Doing an Internship as part of your studies

Hello everyone and welcome back to a new semester at LiU! I hope you had a great summer either in Sweden or around the world and arrived in Linköping with lots of energy for the time ahead. Sadly, I left Linköping in August this year, but only temporarily! I am finishing my third Master’s semester with an internship abroad in Brussels, Belgium. In my next few posts I will take you along and show you what that involves, but I will also continue with insights into LiU.

This time I would like to talk a bit about how to get started and what to prepare if you want to include an internship in your studies. First of all, the internship has to be included in the curriculum of your Master’s programme. If this is the case, I recommend that you start early with your applications. It will take some time to research all the institutions, companies or NGOs that you might consider and it is wise to plan ahead, start early and keep a structure. I started sending out my first applications in January this year and was lucky enough to get a positive response by March. I am now doing my internship at the Permanent Representation of Germany to the EU and getting to see behind the scenes of European politics.

The next steps are to find accommodation, sublet my room in Linköping, get all the necessary signatures and so on and so forth. That’s why it’s very helpful to secure your internship as early as possible. You will also have the opportunity to apply for Erasmus+ through LiU to support yourself during your time abroad. All of these steps are quite stressful, but you will have the support of your study coordinator and fellow students if you have any questions. In the end, the experience is worth it. Getting a practical insight through an internship has already been extremely helpful. I have now completed my first month and will be staying until mid-January. It is also good to know, that if I would have troubles in my internship, I could always contact the program director of my masters program for help and advice.

It is also very enriching to get to know another country and culture during a semester abroad. Brussels is an incredibly lively city with lots of cultural activities. Being in the heart of the EU also means meeting a lot of interesting people, including many other interns. Brussels offers countless after-work and networking events that provide time for great exchanges and enrich my experience here even more.