Program Reviews

I did my internship in Dublin and I am grateful I was able to take part in the Intern Group program. Every aspect of the program was professional, valuable and worth my time. Not only was my internship one that will help me in my future career, the community and social events were also better than I could have ever hoped for. The whole process of applying, getting accepted, getting my placement, pre arrival communications, orientation, the actual internship and exit interview were all executed professionally and added value to me.

I arrived in New York just as the severity of the outbreak became realised. I worked for 2 days in the office before then spending the remaining two weeks working form home. With the support of Brian and Isis, I made the decision to fly home early but continue my internship from home. I couldn't have asked for better people to have guided me through this process and tried to make an unprecedented situation feel more normal. The weekend social activities (before the city got shut down) were so impressive and I was gutted not too have been able to do them all! Thank you so much to Brian, Isis, Hanna and all at the Intern Group for going above and beyond in these times and do their utter best to support, advise and try to give us all an amazing experience

I had an amazing time in London this winter. The team in London made a wonderful community for us all, especially Thomas - thank you! I really don't have enough words to describe how fun this experience was. It was beyond fun and I made more real friends than I’ve made in college. And I didn’t know anyone going on the trip and I left with lifelong friends from all over the world. The actual internship was quite a bit tougher than I expected but I got a lot out of it. The biggest challenge was the intensity of the internship which I took some getting used to, but by the end I became accustomed to it and really liked it. I’m usually critical of programs I participate in but The Intern Group program was the time of my life.

I feel the program was misrepresented.

The Intern Group says the following about accomodation:
"We offer private bedrooms in shared apartments.
All of the student apartments are located near to one another. The apartments are excellently located 25 minutes from Central London and are the ideal base for exploring London during your stay.
We provide private bedrooms in family home-stays. Living with a London family is the perfect option if you wish to perfect your English and immediately be immersed in London life and culture."

The way they were organized, they didn't get me any housing options until the day before I got to London, and they only gave me one option, a "family" homestay an hour away from central London, and nowhere near the other students. I had never said that I wanted the family homestay option but it was the only one given me, 7 hours before I was to board the plane. The "family" was a single man in his 50s. What if I had said no? Where would they have put me?

The accommodation was indeed an issue, as I had read the detailed explanations on the Intern Group’s website about how and where I would live. I expected to live near the center of London to have “a base for exploring London” but, most importantly I expected roommates, as I had not chosen preemptively a family homestay, but that was the only option I was given, and it was given a day before I arrived. I am a person who needs people around me, friends my age or near it. I didn’t get that, and what I did get was unacceptable.

Furthermore, the house I was put in smelled so obviously of smoke, and the second hand tobacco and even marijuana smoke crept up to my top room continuously throughout the day, making me sick within 30 hours. I told an Intern Group supervisor the day I arrived at the first activity (30 minutes late because it took me an hour to get to the Canada Water station) that better housing would be much needed, due to the smoke, the poor quality of the house, and the distance from my peers.

To give you a better idea of the distance I was from central London, from my peers, and how far my job was, the Intern Group says the following on their website, " [They pay for] all your public transportation in London valid in the zones of your accommodation and workplace (typically in zones 1 and 2). We provide you with your public transportation for the first month." They say typically within zones 1 and 2, yet my work was in zone 6, and where I lived was in zone 4. They didn't pay for trains to those places, and I was out of money on my subway card before even arriving at my internship the first day.

Back to the accommodation.
On my second day in the house, I was offered a cigarette while sitting on the steps.

To avoid becoming sicker I moved to a hostel at my expense, where I knew it would be loud, but at least not so smoky. This 2-star backpacker hostel was a big step up over the home share.

I pestered the intern group for 4 days before they could give me an answer about what was going on with my housing. 4 days by myself, in a foreign country, spending 5+ hours on transport each day and only eating a meal a day due to the loss of appetite from the smoke and then cough and cold medicine.

I got to my internship on Wednesday and was a bit happier, seeing that I might have some friends here. I did my best, with the nasty cold I had gotten from the sore throat and cough from inhaling smoke for 2 days. I quickly realized that this company felt as though they didn’t really need an intern but just kind of like acce[ted an intern that was forced upon them, and they would take 6 weeks of free labor. The Intern Group had this statement on their website, "Partnering with a range of first-class companies and NGOs, our program offers comprehensive personal and professional development. We offer internships in London across all career fields." But the company I was with obviously didn’t have a strict program set up, and they were in Ruislip, which is about an hour and 20 minutes away from the center of London. Not to mention they only had 6 employees. How is a 6 employee company first-class? I could tell soon that I wasn’t going to learn anything in my field from the internship, as they were just asking me to do things that I already knew and was talented at. I was going to give it a chance, but when I walked out the first day, I sat on the stairs for a moment, to find my way back on the map while I still had WiFi, and suddenly I heard all the employees begin to gossip about me, asking why was I there an how I was kind of dumb for working for free. It sucked all the little spirit I had left out of me. So I decided to withdraw. I stayed again at the hostel and went back the next day to say goodbye, because I wanted to be polite.

Again, to push how strongly The Intern Group's lack of organization was, I did everything I needed to do on time for the applications, and got my visa three days before my program started. That means I only had 3 days to buy plane tickets and of course the price of those tickets was much higher than if purchased earlier. I ended up needing priority visa processing which cost about 300 dollars, luckily for me, I asked them to pay for it. When I asked a fellow student in the program about their visa, they told me they had received their visa just days before as well, and the Intern Group had told them to pay the 300 dollar fee themselves. That's disgusting to me.

All those things together opened my eyes to how this was going to be a waste of time. It felt very poorly organized, it felt like no one was paying attention to my situation until I said I wanted to withdraw, and it didn’t match the descriptions and everything I had read online.

Interning in Bangkok, I have seen my professional and cultural skills flourish. I was a landscape architecture intern at Landprocess for the duration of 8 weeks. During my time there I grew and developed my communication and technical skills through a range of hands on projects. The internship was challenging — but in all the best ways. The education goes beyond the traditional model of your university studies, and pushes you to be creative and innovative. One of the highlights was the collaborative nature of the workplace culture. The friendships and connections formed during my time in Bangkok will stay with me for years to come. This program was a fantastic way to really experience Thai culture, all while furthering my professional career. The inclusive cultural experiences were a great way to get to know the other interns, as well as hour new home — Bangkok. If you are someone who wants to excel in their field, explore the world, and meet interesting, new people from different cultures, this program is for you!

We're writing this about the programme set up for our daughter and to say how well the Intern Group have responded to the coronavirus crisis. She arrived in New York for an internship with a not-for-profit just before the outbreak. On her third day in work, it was discovered that the second person with a confirmed case of the virus worked in her building, which was closed down straight away. Over the next ten days, she had to work from home but while the placement organisation were doing their best, there wasn't much they could offer her to do. It soon became clear that the internship was being overtaken by much bigger events and there was no prospect of meaningful work experience. At this point, our daughter agreed with the Intern Group that it was best to suspend the programme, and she left New York to stay with friends in Toronto.

Throughout this difficult and stressful time, everyone we were in touch with at the Intern Group were great. Brian, the contact in New York, could not have done more and went out of his way to help. Hannah, the Americas Head of Experience, has also been tremendous, taking time to call and to follow up all our concerns and questions.

Moreover, the Intern Group has agreed that all the 'unused' time and costs on the internship - including rent - can be held over and put towards a new position and experience once this nightmare with coronavirus is over. This has made a huge difference to our daughter, who feared that months of planning, working, and saving had been wiped out.

Through all this desperately difficult time, the Intern Group's focus has been on treating everyone well and fairly - even, no doubt, where it has come at a financial cost to them. For this, they deserve a lot of credit, and certainly have our thanks.

Well done!

I really enjoyed the experience because I learned so much during this time and there was a good balance between work and fun. I have done things that I wouldn't have done otherwise just by working at home and it gave me an idea about what it will mean to work in the type of environment I want to work in. I would definitely recommend the program to anyone who is fresh out of university or has some time between a course and another. It's been an experience I will never ever forget. I really wish I could have stayed longer.

It was a very good experience for me, the staff of the Intern Group is amazing, they take care of us and I never felt alone.
I even had some health issues and they were very nice to me and helpful.
I traveled a lot, I even lived in Argentina but Dublin was my best experience. I think it's because I met a lot of new friends, I traveled a lot, I walked in the nature and else. It's so interesting to meet people that you would never know in other case, because they are really different than you are
I recommend it 100% !

The internship experience has proved to help me quite a lot in developing my self professionally and personally. The internship has also helped me widen and broaden my skill set by continuously refreshing and practicing them at the work place hence, I have also managed to gain transferable skills which will be extremely handy whilst applying for this to a postgraduate degree. This internship has helped me grow out of my comfort zone and enabled me to change my outlook in the field I interned at.

I was lucky enough to get to spend six months working in Australia as part of my university program. Throughout the entire process of applying, being accepted, finding a role, and traveling to Melbourne, The Intern Group stayed in touch and provided tips and tricks to reduce friction.

Once I was in Melbourne, the experience was even better. At first, I was a little nervous, but The Intern Group does a lot to help give interns a community to feel comfortable away from home. There were opportunities to explore the city, compete in trivia nights, and meet out to dinner every few weeks, along with bigger excursions like wildlife sanctuaries and beaches. I began in July, one of the more popular months for new interns, so there were about 15-20 of us getting settled in and enjoying the events together. I made some really good friends that I plan on staying in touch with forever.

There were also a lot of opportunities to sightsee more independently. With other interns, I saw the Great Ocean Road and Tasmania (I highly recommend both). On a trip for work, I was also able to visit Sydney alone for a couple of days as well.

As for the internship side of things, it was incredible! Coming in as a computer science student, I was originally unsure of what work I would be doing: would it be interesting and helpful to my career, or would I be doing smaller, more general tasks? However, I ended up joining a non-profit in the startup community, where my role was mainly to maintain and develop the website. Although the internship was unpaid, my supervisor did everything she could to ensure I had opportunities to learn and grow as much as possible.

I had always heard people say that their global experiences were some of the best in their lives and, now that I've had my own, I can't help but agree.