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What kind of experiences you might have on the internship, with diaries from the following students:


A Week in the Life of an MBA student on an internship:

Amy Christopher
Internship with: International Trade Center UNCTAD/WTO
Geneva, Switzerland

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5
Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10

Week 1 (Posted June 26, 2000) I am settled in student housing in Geneva, Switzerland. The room has a bed, desk, closet, and sink and the toilet and shower are around the corner. I don't spend much time there anyway. The weather is perfect, generally in the 70's most of the time, and Geneva is a beautiful city with views of both the Alps and Lake Leman.

I am working for the International Trade Center (ITC), which is a subsidiary of the UN Council on Trade andDevelopment (UNCTAD) and the WTO. The primary focus of the ITC is to promote trade among developing nations to lessen their dependence on the developed world. The Market Analysis Section in which I am involved contributes by providing market information to importers/exporters. More specifically I am working with the Strategic Market Research group promoting what they call South-South trade and also with the Market News Service group providing news briefs on exotic fruit and vegetable markets. It is a small but effective organization without all the political hassles of the WTO.

The staff and other interns are from around the world. So far I have met Belgian/Spanish, Belgian/Greek, English, Irish, French, Italian/French, from Benin, Uganda, Germany, India, China, Ukrain, etc. there is even a Canadian (a mix much like my class at DePaul). The people here speak predominantly French and both in and out of work seem to greatly appreciate my efforts to speak it. Many have been surprised when I tell them I am American and say that most Americans don't even try to speak the language. I have encountered some dislike of Americans, due to many Americans' cultural ignorance, and have hopefully scored one for the team with every person I speak French to. I have conquered the public transport system, which is pretty easy, but have not yet conquered the menus. I will have my first encounter with Swiss pub life tonight hopefully and get to know some of my fellow interns better.

Week 2(Posted July 3, 2000)
Week 2 in Geneva has been pretty good. After spending the weekend in Milan (4 hours by train) visiting some of my classmates. I began another week of work at the ITC. They are very excited about having another native English speaker to double check reports, so I have been doing a bit of proofreading. I made a friend at the youth hostel and we went out for fondue and wine. And was also invited to watch football (not American) at the apartment of one of the staff member's with several other interns. France won, which pleased the French but displeased the English who were routing against France. The final is this Sunday and Geneva should be pretty exciting no matter who wins since there are large populations of both Italians and French here. A classmate is coming to visit from Milan this weekend so I will get to do the tourist thing, since I have not done that yet.

Week 3(Posted July 10, 2000)
Last weekend A classmate that's working in Milan, Diane, was in town and we toured Geneva, boat cruise, walked around, saw the WTO and UN, and took the cable car up the mountain which is visibel from Geneva, but as we found out was in France. We had both forgotten our passports but had no trouble just walking across the border. From the top of the mountain/foothill you could see a bit of the French, Swiss, and Italian Alps.

I spent Sunday night with a friend from work watching France win the Euro Cup and celebrating with all the French nationals and fans. I have already had one person ask for my resume to show friends.

This weekend Diane and I met in Berlin for the Love Parade. It was so much fun, rumor has it 1.5 million showed up. There was nudity, water guns, neon fur, body paint and hair dye, everything and all pretty peaceful. It's basically a parade of dance clubs, each float with a different tune hosting its own little dance party. The rest of the weekend was more serious. We saw the wall and the SS and Gestapo headquater ruins, along with Checkpoint Charlie. Berlin's been through a lot in the last 80 or so years.

Weeks 4-6 (Posted August 1, 2000)
Work has been good but work. I am learning a lot about the concerns of im/exporters. I am done with Fruit and Veggie work and am to concentrate more on my economics work. The weekends have been more exciting. I went to Grenoble, France to visit a friend from high school, who is taking French courses there for a few weeks. I met my boyfriend in London, who actually had to work there over the weekend (Don't work for an investsment bank).

This last weekend began with the kickoff of Fete deGeneve, a weeklong summer festival in Geneva. There was a strange parade which had guys carrying and ringing huge cow bells, followed by about 10 large Swiss cows, then a techno float, then some older people dressed in traditional Swiss clothes singing old songs, then came the Salsa float, odd combination. This was followed by the most incredible fireworks I have ever seen, which will supposedly be topped this coming Saturday for the close of the festival.

Then on Saturday I met a classmate (Diane) in Nice on the French Riviera. We stayed in Cannes and basked in the sun on the topless beaches (although we did not join in that fun) and swam in the Mediterranean. We caught dinner and a show in Monte Carlo. While having dinner the ceiling opened up to the sky and then the main act came on, Charles Aznavour, essentially the equivalent Frank Sinatra for the French. It was afantastic weekend.

Week 7 (Posted August 9, 2000)
OK things have gotten hectic. Work is good. I contributed to a presentation on the benefits of the ITC to a group of representatives from the Central Asian Republics and am now "beefing up" a report on ASEAN nations. I have also begun my job search. Yes I know it's late in the summer for that since half of my search is here in Geneva. There is just too much to do. Work from 9 to 6 then hunt for food and the way they eat around here, dinner is an all evening event.

Week 8(Posted August 14, 2000)
A Brit, a Swede, and an American (me) were all doing internships in Geneva. On day they decided to go to the mountains for the weekend and what better mountain to visit than the famed Matterhorn. So we trekked off to Zermatt this weekend for incredible weather, fantastic views, days of hiking, and great meals desserts at all the little hiking stops up the slopes. These were all very rustic places that were inaccessible unless you hiked there. Zermatt itself is at about 1600 meters, we hiked up to 2500 on Saturday and 3100 on Sunday. Now I my legs are very sore and I am sunburned but would do it again in a second. Work, oh that, going well. They are keeping me busy with a trade report on ASEAN nations.

Weeks 9-10(Posted August 22, 2000)
I stayed in town this weekend to solidify some of the friendships I have made. I have discovered that I am very adaptable. I have only been here 10 weeks and I have a group of relaxed, travel friends and a group of party friends, and some really good honest people in both.

I still haven't gotten the hang of all the acronyms in Geneva the English or the French. I think that would take years.

My supervisor asked me to stay on for a month as a junior consultant, but I have a degree to finish up so I asked him to consider me in six months. This has been an incredible experience and only reconfirmed my ongoing love affair with Europe.

 

 

 


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