Startup Internship Program - Australia

My internship through Start Me Up was incredible. The program coordinator was hospitable, friendly, and in tune with what we wanted to experience in the startup culture. I felt I was pushed out of my comfort zone and that defined my strengths as well as my weaknesses. Working with a startup forced me to think in a different way and opened my mind to new directions of conducting business.
The startup world is crazy in the best sense possible. Start Me Up did an amazing job pairing me with Travello (solo travel app). I really connected with the crew and founders but I also learned invaluable assets I can use for my future.
The founders and my supervisor understood my goals to learn more about coding, website design and programming, marketing, social media managing, and public relations. My internship focused on running a campaign for Travello so I witnessed the ins-and-outs of how to market, push, redirect, and analyze a campaign.
My typical day working for Travello was leaving an apartment skyscraper with my fellow housemates and heading to Travello’s home office. In the mornings the crew would discuss the daily goal and after lunch, I’d head to the workspace with other startup companies. My case was unique in that I got both an office and coworking space experience. After the workday ended I headed to an event in the evening which varied nightly: events included a pitch-off series, sessions on marketing techniques, AI, computer programming, medical research and technology, and so many more. The nightlife after the events was fun to observe as the city came to life.
Overall, this internship wasn’t your typical deal where you work for hours without supervision or goals to increase your skills. It was so much more in that not only were my desires to learn specific things catered to by my startup, but the relationships I built will last a lifetime.
It was more than getting information to throw on my resume. It was an opportunity to build myself as a person, create lasting relationships, and gain life experience that will take me toward the right career path.
If I had to go back and make the decision between internships again, I would choose the exact experience I did back in January upon hearing my acceptance to participate in Start Me Up’s program. After all the laughs, beach days, hikes, food tasting, live music, dancing, one of the best things is that in Queensland is you’re never far from nature. There are miles of beaches and incredible wildlife around every corner. As any visitor to Australia will attest, the highlight of a trip down under is getting up close to koalas and kangaroos and getting photographic evidence to prove it!

Overall this was a positive and enjoyable experience. I was put in an apartment building where students going to nearby colleges lived and i was placed with three other amazing women who were part of the same program, who I grew to care deeply about and are still friends despite being countries apart. The company I was paired with was amazing. It comprised of genuine, determined people who wanted me to succeed just as much as they wanted their company to succeed. Start-me-up itself was admittedly unorganized just because they are a startup themselves and so some of the excursions and other minor things were not easy to navigate but it didn't take away too much from the rest of the trip being wonderful. Brisbane was a corporate paradise, a fun mix between the typical business city and a modern metropolis full of young ideas. There were coffee shops on every corner and enough things to do that we never got bored. I would recommend this program to my peers.