This week Her Campus was lucky enough to catch up with not one but two campus celebs! Mikey Crawley and Jamie Gardiner are Brand Ambassadors for the Saltire foundation here at Aberdeen University. And they are here to offer you what can only be described as the opportunity of a lifetime!
The Saltire Foundation pride themselves on finding the great new business minds of the future and offer prestigious international business placements and internships to students at Scottish Universities. Are you currently in 3rd Year of University and embarking of that ever-daunting journey of internship applications? Well add Saltire to your list! They work with businesses world wide to offer you an all expense paid international internship. Here are the facts you need to know: Applications open this Monday 13th October and you will find the application form on the Saltire website Undergraduate Section. These opportunities are open to any one from any degree discipline and give you access to internships both abroad and here in the UK. And the best part they are exclusively for students at Scottish Universities! You will have the chance to apply to both major worldwide corporations or smaller start up companies – there really is something for everyone. As Jamie boldly put it ‘If you’re not applying you’re missing out!’ And after hearing all about their summers here at Her Campus we would be inclined to agree with him.
Your flights, accommodation and work Visa are all paid for and depending on what company you end up placed at you are even given weekly expenses! If you think it all sounds too good to be true then you are wrong because when I met with Mikey and Jamie, who both spent this summer working with Saltire, it seemed like their experience was everything they could have hoped for and more! Their main aim this year is to increase the amount of applications sent in from students at Aberdeen University because in their four years at the University they have seen so much talent and know that so many of you would be perfect for this opportunity. If your application is successful and you get through the interview stage you get three attempts at applying to different companies. Each time you are given a list of 30 companies, which means you throughout the whole application you could have access to 90 amazing businesses. When Jamie and Mikey say that there is something for everyone they really aren’t lying as the opportunities last summer ranged from working with lasers in Silicon Valley to working at the Commonwealth Games to working with lawyers in Hong Kong.
We were lucky enough to catch these very busy guys and ask about their individual summer experiences. Jamie worked with Liberty Mutual Insurance in Boston as an Ecommerce Strategy Intern. Now that is an incredibly fancy title and his responsibilities were equally impressive! He got to help design apps, manage a worldwide employee engagement initiative through their own social network and, the most fun part, play with Google glass which as he very eloquently put it was ‘SOOO COOL!’ And even got to use ios8 before it was released – big dog Jamie! When I asked him what he thought the best part of the whole experience was he said ‘the opportunity to work in a Fortune 100 company is rare at such a young age and I felt that the work I did had real impacts on the company.’ There ain’t no photo copying being done here! Mikey had an equally amazing summer working for IBM in New York State as a Global Planning Business Analyst. These boys have such impressive job titles – we’ve got CV envy. His job was really interesting as he got to move around different operations in the company spending 3-5 days in each department. He said this was great as he ‘got to see all the different aspects that made up the business and gave [him] a great overview of the company.’ We asked Mikey if he felt that working in a town in New York State as opposed to in the bright lights of Boston like Jamie meant he didn’t have as much fun when he wasn’t in the office. But he reassured us that he had plenty fun: ‘Monday to Friday there were less distractions and you could knuckle down with work but Friday to Sunday we went into New York city every weekend and stayed with other Saltire Scholars.’
Now the bit that you have been secretly desperate to hear about – the travelling! You can’t go and work in the US for a summer and not take advantage of the amazing travel ops. And Mikey and Jamie definitely made the most of the opportunity between them travelling New Orleans, New York, Boston, Miami, North Carolina, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Atlantic City and Fort Lauder Dale before heading back to good old Aberdeen. We asked them for their recommendations for the best places to go in their favourite cities. Both being extremely loyal to their host state Jamie told us where his favourite Bostonian haunts were and Mikey shared his favourite New York spots. So if you are ever in Boston you must hit up Faneuil Hall and the infamous Italians in Boston’s North End – particularly Regina’s Pizzeria. And if lucky enough to be in New York you must not miss The Highline (which sounds amazing) an old abandoned railway track two stories high in the city which has been turned in to a botanical gardens with loads of café’s etc. And also hit up Washington Square Gardens to see the street performers. And their joint favourite place that they recommend we all go is New Orleans – we don’t know about you but we’ve got our bags packed already!
And if they possibly haven’t sold this amazing opportunity enough they said the best part is once you take part in one of saltires incredible internships you are in the saltire family for life. You have access to great business leaders and companies and you are invited to alumni events from small ‘get-togethers’ to black tie balls – yes please! If all if this is tickling your fancy and you feel that you could be Saltires next amazing scholar then the boys will be in the Library Café from 10am to 5pm on Monday to answer any of your questions about the application and help you in anyway they can. Happy applying you clever clever people!
For more information visit: http://saltirefoundation.com/UndergraduateInternshipProgramme/Undergradu…