AIFS Abroad: Study, Intern, or Study & Intern in Australia

The primary thing that I loved about GE's placement for me in Sydney, was that the staff really spent a lot of time trying to find some position that fit along with my career goals. There are some interns who were a bit unhappy with their placements but that is solely because the companies themselves failed to live up to what they had promised the interns. GE worked very hard and succeeded in making this experience phenomenal.

For reference, I worked with a company called 33 Talent that revolves around the recruiting industry. I worked with PR, webpage displays, and marketing strategies...all of which I hadn't really experienced before. For the most part, the employers in Sydney are great because they give you opportunities to participate in things you haven't experienced yet, and then go for it. I loved all of this for that reason.

If you combine this with the fun extra curricular activities like a bus tour to the Blue Mountains, a day at an Australian Football League game, and the Sydney Opera House tour, it's great.

I wouldn't have been able to take this opportunity and overcome personal challenges before-hand without the support of the GE team. Once I arrived at my location abroad, I had an amazing time. My internship exposed me to many different aspects in my field. The accommodation was comfortable and modern and the staff was very responsive if something, like an appliance, needed to be fixed. I made amazing friends and I was able to experience a rich culture. Our location rep helped us to explore the city by taking us on really enjoyable day trips. I came away feeling empowered and I learned so much. I now feel in not only a much better position professionally, but also personally as I grew so much through this experience.

Great overall experience. Can't speak enough about it. Learned a great deal, met some great people and experienced a great culture.

The weekdays revolved around work. I felt like I got an idea of what big city living is about. The weekends were spent exploring Sydney and seeing what it had to offer.

Great program!

My experience with Global was wonderful! Bali was very helpful and very supportive! And he put up with a lot of unneeded situations and went beyond the call of help! I highly recommend not placing anyone at the company I was placed with again. They are a terrible company and I went into work everyday basically doing nothing and learning nothing! I think I might of talked to my supervisor a total of 5 times the whole summer. It's not an internship it's a secretary job, and for the amount we pay I was expecting to have the experience everyone else from GE Sydney walked out with. Other than that everything was wonderful. Location was perfect and so was everything else.

I am so glad I decided to do an internship through a program instead of finding everything on my own. Though it seems expensive, you have to keep in mind how expensive things Sydney cost. GE gives you the opportunity to get to know people in the program from all over the world and share in this experience with them.

GE staff are very helpful in the preparations for the trip and were always there to answer questions and give advice.

I can not say enough good things about my experience in Sydney. I participated in the internship program in the summer of 2011, between my Sophomore and Junior year at IU. After completing a phone interview and preparing a mock public relations campaign, I was placed with a PR firm in Surry Hills. I was nervous about the position, because the firm was so small, but I soon found out that its' size was in no way indicative of what they were capable of. My coworkers were so fun and comfortable to be around, and they made me feel that my input was not only welcome, but really valued. I learned so much about how the PR industry works, and often draw from that experience with my schoolwork and in my career search.

Another aspect I really liked about this program was the size of it. It was a smaller program (I think about 30 kids?), so we were able to get to know everyone on some level, and everyone got along really well. It was big enough, however, that it included people from all over the world, with all different types of interests.

I enrolled in this program for summer 2012 and had the most incredible experience. The communication was great and received my placement shortly after being accepted into the program. The accommodation was in a nice area and support staff helped me out whenever I needed anything. I really enjoyed my job and gained a lot of real world experience in the marketing field. I highly recommend this program for a truly life changing experience, plus it's a good resume booster.