A new experience begins

Hi everyone,

I’m Diane from Curtin University. I am currently in my last semester of my Bachelor of Commerce, majoring in Public Relations and Advertising. I can’t believe I will be done with uni in a few months..

I am doing my internship at the International Students Committee (ISC) at Curtin. The ISC is a department of the guild and is run by students. It is the peak representative body for international students, their concerns, issues and their voice at Curtin.

I started looking for an internship when I came back from holidays at the end of January. I really thought that I would be definitely fine finding an internship as I started looking around early. However, I just started my internship 2 weeks ago.. An advice for future interns: START LOOKING FOR A PLACEMENT EARLY!! You never know what can go wrong.

As a 3rd year student, I really thought it would be easy to find something quickly but it was not that easy. I am not sure if it is due to my lack of experience or because I am an international student, but anyway it made me realised that it wouldn’t be that easy to find a job once I graduate. One thing I regret looking back at my time at uni, it’s not having enough work experiences. I really wish I could go back and do a lot more during those 3 years. But that is just my personal opinion and experience and when reading the different posts, everyone is having a different journey.

Anyway,
I was really excited when I started my internship at the ISC. I have to say that I didn’t hear of this association before, but I felt that it was a great opportunity for me to get a real life experience as well as to assist an association for international students.

During my first days at the ISC, I met the students I was working with and I learned more about the committee as it was completely new to me. I did some research and asked as many questions needed to fully understand what the ISC was about and what they were doing. It is essential to really know who you are working for to do the best job possible.

When I first thought of my internship, I imagined being in an office all day, supervised by someone who would tell me what I need to do, and complete tasks that no one wants to do. However, at the ISC, as it is a fairly new organisation, there are lot of work that can be done, and lots of place for your imagination. I can come to work every day for a few hours, or just few days a week, or even work from home; it is entirely up to me.

At first I felt a bit disorientated without supervision. I was used to work on my own, but not in a real environment. I was a bit lost the first few days, and tried to do my best to figure out what I could do. As I said there are so many things that can be done, so many projects that could be undertaken that I was not sure where to begin.

Now I am a lot more confident and glad to contribute to the ISC.

That’s all for now, I’ll share more experiences and projects in later posts.

Diane