Project Everest Ventures - The Contemporary Internship

Interning with Project Everest Ventures is an opportunity I doubt you will get elsewhere. If living with over 30 strangers who then become close and long-life friends, uncomfortably but rewardingly improving those pesky presentation skills, or being forced to look into yourself and accepting what you see is something that interests you but scares you a lot - then doing an internship with Project Everest is definitely for you.

This internship does not cater to any specific degree or job interest: this is no office-job experience or task-specific internship. Throughout the course of the month (or multiple months if you have the time, patience and funding to do so) you will find yourself in situations where it becomes your choice to develop on those softer skill sets that are still seen as invaluable in the workforce. Your verbal and written communication, presentation and organisational skills, interpersonal and interpersonal skills as well as emotional intelligence will be put to the test in an environment far away from home. It's not everybody's choice to voluntarily pay for an experience (yes, an internship you pay for) that allows you to see the parts of you needing most care and improvement.

My month in Timor-Leste on the DArT project (PEV's agricultural internship) opened my westernised eyes to the greater reality that millions of people find to be their normal. I found myself choosing Timor as my internship destination because I thought that I probably would not have travelled there otherwise. My responsibilities on site were to organise daily tasks to meet 'experiment' requirements, empathise (survey) with locals about issues they perceived to be present within the agricultural space, communicate with my leader and colleagues, write emails to different stakeholders, call stakeholders and participate and plan meetings. As someone lacking confidence in myself for how I will be in the workforce, these tasks have set me up well to further develop my softer skills back home.

PEV is a social enterprise - essentially a business in which their customers receive a direct social benefit from whatever product they have designed. If you struggle with the concept of selling for example, clean stoves or feminine hygiene products, to people who earn around an average of $10USD a day, then the internship will be a challenge for you. I found it hard to reconcile the fact that the social business is not ripping off its customers but is actually sustaining itself sustainably (to be honest I still grapple with it). If business is your thing (definitely not mine), then I'm sure that this experience would be interesting for you, but I can't provide advice on what I personally have no experience in.

Overall, my month was challenging. I was learning to accept parts of myself that I do not love the most, setting myself very high standards, coping with being around people consistently almost everyday in conjunction to essentially working with my team to progress the state of a possible business in a foreign country. The team leaders I had were incredible people, but I personally struggled with some of their leadership styles and lack of emotional support that I need. Some tasks were messily organised and communication between groups and leaders were not always clear, resulting in confusion and therefore stagnation for some activities. Some behaviours displayed by PEV leaders were a little intense and borderline obsessive in terms of living and breathing the PEV hustle and grind all day everyday, but are understandable if social impact and working with people who closely mirror all your values is your thing.

There are always negatives with experiences, and it just becomes your call as to what and how much you are willing to put up with in order to reap the benefits. I would not recommend the internship for anyone wanting to make serious social impact or for those wanting technical skills. Personally, I found my internship not to be the most academically supportive in terms of my undergraduate science degree, but I have experienced so much personal and professional growth. For me, although the internship was not at all what I had expected it to be, the soft skill and interpersonal development was the most rewarding part of the month. I would have regretted the decision not to take the leap and sacrifice a few g's to do the internship - I'm happy that I did my month in Timor-Leste and I am so grateful for the friendships I have with other people and myself.

I would only suggest doing research into PEV if it's something you are considering doing. Everybody's experience is totally different - the 33 people on my trek would tell you 33 different stories - but I don't think there is any other internship out there that facilitates the same degree and intensity of personal and professional development that Project Everest offers. And that to me is their selling point.