From Long Island NY to Intern Island AU

Over the course of my two months interning at Chubb, I have made so many new relationships, both with people from the University of Maryland and Australians. While the culture of Australia is similar to the United States, it is definitely still a different outlook on the world that is unique in itself.

                In my internship, the people that I met and interacted with were extremely friendly. On my first day of work, I was introduced to everyone and the entire finance team, who were all extremely welcoming and open to help me over the course of the internship. I was also introduced to the other interns, who were from the University of Arizona and the University of Ohio. At the workplace, the interns had a large table where they worked at, which we liked to call “Intern Island.” The finance team members were constantly passing by us and talking to us, and would often start up conversations and try to get to know us better. For example, the CFO would always pass y us and wish us a good morning, and even talk to us about how we were doing and what our plans for the weekend were. We did not ever directly work with him, so it was an extremely nice gesture and helped to make the workplace less stressful. While nobody was inviting anyone to their homes at my workplace, that doesn’t mean that they weren’t helpful in other ways. Whenever we would be planning a weekend trip somewhere, for example, or did not know what to do, people were always offering suggestions and ideas of what we must see while we were in Australia. Even though I have never been to Australia before my internship, I always knew what to do thanks to the help of my co-workers.

                Before this internship, I hadn’t really taken any finance courses, so the internship was a great way to start learning how finance worked. I learned how to use excel more effectively, perform analyses, and assisted with financial processes that gave me a hands on experience of what the finance world is like. This was a tremendous help to me, since I recently swapped my major from Accounting to Finance and Information Systems, and this internship helped to reinforce the idea that I made the right choice. Overall, I have had an amazing time while I interned in Sydney. I became friends with people from UMD that I never would have met otherwise, and gained a new perspective on both living abroad in general and the business world, which will help me to prepare for my future.

Selfie with my roommate Jeff while scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef