As college students, interning is a fairly normal experience in preparing for our future careers. Interning abroad, however, is much rarer. I was fortunate enough to participate in an internship program in Germany in the summer of 2008, and would recommend it to anyone who wants to gain a practical, multi-cultured look at the world. Our economy has been a global-economy for quite some time now, and gaining experience outside the US is extremely valuable.
I found my internship in Germany through CDS International, which is an organization that places students in foreign internships. CDS is not the only way to find internships abroad, but I have only good things to say about my experience with them. It isn’t inexpensive to apply to the CDS program, however, when accepted you are guaranteed an internship and they also take care of foreign work permits and other documentation, all of which makes starting your experience abroad a lot easier.
Right now, Germany is eagerly accepting foreign workers, and it is relatively easy to find a position overseas. I worked for SCHOTT AG, who also has their own American internship program. In this program they bring American students to come work in Germany with the sole purpose of sparking interest in working abroad. The man who started this program explained it fairly bluntly to us; they want Americans to come work for them.
My internship was in an engineering office, as I am a mechanical engineering major. I was kept busy and was expected to do similar work to what the actual German interns were working on. Overall I was treated just like any other worker and had to interact with my German colleagues on a daily basis.
Out of all of the internship experiences I have had in my college career (this was my 4th), my internship in Germany was by far the most influential. Working abroad gave me a whole new perspective of my field of engineering and I learned things, not only technically, but also culturally that I will keep with me for the rest of my life.