Career Chat: The Internship

This is Part 3 of my career path story (Parts 1 / 2 are here if you missed them).

I stumbled into my internship completely unexpectedly. If anything in my life has ever led me to believe in fate or serendipity, it was this.

Following a particularly difficult breakup in the spring of 2009, I was actively looking for another opportunity to do some international travel. I was desperate for an escape - so desperate that I was considering taking a job as a nanny in rural Tasmania when I came across an ad for a fully-funded internship in Kenya. On a complete whim, and with absolutely no expectation that anything would come from it, I applied. To my complete shock, I was selected, along with three other students from my university, to go in just three weeks time.

We arrived in Nairobi, Kenya on a Thursday in June and started our interships on the Monday. All three (eventually four) of the students from my university lived together but had different work placements. My internship was at the Africa Regional Office of the World Scout Bureau. It was my first exposure to working for a non-governmental organisation (NGO), and it just felt right. I was given a variety of tasks, from administrative to project work, and I loved it. I got sulky as Friday afternoons rolled around because I loved the work so much that I hated the idea of waiting until Monday to get back to it.

I learned a lot about my skills that summer. I had always been organised and able to get along with others, but during my internship, I realised the value of those skills as a professional. I think one of the keys to landing a career as opposed to a job is in finding a position that truly matches your skills. For instance, because I am an organised process person, I am much better in an operational role where I can "do" things rather than in a strategic role where things are much more abstract.

I was also uniquely placed to observe and build an understanding of office dynamics and the heirarchical structure of an organisation. This is also key to job satisfaction, in my opinion. Knowing your role and where you fit, and what is and isn't within your scope of influence, is critically important to your ability to do your job. If you spend your days pushing for change that you just don't have the seniority to influence, you'll get increasingly frustrated and burnt out. Obviously I'm making some sweeping generalisations here, and we can get into more detail in the future, but what I'm trying to say is you aren't going to be able to change the strategic direction of the organisation while you're still working as the receptionist, you know? As long as you keep these expectations in check, you'll be fine.

As you'd expect, living in a developing country proufoundly affected me on a personal level as well. In addition to the day-to-day adventures of living in a foreign country, the summer was filled with extreme experiences as well, including a safari, a trip to Rwanda, and the formation of some deep and lasting friendships. Each of these experiences changed me, some on a visceral level.

I wrote extensively about my experiences on a travel blog while I was away - this was my first experiece with regular writing, and it was vitally important in processing the huge range of emotions I was experiencing during that period of my life.

As the summer wrapped up, I finally had a career direction to work towards. I'd always been Pollyanna-esque in my motivations - remeber my initial career plan to cure cancer? I had never considered a career with a non-profit organisation but now it seemed like the most obvious thing in the world. Of course I would work for a non-profit!

Up next: the home stretch of my university experience.