abroad is a little more challenging as I have less time to prepare myself after coming back from studying in Italy before I join the real world and must look for a big girl job.  I had my heart set on going to study in Italy and have an internship to help build my resume upon returning home to the states.  I thought having an internship abroad would help strengthen my skills as I would be doing graphic design work and getting to see how Italian companies are run verses companies in the United States.

To start off I have already learned that trying to land an internship while in school is much more tricky here.  My school schedule is basically set in stone due to the classes I must take (and want to take) in order to graduate.  Therefor my hours were a bit tricky to work with.  I had one interview with a smaller company that does projects and branding for much larger outside companies.  They do all their marketing from posters, business cards, facebook pages, websites etc for the company.  I thought this company would be a perfect fit for me because although I absolutely love print, I know I need to strengthen my skills on the web as graphic design is becoming more and more digital.  After hearing back that I had a great interview and they liked my portfolio I would not be able to join their staff because my hours of availability were not going to work.

I would lying if I didn’t say this was a huge set back because time was coming to an end  and I needed to find an internship now or decide on another class to take.  Thanks to the amazing Laura (our internship coordinator) she was looking for another company for me to interview with that day.  This past week I interviewed with a company called Easy Milano.  They are a magazine helping the English speaking community here in Milan.  They are an add based magazine that provides services to where people can find english speaking babysitters, apartments for rent, tutors for their children to speak english and much more. Interviews in Italy are much different as well as both of mine were very informal.  Both companies wanted to see my profile and talk to me about what I would be doing to help their company if I was to get the job.  Easy Milano even took it a step farther as to show me different client work projects they have done in the past as well as what I would be doing on my internship.  It kind of felt like during my internship that some companies in Milan can decide if they like you or not based on your resume.  They decide before even seeing you if they think you will be a good fit and bring you in for the interview just to make sure.

After adding a little more stress I was not called back until four days after my interview to be told I had landed the internship and was going to be starting this next week!  I could not be more excited and nervous to prove myself and my skills here in Italy. Easy Milano is willing to work with my schedule and allow me to do some things at home if need be. I will be working 10-15 hours per week and still have time to travel, have fun, and oh ya, study while I’m here in Italy.