A six-week lesson from halfway across the world

The USA Industry Placement Program is a six-week internship designed for students to experience the international business environment, gaining knowledge, skills and networks within our respective majors and future careers.  

While my trip started roughly at a bad start (my transit flight to the USA was cancelled due to a volcanic eruption), the time I spent at the San Francisco Bay Area made it worth all the drama. My six-week placement in the US could be best described in three words.

Stimulating, thrilling and appreciative. 

Stimulating… 

My six-week placement was dedicated to Berkeley Search Consultants (BSC), a small recruitment agency dedicated to offering search services. Before I came to BSC, I must admit that I wasn’t entirely familiar with what Executive Search meant in recruitment. Having finished an internship in Human Resources for a multi-national company, my skills and knowledge in recruitment were quite limited. Despite this, I was ready to see what Berkeley Search had to offer. 

Working in a small business like Berkeley Search, I felt my duties were far more diverse than what my job title as a Human Resources/Recruitment Intern would entail. Whether it was daily maintenance of their recruitment software, updating training files, organising team documents, writing up press releases or synthesising client data, every day was never the same.

Thanks to this opportunity to wear many hats, I was able to gain confidence knowing what it’s like to work behind the scenes and support the colleagues around you. In return, I gained hands-on experience and lifelong lessons from my colleagues and supervisors who had several years of industry knowledge under their belt.  

Learning all the ropes and behind the scenes of a recruitment agency had its perks for me. I was able to see first-hand what recruiters and hiring managers look for when searching for a potential candidate. For someone in their early career stages, this was beneficial to me as I had learnt new lessons, tips and tricks that will help my job search process in the future. I came into this internship thinking that my resume and my current approach to job searching was adequate, but I was wrong! I underestimated how much work it takes, and I wouldn’t have been able to discover this without the support around me.  

Thrilling…  

Working in the San Francisco Bay Area also exposed me to a new level of diversity. Every place, street and corner had something to contribute to the San Francisco way of life. For instance, a commute from our residence to Berkeley would consist of walking beside Chinatown, through to the Financial District in Downtown San Francisco, over the Oakland Bay Bridge on the BART train system, passing by the container cranes at the Port of Oakland (where it supposedly inspired the AT-AT Walkers from the Star Wars movie franchise). 

All this while admiring the different house architecture styles.  

San Francisco and all its attractions and little quirks were sufficient to work, live and play during my time there. There was not a free day wasted.  

Appreciation…  

For me, I think doing an internship, especially one that’s outside of your comfort zone, i.e. location, is a key thing to do. Being a business student, gaining work experience is key to boosting your employability opportunities.

I came to the Bay Area with textbook knowledge and patchy life skills. Now leaving this place, I am glad to have had this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to throw myself into the business world and figure out what to learn, how to survive as an adult, and the pathway I would like to see my career move towards.  

I thank my host company, Berkeley Search Consultants, for doing such a tremendous job in maximising the knowledge and skills I needed to learn all within a short period of time. Most especially to the Business School, I am grateful for them providing this opportunity to all Business students and a sincere thanks for allowing me to undertake this program.  

Now it’s your turn to apply!