Being An Intern!

The Career Advising and Placement Services (CAPS) office at the American University in Cairo (AUC) is a very useful tool for students. It helps students choose their career life styles and guides them to the best opportunities offered by the most recognizable employers. CAPS offered me many internship opportunities, but I have actually been through only two unforgettable summer internship experiences. During the past two summers, I have had two priceless experiences introducing me to the field work, teaching me how to explore oneself and how to deal and to interact with people and filling me with the most valuable guidelines of the career world.

My latest experience during the past summer was working for the Canadian Embassy in Egypt as a Political and Economic Reporting and Public Affairs (PERPA) intern. Excitingly, I was telling everyone about me getting this one-life opportunity to work for the Canadian Embassy. As a political science major, I got responses and comments such as, "This is not only exciting, but also great for a political science student," and "This is the first big step in building your political career," Unfortunately, all my dreams were broken by the reality rock. I had my interview with the political consul at the embassy, which I thought to be horrible, but it turned out to be good enough to get me the job. That gave me much confidence in believing in my skills and abilities. Finally, I got the vacancy and started the work.

At the beginning, I was very excited having so much fun. I was doing this daily press review replacing someone who was having babies at the time. It was a real job; reading these entire newspapers- official, semi-official, opposition and independent- making the review on regional, local and international events and gathering news from everywhere. I also looked through online papers and blogs. And, by the end of the day, I send the press review to every single person in the diplomatic mission through the local computer system. When this person came back and reoccupied his office after a week and a half of my working on a highly-praised daily press review, I actually had nothing left to do. First, they moved me to this work station where everyone dumps I-might-need-one-day files and folders. I had this old-versioned and slow computer that I had to wait for almost half an hour to turn it on.

In addition to that, I had no specific tasks to perform. They allowed me to attend the PERPA weekly section meeting, and again I became excited. I had an idea of the work they perform and the current projects they are working on. I started to brainstorm and do research to contribute to the work and to have a valuable input. Seemingly, they were too busy to take my inputs into consideration, and my ideas got nothing but verbal praises. I received comments such as, "That’s a great idea," and "What a bright girl!" Then, they started to give me research papers and reports to work on. That was interesting for me to handle since that is what I basically do in my political courses at AUC. However, it was not the proper environment for me to work; my work hours were from 8am to 4:30pm in this depressing work station with a very low temperature. I used to bring my jacket, but it did nothing to the very cold atmosphere that made me sleepy all the time. I used to finish my research work in two hours as I am usually used to do it at home or in the AUC library. I did not know what to do with the most and the rest of my time.

I left work after finishing my assigned time period, but I came to know that office work does not suit me at all. I also recognized that all governmental and bureaucratic work is the same everywhere in the world; the Canadian Embassy is just like any governmental institution anywhere. The embassy hired me to solve a critical situation without assigning me any other additional tasks to perform after accomplishing my rescue mission. As a result, I was wasting my time while not acquiring much expertise. However, I can not deny the fact that it was important for me to be introduced to the diplomatic world for the first time. I knew how an embassy works, operates and functions in the international arena. I also became conscious of the bureaucratic division of the embassy and the hierarchy of the diplomatic mission. I still want to contribute to the diplomatic world, but I would love to have a filed-work post to be able to interact and develop relations with other people outside the political sphere. International organizations and development work would be my best options. I would love to go around the world in diplomatic missions representing my country in the global arena.

It is a matter of fact that field work is the best that suits me. I came to realize this truth while having my previous experience as a market impact team member at the Coca-Cola Company during the launch of its new product Coca-Cola Zero. I went down to the markets to make sure that the advertising process for the new product is going well, to achieve both system and market excitement behind the new innovation, to create summer news and secure peak season and to recruit new users through a fully integrated marketing campaign behind the new Coca-Cola Zero. I also used to clean, tidy up coolers and place the Coca-Cola see-through stickers. Moreover, I learned how to build extra points of interruption as warm displays, to build big displays and to place posters where allowed. It was the most amazing experience I have ever had. In fact, being an intern is a life-time experience that guides one to his best choices and helps him find his career path.