Professional internships

CIEE Seville BS, IBC, CNMJ-E, CNMJ-S, ALA, LA, PHS and SEM students can gain practical work experience through a 3-credit onsite internship. The benefits of an internship abroad are many:

• Gain and improve your soft skills, (communication, flexibility, interpersonal, professionalism, responsibility, teamwork, patience, self-management, self-confidence, perseverance, ambition, initiative, etc.)
• Stand out from the crowd, only 2% of US college students intern abroad
• Learn about others and yourself
• Acquire massive personal growth
• Enjoy cultural immersion at the deepest level
• Greatly enhance your resume

SETTING REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

Performing an internship is as rewarding as it is challenging. It’ll take time and sometimes it’ll put you out of your comfort zone though, that’s precisely where learning will happen! If you decide to do an internship in Seville, you need to know that it means:

• Completing 100 hours of work/semester, (usually 2 days/week – 5 hours of work/day)
• Enrolling in a 3-credit class. Attendance and assignments are mandatory
• Arranging your classes so that you can offer companies an attractive schedule
• Uploading to your MyCIEE account: your resume, cover letter and Internship Proposal Form signed by your Study Abroad advisor

INTERNSHIP PLACEMENT PROCESS

• Students submit their Internship Proposal Form, Cover Letter and Resume to MyCIEE
• The CIEE Seville Internship Coordinator will contact students. You need to complete a form where they have to explain their academic background, their previous working experience, which are their top fields of interest…
• Based on the information in the form, your resumé and cover letter, the Internship Coordinator will start working on potential placements for you.
• Once there’s a company interested in your profile, they will set an interview with you (prior to your arrival or once you arrive to Sevilla).
• After the interview, the company will confirm if they want to hire the student. Don’t worry if you are not selected, we can try to find some other option for you.

BUSINESS CULTURE IN SPAIN

While every Spanish company is different, there are certain cultural aspects of doing business in Spain that you may find present in the Spanish workplace:

• Working hours: While some Spanish companies have adopted the “9am to 5pm” work schedule, others continue to run on a split schedule: morning from 9am-2pm approximately and afternoons from 5pm-8pm/9pm. In the summers the schedule is often 9am-2pm.
• Time perception:  Time is often more “flexible” (i.e. more polychronic) in a Spanish work environment compared to a U.S. work environment. If you’re a foreign worker in Spain, however, it’s better to show up on time when starting with a company rather than assume you can arrive late.
• Socializing with business colleagues: socializing is an important part of the business culture in Spain. In many Spanish offices workers sometimes leave the office mid-morning to have breakfast together.  Joining your co-coworkers for breakfast is certainly one of the best ways to practice your Spanish and get to know your colleagues.

If any problems arise during your internship experience, it is always best to resolve them as soon as possible, so don’t hesitate to reach out to the CIEE Seville Internship Coordinator (Rocío Salguero, rsalguero@ciee.org)