by European Enthusiast

Created on: March 04, 2007   Last Updated: April 17, 2007

So you want to intern in Berlin. Maybe you've been taking German all through college, and want to be able to practice it. And after all, Berlin is an exciting city for students. Maybe you just want to live in a foreign country - and trust me, there are many reasons for wanting to do that, and think the best way to convince your parents to let you is by interning as well. Or maybe, just maybe, you really want to do an internship.

Since we're all part of the internet generation, you've probably googled "internship in Berlin" or some such similar thing. (In fact, that may be how you came across this article.) You've no doubt discovered that there are many companies willing to help you intern abroad. And that's wonderful. Truly, it is. But you've probably also discovered that most of those companies want you to pay them. I know, incredible. They want you to pay them money (Stay Easy Career starts at 620 Euros, Cultural Embrace at a hefty $ 2455, though this is offset by the fact that the program comes with language courses and housing), so you can work at a job for which in all likelihood you're not paid anything.

Why do they do this? And how can these companies exist? Certainly the first question is easily answered: they want your money. The second question is more complicated, but it can be explained by the fact that the companies do help you find an internship, as well as sorting through the bureaucratic struggles of getting registered by the police (a necessity in Berlin at least) and finding an apartment. The point is - the one I want to stress, is that you can accomplish all this on your own.

First of all you have some benefits of looking for an internship on your own, the most important perhaps being, that you're unlikely to find yourself pushed into doing an internship you don't want to do. In other words if you don't necessarily want to pursue a career, in say, tourism, you won't have to work in a tourism office just because you speak English. (If you don't know what you want to do in the future and don't mind shelling out the cash, then you may as well benefit from the convenience of having a pre-arranged internship.) Otherwise search the internet. I have a German Studies major and an Art History minor. Is it surprising that I wanted to work in a museum in Germany?

I chose to go to Berlin partly because the city is filled with museums (and it's a big city, so you should be able to find some satisfactory internship possibilities there even if you don't want

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