Internship in New Zealand

Hello everyone, I am pleased to share with you my experience.

Firstly I should introduce myself, I'm Lucien, I'm 20 and I'm in third year of computer science engineering school : IG2i.

As part of my studies, I must perform a 3 month internship in an English speaking country. From the beginning, I had decided to do it in New Zealand. Indeed, I have wanted to discover this country for years.

I had the choice between looking for an internship in the computer domain or else in an other domain without any link with my studies. I chose my domain for two reasons:

• To gain more experiences in computer science for my next internship
• It's easier to get a good salary in the domain where you have more skills.

It's important to look for your internship well ahead, probably 3 months before, but not too early because companies don't know their projects so much ahead.

The first thing to try is your network, talk around you to know if anybody knows a potential interesting contact in the country.

Maybe the most important thing is to have irreproachable communication tools. Your resume / CV should be clear, adjusted to the target country. Same thing for your cover letter. You should show that you can offer skills and experiences to your potential future employer to bring a real added value to the company. It will be important to negotiate your salary.

Obviously, you need a updated LinkedIn profile  with a great picture. After that you can begin to create an Excel file and put all the email addresses that you find on companies website. Use google, yellow pages and companies book on governmental sites. If you can find addresses different from ello@.." or "contact@.." it's better. For that check on the website if you can find a name of an employee or the owner and search on google 'full name | name of the country | mail', you'll see, Google is very powerful. Don't hesitate to send to private addresses.

Send your resumes / CVs by groups of emails. To do that use the 'CCi' field. You should send the email to yourself and put all the addresses on the CCi field.

Important thing: Choose an interesting wording for the field "subject", this is the most important, indeed that will determine if the person will open it or not. According to studies the best time in the week to catch people's attention is on Tuesday at 10 pm local time. Pay attention to the holiday periods in the country.

The next goal is to get an interview by Skype. Offer this possibility when someone replies to you. 

The first Skype is not easy but it's important to prepare it in advance. You should know to :

• Talk about your presentation, your school and your projects
• Many things about your potential future company
• How you will talk about the salary

For example, I sent 900 mails in New Zealand, got 3 interviews and one internship. But in other places such as N-Y or San Francisco there is a better ratio.

When you are hired you can begin to plan your internship.

• Take you Visa, it's pretty easy and fast for a Working Holiday Visa. You should apply on the website and it takes about 3 days.
• Take your plane ticket. Use price comparison. I discovered a great site : 

http://www.e-australie.com/

The tickets prices are lower. And you can change your return for one year.

• Find your accommodation. It's difficult to look for it when you are not  in the country. I chose to live in youth hostels at the beginning and look for a flatmate on site

For NZ : http://www.nzflatmates.co.nz/

•  And finally, the last thing is to pack your bag :)

 And after the only thing to do is work hard during work days and enjoy your week ends :)