In September 2007 I started with the master’s degree Financial economics and I decided to attend as well those courses of the Accounting & Finance master’s degree which were not similar with the courses of the master’s degree I actually signed up for. In the summer of 2008 it became clear to me that in the upcoming study year I would have no study obligations in the second and third block of the school year as those two blocks are usually reserved for taking on seminars, something I had done already in that current year. As I hadn’t been abroad yet in the form of participating in an educational exchange program and I also wanted to gain some practical work experience I decided to apply for an internship through AIESEC as it would allow me not only to gain work experience in a new environment, but also fill up the gap of the upcoming school year.
After being selected for the program I attended a preparation seminar in order to get to know more about the history, structure and culture of AIESEC as well as to receive information on how to find an appropriate internship in the database. During this meeting I was also assigned a coach to help me find an internship and I made appointments to structure the search process. In my case things happened all very fast. I got in touch with the MD of Yahoo! Middle East Ad Sales Rep. and after having talked to each other a few times on the phone in the time span of a few days, I finalized the Acceptance notes with AIESEC Dubai and found myself flying 8 days after the first time I had spoken to my new manager.
Arriving at the airport I got the message that nobody was able to pick me up, and that I had to take a cap to the MC office from where they would bring me to my apartment. In the cap I got my first glance of the Sheikh Zayed Road, a road where Dubai’s highest buildings are built close next to each other. Together with seeing the Burj Al Arab, the famous 7-star hotel, it was highly impressive. I met the MC members in the office and later that day I was brought to my apartment where I would have to settle in a shared room for the next 4 months. Looking back, accommodation and transportation were the two only things that were disappointing in Dubai and are the result of a city that still is under development. Paying approximately €550 to share a room with 3 other guys, although it was a big room, wasn’t the situation I expected. Furthermore you couldn’t rely on public transportation as that was very irregular but luckily there were alternative options like cheap tickets, work transportation shuttles and low car rental prices. I ended up renting a car for 3 of the 4 months I stayed in Dubai, sharing the car rental with two other Aiesec’ers that were living in the neighborhood and worked in firms located on a walking distance to mine.
On the 26th of November I had my first working day and I was very pleased with my colleagues and manager. I worked closely with a guy from Jordan and a guy from the Philippines and my manager himself had Pakistani roots although he had spent most of his life living outside Pakistan. I was assigned the role of Sales executive, a position that consisted of trying to achieve sales of banner spaces on the website of Yahoo! Further responsibilities included the monitoring of print and online advertising, the making of presentations and proposals and internal performance analysis. I visited congresses and expos to meet potential new clients, maintained relations with existing clients and called up or e-mailed companies in order to send them advertising proposals. I had a good relationship with my manager as he took the time to discuss several work and non-work related issues and experiences with me and he ended up giving me a €250 bonus at the end of my internship. We also discussed possibilities to extend my contract but that wasn’t an option for me as I wanted to return back to Rotterdam in order to finish my studies.
In Dubai there were approximately 25 interns, from a lot of different countries. Most interns over there have contracts with durations for longer periods and this allows for interns to bond. At the time I came to Dubai a few other interns also just had started and there were a couple of them which were there already for 1 or 2 months, but were very open to meet new interns. When you are for a longer time abroad you develop friendships and in allocating your free time you tend to see those people you know better more, than you see new interns. This resulted in me getting to know the new interns better than the ones that were there already for a longer period. Alternatively approaching the end of my internship I also interacted less with the new interns arriving as a result of having already a tight group of friends. I met some Dutch people on my own and hang out a lot as well with those Aiesec’ers I met in my first month. The countries those Aiesec’ers were from included Finland, Hungary, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Peru, Colombia, Romania, Poland and Lithuania. Together with meeting other Dutch people, roommates from the States, Australia, France, Greece, Germany, Palestine and Spain and working closely with a Jordan and a Philippine colleague and British clients, you can say that it has been a pretty international experience.
Characterizing my experience was the high individuality of meeting with other Aiesec’ers and taking care of things when I arrived. As stated before, I was brought to my apartment from the MC office on the first day, but apart from that I didn’t receive much assistance from the LC body. The first activity they organized from the moment I arrived was in my third month of stay and besides not being picked up from the airport I also had to deal with arranging my own transportation for my first workday and getting the necessary supplies for my stay. Although the low involvement of the LC team was often discussed among the interns, I didn’t mind taking care of those things. I saw it as a luxury that AIESEC normally provides a certain assistance and considering my openness to also work abroad when I graduate, I toke this individuality for granted as I also wouldn’t get this assistance when I would find something on my own.
Daily activities in my free time of my 4 month stay were the visiting of buildings and malls, going for sheshas and going to the beach although my stay was from November to March. Famous buildings in Dubai are the Burj Al Arab (7 Star Hotel), the Burj Dubai (tallest building in the world), the Emirates towers and the Atlantis Hotel. Sheshas are water pipes in which you place tobacco with a flavor and then smoke it. Although I am not a smoker I certainly enjoyed going for sheshas. The weather during those months was between 25 and 35 degrees Celsius and were described as the best months to be in Dubai as temperatures reach out to 50 degrees Celsius in the summer months. Nevertheless, the weather was good enough to go to the beach on weekends from February on. I also went to see a tennis match between Nadal and Murray at the Capitala Open in Abu Dhabi and a friendly match between AC Milan and HSV were I saw players like Ronaldhino, Backham and Maldini from closely. I went ice skating and snowboarding on artificial made skating rinks and ski runs, I went for desert safari’s where camel riding, BBQ’s and sand boarding were included and went out in clubs that were located at the top of a hotel that were constructed like a pyramid and in clubs located on the 62nd floor of a building.
The highlights of my stay were however my trips to Oman. It was there were I saw very impressive caves and mountains. Besides its beautiful nature, the hospitality and kindness of Omani people is amazing.
After having experienced all those things and the internship came to an end, I had a last farewell dinner with friends and the next day I was heading again to the airport. Going 4 months to Dubai seemed a bit long in the beginning but I didn’t regret a day looking back on it and I call myself very lucky and privileged to have been part of this experience and to have met so many amazing people in the wonderful city of Dubai.
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