Interns Head Abroad for Work Experience
In December 2008, Matthew Moughan found himself floundering in one of the worst job markets for college graduates in nearly two decades when he graduated from Marquette University (Marquette Undergraduate Business Profile). The economics major hoped to land a job in marketing and spent the winter mailing dozens of résumés and going on interviews. After six months, with no promising leads, he started to despair before stumbling across an online ad for Intrax Internships Abroad, a company that specializes in placing college students and recent graduates in international internships for a fee, ranging from $5,000 to $8,000. Fees vary depending on destination and cover insurance, housing, weekend trips, orientation, and help with work-visa applications.
Intrigued, Moughan talked the idea over with his parents, who agreed to lend him the money. Within a few weeks, Intrax had set him up with a work visa and a summer internship in London at Electronic Shipping Solutions, an electronic documents service company for the shipping industry that was started by two MBA graduates from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School (Wharton Full-Time MBA Profile). The internship worked out better than Moughan, 24, could have hoped: He was hired as a project manager after his internship ended and he plans to continue working for the company when he returns to the U.S. this spring. "It was a smart move, career-wise," Moughan says. "The investment has really paid off."
With the entry-level job that new college graduates used to snap up increasingly hard to come by, those starting out now have to look farther afield for that first gig. Employers said they expected to hire 7% fewer college graduates in 2010 vs. the previous year, according to a survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE) last fall, and recruiting remains down on many college campuses this spring. For many students, that signals it is time for a different approach. Increasingly, a growing number of them are securing an internship abroad to gain some work experience and then coming back to the U.S. to launch their careers. Those just a few months out of school are heading everywhere from Israel to Germany, snapping up sought-after jobs in government, nonprofits, and high-tech companies.
Work-Abroad Trend
"There is no question that there are more students than ever before who have an interest in working abroad," says Manny Contomanolis, career services director at the Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester Undergraduate Business Profile) and past president of the NACE. Students are seeking out these programs partly as a response to the tepid job market, but also because they increasingly realize the value that American companies place on global work experience, Contomanolis says. For many students, working abroad now is the next step, especially as they try to impress employers in an increasingly competitive job market. The total number of students traveling abroad for internships and receiving academic credit increased from nearly 7,000 in academic year 2000-01 to nearly 14,000 in 2007-08, according to the Institute of International Education (IIE), a New York-based nonprofit. That's a trend that "parallels the rise in study abroad by U.S. students generally," says Peggy Blumenthal, the IIE's chief operating officer.
Not surprisingly, organizations that specialize in work-abroad programs say they've seen a sharp increase in the number of college students and recent graduates looking for internships outside the U.S. Many of these groups require students to pay a fee of several thousand dollars to set them up with a job, while others award fellowships that help cover the cost of housing and living expenses. The programs that cost several thousand dollars usually set students up with housing, help them obtain visas, and pair them up with a business that aligns with the student's career goals. Paul Lakind, director of the Global Intern, a company in Randolph, N.J., that arranges internships in Israel, England, China, and Italy, compares the cost of his program to the equivalent of a three-credit course at a private university. "It is not for everyone and it is certainly an investment, but we don't want it any other way," he said. "People need to look at it in a very serious manner."