The innocents abroad: Do students face international internships unprepared?

Abstract

The experiences of a group of interns from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration demonstrate the importance of advance preparation for international work experience. While the students avoided serious incidents, they did find themselves in awkward situations borne of ignorance. All six students worked for a multi-national corporation that sent them from country to country to assist with internal audits. The students were placed in a sink-or-swim situation, with no advance discussion of the differences between American cultural mores and those found in other countries. While the students gave a high rating to the overall value of the internships, they also experienced misunderstandings about dress expectations, hand gestures and other body language, and the timing of appointments (particularly the level of precision expected regarding a given time).