Hi Everyone!

This week I thought I would talk about my internship that I have while I am in Sydney. The company I am interning for is called SBE Australia and is located in more Central Sydney. SBE Australia is a not-for-profit helping female founders gain the skills, knowledge, confidence and networks to take their business further.  I am lucky to be working during the company’s busiest season as we prepare for the Springboard Enterprises Australia Accelerator program, which is led in April. There is A LOT of preparation for that: applications opening, launch events all around Australia, the review process, 3-day boot camp, most importantly the selection of only 10 women-led companies and then the program itself.

The team itself consist of about 5 people including myself, with a board of directors around 8 women. Their backgrounds are from all regions of Australia, the US and my supervisor is from the Netherlands! Most of the women have even run their own successful businesses in the past. The building is located on York Street just a left turn from the Wynyard train station and SBE Australia is on the 8^th floor. The floor is pretty large and acts like a co-working space. There is a reception area, the office-like area and a large really open cafeteria that has picnic tables, a coffee machine, kitchen and pool table. (pictures included)

Highlights

• I have my own desk/workspace!
• The General Manager and my Supervisor took me out to lunch on my first day!
• I was invited to attend our Launch Event in Sydney that was held in the EY building on the 35^th The event was to promote and generate awareness for our Springboard Enterprises Australia Accelerator Program. There was networking, a panel discussion, networking and most importantly lots of appetizers and cocktails.

Not So Great Things

• Quite a rollercoaster of very busy working to just doing tasks that seem almost like made up in the moment.
• The internship is for 20-hours per week. I think a lot of us were previously under the impression of working 15-20 hours. Just hard to balance classes, schoolwork, mundane activities like cooking and laundry and then internship.

Overall, I am really enjoying my internship. Everyone has been so kind and welcoming. Looking forward to updating you all later in the semester on how it’s going.