Why you should intern abroad - How my internship abroad has changed my life

I think many can attest to this when I say that Singaporeans aren’t the biggest risk-takers nor are we the most adventurous (at least, at the time of this article’s publication). The tried-and-tested path to the Singaporean Dream remains the journey that many still prefer to take in life. Not many would be adventurous enough to take a path less traveled.

In fact, just 44% of Singaporeans said that they were willing to relocate for work. And if you look at the list of countries mentioned as a potential option, you’ll notice that they’re countries generally perceived to be “first world”, “modern”, “clean”, “safe” yada yada…

This is in spite of the fact that developing and mixed development economies, places generally not associated with those terms, are predicted to account for 60% of the world’s GDP by 2030. The opportunities are endless.

I was not one of the 44%. Until a random decision, I took back in 2018 took me all the way to the other side of the planet for my international student exchange program. I traveled 15,977 km from Singapore to São Paulo, Brazil. At this point, an internship wasn’t even on my mind yet. But I’ll get to that in a bit.

Quick disclaimer. I won’t just be discussing my experiences at the office. Rather, it’ll be a collection of lessons learned from all the experiences I’ve accumulated during my stay there for my internship abroad.

Why I chose to have an international intern experience in Brazil

Truth be told, it wasn’t my initial pick. I wanted to make use of my exchange opportunity to scout for a new home - I had been wanting to migrate for many years (and still do 😜). 

Canada was my first choice. But many Canadian universities only accepted business students (I studied Psychology), and for those who accepted students from different faculties, a good GPA was needed to apply. I didn’t qualify 🤷

Then I remembered that Enterprise Singapore had a Youth Talent Programme (now known as the Global Ready Talent Programme) that provided grants to students who chose to do their exchange programs in developing economies. Of all the countries, Brazil somehow stood out. So I thought to myself, why the heck not. Let this be an adventure of a lifetime. So I submitted my choices and the rest was history (Spoiler alert: Aside from just my internship, I was able to travel to amazing places like Barreirinhas and Parque Nacional dos Lençóis Maranhenses).

Two months into my exchange, I fell in love with the country and its people. I just knew I had to stay. By then I had already fulfilled my Singapore Management University (SMU) internship requirements. But finding an internship was the only way I could apply for an academic leave of absence (LOA) and extend my stay.

I succeeded. And so I ended up staying a full year in Brazil 🤪

How did I find my internship abroad?

Fernando and I on my last day with the team.

I found mine quite unconventionally. 

My then marketing professor at my exchange university, Insper Learning Institution, Dr Farah (affectionately known as Farah), regularly brings marketing professionals to her class to give guest lectures. They come from big companies like Facebook, PwC, and SAP. 

After every guest lecture, I would proactively network with them. Eventually, I connected with Fernando Migrone, then-VP of Marketing at SAP Brasil, and landed a role as a Customer Engagement Intern in the marketing team.

However, as my exchange programme had already ended by the time I was accepted, the HR department of the SAP US office even reached out to me to tell me that they had to withdraw the contract. This is due to the Brazilian law stating that only students enrolled in universities can apply for internships. But I had already gotten so far. I refused to take no for an answer

I reached out to the international offices of Singapore Management University (SMU) and Insper to seek advice.

And by a stroke of luck, I was able to re-enroll for another exchange semester at Insper. My application for an LOA then went through at SMU just before I was about to fail the semester for skipping three weeks of school (I had been stuck in Brazil trying to deal with the administrative nightmare that came with the sudden withdrawal of my contract).

Of course, SAP subsequently approved me as a new hire.

Benefits of working an internship abroad

My reasons for doing an internship in another country are simple. I wanted to spend more time in a country with a culture more different from my own and learn more about the local markets. But what I’ve gained from working overseas as a Singaporean is far more than what I had initially wanted.

1. I expanded my professional network significantly

My last day with the SAP Brasil Marketing team.

Every internship experience provides you with the opportunity to connect with people and learn from their experiences. And I’ve had the immense privilege of working with SAP Brasil’s marketing team.

During my time as a Customer Engagement Intern, I was tasked with assisting in EDM design and email scheduling for one of SAP’s biggest international events - SAP Now. Due to the global nature of the event, I had to work with SAP teammates from other parts of the world. 

Not only did I work with a Mexican employee to make design changes and coordinate global email dissemination timings, but I also worked with a Czech employee to address data privacy concerns with regard to the email list. It was the first time I was able to connect with and work with people across different timezones all at once and I was thrilled.

I made friends with exchange students from outside of Brazil and still keep in touch with several of them till this day.

Colleagues aside, I’ve also had the pleasure to meet exchange students from several European countries. Even after we’ve parted ways, I still kept in touch with some of them and I’m connected with most of them on LinkedIn.

Oh! And remember Farah? My former marketing professor at Insper who helped me land my internship? We still keep in touch till this day and she has made it super clear that she’s willing to help me with my career should I need it.

None of these relationships would have been formed if I hadn’t gone for an overseas internship.

2. I gained the capital needed to navigate different cultural work environments

My former colleagues and I dressed up in a rural theme in celebration of a local Brazilian festival called Festa Junina.

Working in another country naturally comes with the challenge of navigating different work cultures. 

One of the most classic examples is Guān Xi in China which translates into ‘connections’. In business settings, this concept plays a role in how business is conducted. For instance, while sending gifts to business partners appears to be a form of bribery in the west, it is seen as a great way to strengthen business relations in China.

Similarly, Brazil has its own sets of norms when it comes to things like greetings, body language, and emphasis on hierarchy. While my experience with Brazilian colleagues has taught me that they can be quite relaxed with the rules in general, I learnt to pay close attention to subtle nuances in social interactions and be mindful of the things I say.

3. I learnt about the quirky things consumers do

A great thing about living and working abroad is that you get to observe how people in other countries live. And from there, identify certain patterns of consumer behaviour that may one day be helpful should you wish to start something in that country.

Whatsapp is everywhere in Brazil!

For instance, I learnt that Whatsapp is huge in Brazil! Everywhere you go, you’ll see many shops hanging outside with their banners listing a Whatsapp contact number. It appears to be a preferred channel of communication between businesses and their customers.

Perhaps this presents an opportunity for those into SaaS and tech to start an omnichannel messaging platform to help these businesses manage all their message-based communication channels 🤔💡

Of course, this wasn’t the only thing I learnt about local patterns of consumer behaviour. Here are some other things I observed:

• You can pay for many things via instalments. Clothes, appliances, furniture etc.

• It is easy to split the cost when you dine out. Waiters just bring a little machine around, calculate the cost per person, and each person can pay individually.

4. My preconceived notions were shattered and I become more mindful of stereotyping

Avenida Paulista is Brazil’s most prominent financial avenue and has some of the most beautiful skyscrapers.

Prior to leaving for Brazil, many of my friends jokingly said things like “please don’t die!”,  “come back with two kidneys!”, or even “I don’t wanna see you get hanged for drug offences” A close friend’s mother even asked me if Brazil was a village-like society.  

Granted, Brazil is considered a developing economy with high crime rates. 

And many of these statements are rooted in preconceived notions, ignorance, and the things the media pays attention to. Also, we Asians are so far away from South America that we had nothing to fall back on when it comes to forming impressions of the region.

Imagine my surprise when I saw avenues reminiscent of financial districts in the US.

And over the course of my one-year stay, I keep having stereotypes about the country debunked to the point where I find it hard to be surprised by any seemingly shocking fact.

 5. I learnt to take life less seriously

Many Singaporeans would properly agree with me when I say that we can be impatient and uptight worrywarts. We complain over the smallest inconveniences in life. 

Brazilians, on the other hand, are quite the opposite. If there was one phrase that defines a Brazilian, it would be “fique tranquilo”. Which means “stay calm”. It’s a level of optimism I’ve never really seen having spent my entire life in the tiny bubble of Singapore.

• Can’t get to work because bus drivers are on strike? Ah, fique tranquilo! Just work from home.

• The power in the restaurant just went out and the chefs can’t cook? Fique tranquilo! The food will come eventually.

• A friend is very late for an appointment we scheduled a week ago! Fique tranquilo! He will come eventually and we can still have fun.

Of course, I'm painting a very broad stroke here. In an incredibly fast-paced and capitalistic city like São Paulo, people tend to be more impatient than in the less developed parts of the country. And I expect nothing less from the financial powerhouse of the continent. That said, Brazilians as a whole are way more chill and optimistic than Singaporeans by a long shot. 

And as time went by I found myself becoming less easily worked up by things that used to bother me. 

One particular event that cemented this in my mind was the time when a bus I was on broke down in the middle of nowhere. My friend and I were on a bus to the Chilean side of the Patagonia region, travelling through what seemed like an endless road of grass and nothingness. We were stuck there for three hours as we waited helplessly for the replacement bus to arrive.

It was only after I started exploring and got stranded in the vast wilderness of South America that I began to realise how insignificant all my first world problems really were.

My friend and I got stuck in the wilderness of Patagonia in South America. Beautiful views, though.

As life went on, I felt increasingly nonchalant about the things that used to really bother me. And as the Brazilians say, fique tranquilo. All will be well.

6. I was reminded that there’s more than one way of living life

As I slowly learnt to let go of the little things that don’t matter, I started to let go of the Singaporean Dream that I’ve been brought up to believe was the way to go in life.

There just has to be more to life than this.

There has to be more than the typical 9 to 5.

There has to be more than just staying put and living the same old life.

There has to be more to see than the repetitive four walls in this concrete jungle.

And so I made my mind up to become a digital nomad so that I could work from wherever I want and see more of the world.

7. I realised that I have more control of my life than I thought

If there’s one thing I learnt from risking an entire semester’s worth of grades is that I had more control of where my life was headed than I thought.

When the HR team in the US withdrew my contract, I had two options:

1. Stay put and wait until the administrative issues have been sorted out so that I could live my best life,

2. Or give up and leave in order to protect my already-mediocre grades.

If I had chosen to leave in order to protect my grades, it would be easy for me to blame the difficult situation for the outcome (remember, if I had stayed for just a few days more, I would’ve failed my semester).

But the fact of the matter is that it was a choice I made. I have to hold myself accountable if things didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to.

And after my one-year away, hold myself accountable I did.

When I found out I had to do an extra semester for just one course due to a course planning mistake I made, I took up a part-time remote internship at a US-based startup so I could build my resume and not waste time. I later started doing freelance writer for hire to build a portfolio to help me get more gigs.

When I decided I wanted to return to Brazil, I started dedicating time every week to go to a language event to practice my social and Portuguese speaking skills. I even connected with a language buddy in Brazil via a language app to practice speaking every week.

When the content I wrote at my first job wasn’t performing, I taught myself the basics of SEO to improve the site’s organic traffic.

When I realised I really liked SEO and wanted to make it a career, I immediately started applying for jobs even though I had only been at my first job for several months.

It is human nature to blame external factors for undesirable outcomes. But for those of us in the more privileged parts of the world where we have (mostly) unlimited internet access with many of our basic needs met, can we really play that card?

8. I realised that there is more good in the world than I thought

Outside of Pinkdot, this is the only other Pride event I’ve ever attended.

Humans have a natural tendency to pay attention to and hold on to negative feelings and events. And in today’s golden age of social media, all that negativity gets pushed right in your face as accounts share posts about injustices happening around the world. 

Couple these with the fact that I’ve never properly explored wonders beyond Singapore’s sunny shores and you get a jaded young man who’s just done with all the evil in the world 😫😫😫

But having lived and worked abroad for a while, I started to forget about the issues happening back home. And because I didn’t speak Portuguese, I had no idea what was reported in the local news. It then dawned on me how easily my perception of reality can be warped simply through exposure to events. And seeing how Brazilians mobilise to support social causes like LGBTQ equality did help me regain quite a bit of faith in humanity.

Looking back, it’s kinda silly how it took time abroad to understand such a ‘duh’ thing. It took a year away, but I’m glad it happened.

So why do an overseas internship, you ask?

The things you stand to gain from an internship abroad are so much more than just the technical skills, professional network, and local market insights.

And as you can see from my list, my life has benefitted a lot more in the emotional and spiritual aspects of things.

When you do take the leap and get accepted for an internship role abroad, seize the opportunity and make the most out of it. I guarantee that it will be a life-changing experience.

What’s next then?

If I’ve managed to convince you to apply for an internship abroad, you’re gonna have to start looking for one.

I prepared a guide on how you can find a paid internship abroad. Go check that out!

If you’re looking for more advice and tips on marketing, you can find them on the blog of this marketing magazine 😉