Pictured above is Vinicius.  Vinicius comes from Brazil where he has his own private investment firm.  He’s been here in Canada for the last few months studying at a partner school of ours called PLI.  Last week he joined our and PLI’s Student Internship Program.  He had his consultation on Monday, he gave us his resume later that day, he did interview practice on Wednesday and interviewed on Friday.  It was an unusually fast turn around for a placement – but even though it was fast it still turns out that it’s a great fit.

Vinicius will be doing an internship with a private wealth management firm on the North Shore.  It’s an almost 1 to 1 match, and we’re all quite pleased with it.

Unpaid internship interviews are usually straightforward and brief.  The company meets you, one key person talks to you for an average of 15 minutes, they explain what their company does, they ask you three or four interview questions, give you a tour of the company – and then it’s over.

Host companies are speaking to you to check your expectations, ensure that your language skills are sufficient, and to see if you are enthusiastic about the opportunity.  The vast majority of students pass their interviews.  The only reason students occasionally don’t pass is because they failed to prepare and that gave the host company the impression that they weren’t enthusiastic or interested.

So read the information below, follow the advice and prepare for your questions in advance – do this and you will have a very easy interview.

BEFORE YOU START

When your interview is arranged, Vancouver Internships will send you an email giving you details of the internship you are interviewing for, the date, the time, the name of the interviewer, directions – and finally the web address.  Example:

Hello Sam Pul,

How are you?

Good news!  You will have an interview this Friday, May 14th at 2:30pm.  The interview will be with a company called Dreamweaver Co.  Dreamweaver Co is located in downtown Vancouver on 483 Granville Street.  Your interviewer’s name is Charlie – he is the company president.

You will be interviewing for an internship in graphic design.  You will help create logos on Adobe Illustrator based on artist drawings.  You will assist with the creation of posters and brochures, and you will edit the work of more senior designers.  You will work under close supervision of a graphic designer named Lola.

Before the interview, we want you to research the company very carefully.  Please visit www.ersatzdw.web.bc .  Make sure you understand who the company’s key products, who their customers are, how they make money, and how long they have been operating.

Someone from our office will go to the interview with you.  Please come to our office at 2:00pm and we will walk to the company together.  Remember to dress formally – no jeans or running shoes.

Good luck.  See you Friday.

Best regards,

Johnny Smith

Student Services

Vancouver Internships

You will probably get this email 2 or 3 days before the actual interview.  Please use this time to research the host company website.  It will be important for you later.  A lot of the interview questions require that you know something about the company.  These websites are written for native speakers, so the English can be complex.  That means you can’t research the company at the last minute and hope to succeed – you need to research at least 1 day in advance in order to give yourself enough time to translate parts of the website, and to understand in detail what the company does.

Next – dress nicely.  Notice that in the email, it says – “dress formally, no jeans or running shoes”.  Here’s what that means – these are the kind of clothes you should wear – while some are more formal than others, any of these styles would be suitable:

Even if the company seems casual and relaxed on their website, even if your interviewer is in jeans, even if it only has 4 or 5 workers, dress nicely.  Not doing so, shows carelessness and a lack of respect and the company will notice it.

FYI – if you didn’t bring nice clothes with you, try:

• Joe Fresh Style – If you didn’t bring formal work clothes with you, you can buy them here.  This is the cheapest place to buy nice clothes.  There’s a Joe outlet 50 metres from our office.
• H&M.  Same as in your country, cheap, affordable clothes – there’s one at Pacific Centre.
• Value Village.  Second hand (used clothes and shoes).  If you want to be super cheap, you can find a suit here for as low as $10.  You can find the best Value Village here.  To get there, take the number 20 bus from directly in front of our office.

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

First off, here are the questions that are asked 90% of the time:

Tell me about yourself - this is an icebreaker.  It’s meant to make you feel at ease, and it’s a good way to gauge how the rest of the interview will go.  You have a lot of control at this point.  Exude friendliness and the host will pick up on that and proceed accordingly.  Seem flippant or strict in your answer and the host will be put off for the rest of the interview.  Try using this as a model for your answer (but don’t copy this word for word) :

I came to Vancouver 6 months ago to improve my English. Back in Brazil I work as a private banker, but I’d like to move up in my company – and to do that I need to improve my English.  I’ve always heard that Vancouver is a beautiful and friendly place, so I decided to come here to learn English and to do an internship.  I’m a hardworking person, back home I work long hours, but still I also am the captain of my local soccer team and I help out as a volunteer at a youth centre on the weekends.  I studied finance and economics and I love this industry.  I like to work in teams, but I can also well work on my own too.  During my internship I really hope to learn more about business culture and to learn more vocabulary for my job.

What do you know about our company? We hope you’ve done your research, because it will matter here.  There is a 100% chance your host company will ask this question.  Be specific, talk about departments or products of the company you are most interested in.  Model answer:

I read your website and a few blog articles about your company and I saw that you were founded in 2002 and have three offices in Canada and one in Mexico.  I saw that you are selling some products to my country.  I am interested in marketing and I really think I can help with your marketing to my country and to other new countries in South America.

Do you have any questions? Here you can ask about dress code, company expectations, you can ask if they’ve ever had an intern before.  Whatever you ask though, please prepare your questions before the interview, and discuss them with a Vancouver Internships counsellor in advance.  Sample questions:

What do you expect from an intern?

Have you ever had an intern before?  What did they do that impressed you?  What did they do that you thought they should improve on?

What personality do you think fits best with your company?

And here are other questions which are asked frequently, but not always – it’s good to study these ‘just in case’:

How do you find Vancouver? - this means, what is your opinion of Vancouver.  It could also be asked as ‘What do you think of Vancouver?’.  Be positive.  Even if you have grown to hate the city with a burning intensity – keep it to yourself and only talk about the positive parts of being here.  Model answer:

I love Vancouver.  It’s such a beautiful city, I love the nature.  I’ve been kayaking and I visited Lynn Canyon and Stanley Park.  In my city we don’t have a lot of nature, so it’s amazing to be able to visit it each weekend here.  The people are very friendly and helpful too.

How long have you been here in Vancouver? Students almost always mess up this question for some reason.  They get confused on the grammar.  The interviewer is asking about the amount of time from the date you arrived until now.  They aren’t asking about how long your total stay in Vancouver WILL be – from the date you arrived until the date in the future, when you leave (that question would be: How long will you be in Vancouver? or How long are you in Vancouver?).  And they aren’t asking about how much time you have remaining in Vancouver , i.e. from now until the date you leave (that question would be: How much time do you have left in Vancouver?).  No, the question is – how long have you been in Vancouver – and it sets up the follow up questions (numbers 4 and 5 below).  Model answer:

I’ve been in Vancouver for 6 months. I arrived here in September just before winter started.  It was the first time I saw snow, it was amazing.

What have you been doing here in the city? Talk about school and your social life.  Explain how you’ve been studying hard, and how you’ve also been working outside of school to improve your English.  Model Answer:

I’ve been studying English at a school called Zerolingua.  I studied general English and Business English and learned about vocabulary for the workplace and writing business letters and emails.  In my spare time, I’ve travelled around BC and saw the Rockies, Vancouver Island and Whistler.  I also bought a bicycle and I like to bicycle around Stanley Park.

Why did you choose to come to Vancouver? You can answers this in two ways.  First explain why you chose to come here and improve your English, then explain why you chose to come to Vancouver – instead of some other city.  Model answer:

I came to Vancouver to improve my English.  I thought that I could improve my English faster in an English-speaking country like Canada.  My friend travelled to Vancouver last year and he said it was very beautiful, so I chose to come here.

How did you find out about our company? Be honest.  Companies don’t want insincere flattery.  Your English may be good, but it probably isn’t good enough (yet) to lie convincingly at a job interview.  Tell the interviewer that your counsellor at Vancouver Internships presented the company to you.  They want to know that you’re not applying to them randomly, but have some interest in their line of work.  Model answer:

My agency, Vancouver Internships, told me about your company.  They told me about some different companies and I researched them.  I thought your company was very interesting because you work in the same industry I did when I was back in my country.

What do you think you can do for us at ‘COMPANY NAME’? What do you want to do here? This is a real question, the company wants to see what you are interested in doing at their company, what type of job duties you think you’d be best suited to and what department you want to fit in to.  There are two ways to answer this question incorrectly: you could either say ‘it doesn’t matter, I can do any kind of work’, or you could say: ‘I am a manager in my country, so I expect to work in a job at the same level here’.  This is how you answer the question correctly – model answer:

I am a very flexible person.  In my working life I have done a lot of different jobs like receptionist, bookkeeping, human resources and sales.  I am very interested in your marketing department.  I studied marketing as part of my MBA and I would like to put that to use.  I am able to write marketing plans, contact new customers and evaluate and refine the success of marketing plans to these new customers.  I know how to use graphic design computer programs and so I am able to create advertisements on the internet and for print and I can also communicate with suppliers and work with team members to sell new products.

What is your internship goal? Why are you doing this internship? This is one of the first questions Vancouver Internships staff ask you when they meet you – and it’s one of the first questions interviewers will ask you as well.  They want to know what you hope to achieve by doing an internship with their company, here in Vancouver.  Talk about specific immediate achievements, and not long term effects.  So don’t say ‘I want to get a good job when I return to my country’  Instead, say this – model answer:

My job back in my country requires us to communicate with our American office a lot and I want to have more confidence in doing that.  So my first objective here is to improve my English.  I want to talk more on the telephone and become more confident writing business letters and emails.  I hope to learn more about Canadian ways of consumer marketing and I want to see about web marketing as well.

What is your dream internship? Refer back to your internship goals with this question.  Talk about what you want to achieve on your internship, daily duties you would be happy doing, a project you would be interested in, and the social environment you are looking for.  Model answer:

My dream internship would be at a company like this one of course.  I want to work as a marketing assistant, with a supervisor who can show me new online marketing techniques, I want to have the chance to help them and also to create and run my own marketing project to sell your new product in Chile.  I hope to be in a company where the coworkers are friendly and everyone talks to each other and helps each other.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Be honest, explain what your 5 year career goal is, and then explain how you think your internship will help you achieve that goal.  Model answer:

In 5 years I will be back in my country and I hope to be working as a marketing manager at a consumer electronics company.  I hope to be supervising a team of marketing assistants and creating and supervising nation-wide company marketing plans.

What do you plan to do after your internship finishes? If you really do want to stay in Canada long term, this is the time to say that.  Otherwise, talk about what your short term career plans are once you return to your country.  Model answer 1:

I want to stay in Canada long term.  So after this internship finishes I hope to find a job with a company that can sponsor me to stay longer.  I am very interested in Canada, and I have always wanted to live here.  It’s a safe country and I think it will be a good place to grow my career and raise a family.  I think this internship experience will be very helpful for me when I go looking for a new job, because I will already have experience with a Canadian company and hopefully a local reference.

Model answer 2:

I plan to travel across Canada and visit Toronto, Niagara Falls and Quebec.  After that I will go back to my country and find a new job.  I want to find a job in advertising.  I think my internship in Canada will be very helpful for me to find a job in my country.

What is your dream job? This is different from dream internship.  But it wouldn’t hurt to clarify it with the interviewer (i.e. ‘You mean when I return to my country?’.  In this question explain the job you hope to have within 1 year, the absolutely perfect one for you, what your responsibilities will be, and why you want to do it.  Model answer:

I would love to be a personal banking account manager.  I studied finance at university and I work at a bank now, in the loans department.  By I am most interested in working in personal banking.  If I had that job I would be able to recruit my own clients, and manage my client appreciation activities – it would be like having my own company.

Walk me through your resume. This means, discuss the content of your resume from top to bottom – don’t read it.  But instead explain it.  Talk about your opinions about your education and work, and mention key achievements wherever possible. If you can, connect your answers to the job your are interviewing for.

Tell me about your Microsoft Office skills? Don’t lie – they will catch you.  But also don’t be modest either.  The best approach is to give some details about what you can do with each program, rather than subjectively rating your skills.  Model answer:

I can use Excel very well, I know how to use formulas for adding data together and analyzing it.  I can use Outlook to make appointments and send appointment and meeting requests to my team members.  I know how to do mail merges and regular word processing with Word, and I have made many presentations in PowerPoint.

Tell me about your computer skills? This is similar to the MS Office interview question.  But here you can also add in other programs you know.  Don’t mention ‘internet’ as a computer skill.  Model answer:

I can use Excel very well, I know how to use formulas for adding data together and analyzing it.  I can use Outlook to make appointments and send appointment and meeting requests to my team members.  I know how to do mail merges and regular word processing with Word, and I have made many presentations in PowerPoint.  Besides Microsoft Office, I know how to make logos and fonts with Illustrator, and I can also edit photos and even create documents in Photoshop.  In my old job I used Illustrator and Photoshop very often to make advertisements for our company.

What are your strengths? This is a classic question.  And very straightforward – talk about what you are best at and give examples.  Avoid things which aren’t closely related to your working life.  Model answer:

I am very organized and I am good at multi-tasking.  In my old job, I was the team project leader, so my job was to take the project and break it down into smaller jobs for my team.  I coordinated all of their work and checked up on them to make sure that everything was ready on time for our client.

What are your weaknesses? Another classic question.  Discuss something you don’t do well, and then explain how you are dealing with it.  In some cases, you may need to give an example of when that weakness caused problems for you and how you overcame those problems.  Don’t say you’re a ‘perfectionist’ – that’s not considered to be a valid answer.  If you want to discuss language problems here, that will be ok.  Model answer:

I have had trouble with English writing.  I think I don’t know a lot of important vocabulary.  In my old job, I had to write business letters to our New York office and it was difficult.  That’s why I came to Canada.  I’ve been learning English for 6 months, and it has helped a lot.  I still have some difficulties, but I have a tutor 2 times per week in the evenings and they help me to improve my writing.

…………………………………………………………..

One thing to remember about each of these questions.  For every one of them, there are potential follow up questions.   For example, look at the model answer for question 1 – pay particular attention to the underlined text:

I came to Vancouver 6 months ago to improve my English. Back in Brazil I work as a private banker, but I’d like to move up in my company – and to do that I need to improve my English.  I’ve always heard that Vancouver is a beautiful and friendly place, so I decided to come here to learn English and to do an internship.  I’m a hardworking person, back home I work long hours, but still I also am the captain of my local soccer team and I help out as a volunteer at a youth centre on the weekends.  I studied finance and economics and I love this industry.  I like to work in teams, but I can also well work on my own too.  During my internship I really hope to learn more about business culture and to learn more vocabulary for my job.

Interviews don’t proceed from one unrelated question to the next like some kind of test.  They flow organically, they’re more like conversations than anything else – and in a natural conversation you’d likely use that underlined text to ask a follow-up question.  for example:

• Why did you take up volunteering?  What do you do at the youth centre?  What do you get out of that volunteer experience?  Do you also volunteer here in Vancouver?
• Why did you choose to study finance and economics?  What did you like best about your studies?  Do you plan on doing an MBA?
• What do you love best about this industry?

And so on.

There’s not really a way to prepare for these follow up questions, other than to make sure that your answers make sense.  The best you can do is look back at your answers and ask yourself if everything in it is true and real.  For example – are you really hardworking?  Can you prove it with an example?  No?  Then don’t say you’re hardworking.  Do you really pay close attention to detail?  Can you prove that with an example?  Yes.  Great, leave it in.

SAMPLE INTERVIEWS

Before you start working out your own answers, take some time to look at these videos of other people answering interview questions. NB: some advice in the videos may be slightly different from what you see above.  If there is a conflict, please defer to the advise above as it is specifically tailored for your internship interview.

Tell me about yourself

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Why should we hire you?

Click here to view the embedded video.

What is your ideal job?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Why do you want to work here?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Tell me about a weakness

Click here to view the embedded video.

In the unpaid professional / student internship program we can get real specific sometimes.  It’s not enough to place someone in finance, no … it needs to be private banking customer relations.  It’s not enough to do architecture, no … it needs to be specialized in monuments.  And in the above case – it can’t just be construction, nope.  It has to be P3 construction project management.  Not that I’m complaining.  We enjoy the challenges here at VI.

The student above interviewed in a couple different companies for construction project management – including the one you see in the picture.  This interview was for a position with a large firm (700+ staff) working with a joint venture subsidiary of theirs (the partner to that venture is a prominent company from the student’s home country), which in turn is working on a P3 government project.

We don’t know if she passed yet, we’ll find that out later today – but even if she didn’t she has a great back up waiting for her with another construction firm.

Yesterday was a very successful day for Christof.  I went with him to his first interview at a law firm.  It was good to see how the host and Christof were so pleased to meet each other from the outset.  The interview went excellently and the atmosphere in the office was very positive. I was surprised at how well Christof did at the interview, he spoke really professionally and the host noticed it.  He told us some interesting experiences that he has had in his job, and also we laughed and made jokes.  It was a very nice experience for all of us.

]]> http://vancouverinternships.ca/blog/?feed=rss2&p=812 0 http://vancouverinternships.ca/blog/?p=801 http://vancouverinternships.ca/blog/?p=801#comments Fri, 27 Aug 2010 02:20:39 +0000 Admin http://vancouverinternships.ca/blog/?p=801

Peeter is a student from one of our partner schools – Inlingua Vancouver.  He’s in our Paid Professional Internship program.  This program is for mature students who have several years of work experience and who are looking to do an extended stay in Vancouver in order to improve their English.

Peeter was placed as a financial analyst in green energy – specifically wind power.  Here’s an excerpt of his latest internship report to us – it can give you a good idea of what that type of placement is like:

Q: Please describe your daily internship duties.

A: I am responsible financial analysis of wind farm projects. I am preparing different spreadsheets in Excel for valuating the wind farms development project. Trough the Internet I am studding all new material to wind farms developing and constructions questions and also everything that is related renewable energy in general.

Q: Please describe a project you worked on.

A: I worked first part of month with [3rd party name removed - privacy policy] 100 MW wind farm project financial modeling. I did the spreadsheets in Excel for appraisal this wind farms development project to figure out the right price what we can pay when we decided purchase the project. I was looking and found out the different wind generator manufacturer prices and I have made a prices comparison table. I’m working now with [3rd party name removed - privacy policy] 10 MW Wind Farm Financial Projections.

Q: What is the most interesting part of your internship?

A: I think the most interesting part of my Internship is the renewable industry generally and of course the opportunity to participate in some meetings and get new ideas and thoughts. And of course the cases if you want to optimize the tax in Canada for example Flow-Through Share. Some Kind of meetings are very interesting and we have been talking about opportunities to set up new JV Company, together with one Chinese company.

Q: What is the most difficult part of your internship?

A: I think that more difficult for me are the phone meetings and meetings via Skype. We have weekly phone meetings because the company headquarters are in another city. But I find this phone and via Internet meeting experiences can be very useful for me in the future.

Connections to Employment Job Fair: Connecting Immigrant Job Seekers with Employers

Thursday September 23
10:00 am-3:00 pm
Free

Alma VanDusen & Peter Kaye rooms, and Promenade
Central Library
350 West Georgia Street

Join us for the 6th annual Connection to Emplyment Job Fair to learn about exciting opportunities in various fields. The event is particularly useful to new immigrant job seekers. Bring your resume and be prepared for on-site interviews.
For more information please contact VPL – Multicultural Services at 604-331-3774
Sponsored by SUCCESS
http://www.success.bc.ca/ and Immigrant Services Society of BC
http://www.issbc.org/ and MOSAIC
http://www.mosaicbc.com/ and Progressive Intercultural Community Services Society

http://www.pics.bc.ca/

Web Designers at work. Photo: Thinkpigment from Flickr

This is cross posted from our internship listings site: canadianinternships.ca:

Description:

The Web Intern will work within the organization’s Creative Services department and offer design support to all campaigns. The Web Intern will specialize in all projects intended for the internet, including webpages, forms, e-commerce, database maintenance, email layout and image editing.

This internship is located in our Vancouver office.

Responsibilities:

* Design and layout campaign webpages using copy provided by Communications

* Layout email newsletters, and guide email testing to improve performance of newsletters

* Adapt publications to webpages

* Image sourcing and web graphic creation

* Work web magic

Skills & Qualifications:

* Skilled with HTML and CSS

* Basic image editing with Photoshop, and some graphic design experience.

* Some familiarity with javascript.

* Basic copyediting skills.

* Graduate or current student of a 1 year (min.) program (or equivalent courses) specializing in Web design and development.

* Familiarity with all aspects of web design and development from search engine optimization to troubleshooting messy code.

* Nice to have: experience with Movable Type or other CMS, online marketing, Google Adwords

Benefits to the Intern:

* Experience in fast-paced production environment

* Brand management experience, using one of Canada’s top brands

* Part of the coordinating team for an award-winning, nationally recognized website

* Opportunity to learn varied web platforms and tools

For more information, contact us, or visit www.canadianinternships.ca

Vancouver’s annual fireworks festival finished last week.  This festival sees three or four countries competing in bi-weekly fireworks displays in English Bay (next to downtown).  Hundreds of thousands of people watch the fireworks from the city’s beaches – and a few lucky people get to watch the show close up from a boat or a cruise ship.   One of our interns, Sandra, is right now working with one of those cruise ship companies.  She’s doing a travel and tourism placement.

As we’ve mentioned before – there are two types of travel and tourism placements: marketing and operations.  Marketing placements involve packaging travel and tour packages and promoting them in overseas markets.  Operations placements are with tour operators (such as cruise ships or tourist attractions) and give students hands on experience with the day to day work of tourism and customer service.

Here’s Sandra’s report about her experience of working during the fireworks:

Q. Please describe your daily internship duties.

A. – Answering phone calls, which include: – Giving information about the boats and location  – Booking online Tickets for the public cruises – Administration work: update costumer files, writing follow up letters, writing day sheets – Issue tickets – Printing tent cards – Finalize Cruise Packages

Q. Please describe a project you worked on.

A. Public fireworks cruise I had to get all the ticket orders and put them into the specified cruise folder, if there was any question while customers boarding, the cruise staff would have all the information needed to answer it. Additionally, write the day sheet for the cruise staff which includes instructions. If there was any seat change, maybe two people want to join two others or have special diet restriction, I had to mention that on the day sheet and on the boarding list and make a note online as well. At the cruise day I had to finalize all these documents. In the end the cruise package, including: tickets, boarding list, seat plan and day sheet, has to go to the cruise manager. He would pass it to all his employees.

Q. What is the most interesting part of your internship?

A. Talking with customers, working with my co-workers. Going on boat cruises.

That’s Juan at the left of the picture.  He’s placed at an IT company in the Gastown area of Vancouver.  He was actually in a really enviable position of having to choose between a half dozen internship offers.  He finally settled on this one company because he felt the environment was the best fit for him.

Juan, like all VI internship students, completes regular reports throughout his internships in order to tell us how he’s doing and to let us know if he needs any assistance.  Below you’ll find an excerpt from Juan’s latest internship report:

I’m in charge of the blog posting of the company on a daily basis as well as the text edition of the newsletter and brochures. My daily activities are focused on the marketing area mainly supporting my host company’s subsidiary, which main purpose is to work giving solutions to companies based on a Social Media platform.

I’ve received training on topics as design, marketing and IT. They have allowed me to find solutions for the welfare of the company and the development of the subsidiaries’ service. They are aware of my improvement, learning and they have allowed me to acquire more challenging duties.

One of the reasons I do really like my internship is the multicultural environment we have at the office. Our team has different people from different parts of the world: England, Germany, France, Canada, Australia (not pretty sure) and Mexico. For me to share time with people from other countries is completely enriching. What is more is that the environment is so refreshing and even though sometimes there are stressful moments, I really enjoy be part of the team.

Jericho Beach

According to National Geographic:

Canada’s most adventurous metropolis is home to ten beaches, from the family-centric Jericho to the clothing-optional Wreck Beach, many of which offer commanding views of the Vancouver skyline and majestic North Shore Mountains. Sporty types prefer Kitsilano or “Kits,” a six-minute drive from downtown, for its free tennis and basketball courts, and its super-size heated saltwater pool.

Vancouver comes in 10th behind some more obvious choices like Rio, and Barcelona.  Here are some of our favourite beaches – all of them are either right downtown or less than 20 minutes away by public transport:

English Bay Beach

Third Beach

Kits Beach

Yesterday was the perfect day to visit Whistler, sunny and beautiful.   Although I had to carry my bottle of water with me because the heat was intense. As we can see in the picture, I am holding our company’s brochures after visiting hotels there.  The hotels’ staff were very friendly and they had the time to talk with me. I spent 3 hours and a bit walking around Whistler Village, some hotels are easy to find and with others I spent a lot of time trying to find the entrances.

I remember the first hotel that I visited, the front desk manager was so friendly that he told me that his sister “the manager” will be interested in us because they are hiring staff at the moment.  They always sort out the accommodation for the staff at this hotel,  it is one of the few places that has this additional service.

There were more hotels quite excited to hear from us, but they only have job openings in November and December. So we have to wait a little bit to send our students there.

These pictures below, show some hotel exteriors, beautiful landscapes, and also we can see how the  people are enjoying the weather and nature.  Click on the pictures to see them full size.

Canada’s visas for Latvian citizens have recently changed – they are no longer operated under the Youth Mobility Program. That program has been renamed and is now the International Experience Canada (IEC) program. There are three types of IEC visas open to Latvian citizens:

Professional Development

This is a 12 month visa, open to Latvian citizens between the ages of 18 and 35. The purpose of it is to provide young professionals with the opportunity for gaining additional work experience in Canada. Before you can apply for your visa, you must have a job offer from a Canadian company for a position in your field. This job must be paid. Due to provincial labour regulations, VancouverInternships cannot accept Professional Development visa applicants into one of our programs.

Internship

This is a 12 month visa, open to Latvian citizens between the ages of 18 and 35. You must be a full-time student at a post secondary institution in order to apply for this visa. The purpose of it is to provide students with the opportunity for gaining a practical education in Canada and complete practicum requirements for their university courses in Latvia. Before you can apply for your visa, you must have an internship offer from a Canadian company for a position in your field. VancouverInternships can help you obtain an internship offer through both our Paid Internship Program, and our Student Internship Program.

Working Holiday

This is a 12 month visa, open to any Latvian citizens between the ages of 18 and 35. The purpose of it is to provide young Latvian people with the means to work and travel across Canada. No job offer is required, and you may work with any employer or employers you choose. Participants in this program may be interested in Vancouver Internships’ Working Holiday Program.

In addition, Latvian citizens who don’t meet any of the above criteria or who are interested in combining their internship with a period of English language studies may also qualify for a work and study visa. Click here to learn more about work and study visas.

Click here to visit the Canadian visa office and download forms and learn about fees.

Learn more about popular Vancouver Internships programs for Latvian citizens: Student Internship, Paid Internship

Notice that the key requirement for obtaining an internship visa is getting an internship offer from a Canadian employer. This is what we at Vancouver Internships can help you with. Through our student internship program, our staff can find an internship placement for you in your field of work, we can assist you with documents to apply for your visa, and we will help orient you to the city once you arrive.

These services are offered through our Student Internship Program. You can read more about that here.

We would like to encourage Slovenians to use this visa and to come to Canada. In order to do so we are offering a special price for our internship placement services. Rather than the $1,200 listed on our site, we are offering effective immediately a discounted price of €650 for any Slovenian citizen coming to Canada under the International Exchange Canada visa scheme. The special price will last until the end of October.

For more information on internships, please contact us. To apply, please click here (be sure to mention this blog post in order to receive the special price).

Canada’s visas for Latvian citizens have recently changed – they are no longer operated under the Youth Mobility Program. That program has been renamed and is now the International Experience Canada (IEC) program. There are three types of IEC visas open to Latvian citizens:

Professional Development

This is a 12 month visa, open to Latvian citizens between the ages of 18 and 35. The purpose of it is to provide young professionals with the opportunity for gaining additional work experience in Canada. Before you can apply for your visa, you must have a job offer from a Canadian company for a position in your field. This job must be paid. Due to provincial labour regulations, VancouverInternships cannot accept Professional Development visa applicants into one of our programs.

Internship

This is a 12 month visa, open to Latvian citizens between the ages of 18 and 35. You must be a full-time student at a post secondary institution in order to apply for this visa. The purpose of it is to provide students with the opportunity for gaining a practical education in Canada and complete practicum requirements for their university courses in Latvia. Before you can apply for your visa, you must have an internship offer from a Canadian company for a position in your field. VancouverInternships can help you obtain an internship offer through both our Paid Internship Program, and our Student Internship Program.

Working Holiday

This is a 12 month visa, open to any Latvian citizens between the ages of 18 and 35. The purpose of it is to provide young Latvian people with the means to work and travel across Canada. No job offer is required, and you may work with any employer or employers you choose. Participants in this program may be interested in Vancouver Internships’ Working Holiday Program.

In addition, Latvian citizens who don’t meet any of the above criteria or who are interested in combining their internship with a period of English language studies may also qualify for a work and study visa. Click here to learn more about work and study visas.

Click here to visit the Canadian visa office and download forms and learn about fees.

Learn more about popular Vancouver Internships programs for Latvian citizens: Student Internship, Paid Internship

Notice that the key requirement for obtaining an internship visa is getting an internship offer from a Canadian employer. This is what we at Vancouver Internships can help you with.  Through our student internship program, our staff can find an internship placement for you in your field of work, we can assist you with documents to apply for your visa, and we will help orient you to the city once you arrive.

These services are offered through our Student Internship Program.  You can read more about that here.

We would like to encourage Estonians to use this visa and to come to Canada.  In order to do so we are offering a special price for our internship placement services.  Rather than the $1,200 listed on our site, we are offering effective immediately a discounted price of €650 for any Estonian citizen coming to Canada under the International Exchange Canada visa scheme. The special price will last until the end of October.

For more information on internships, please contact us.  To apply, please click here (be sure to mention this blog post in order to receive the special price).

Warm sunny day here in Vancouver today.  The perfect day to spend in an industrial area touring factories.  Kidding – it wasn’t all that bad, and right after I finish this blog post I’m heading to 2nd beach in the West End – about 20 minutes walk from the office, where I plan to sit under a palm tree and drink something with rum in it.

Anyhow, our good friends from UBC brought along a guest today from Chung Ang University in Korea.  We, UBC, and BCIT are partnering with universities such as Chun Ang to offer an engineering exchange program.  This program will involve 8 weeks of intensive and hands on studies at BCIT, followed by an 8-week engineering internship arranged by us.

Unfortunately this program isn’t open to the general public.  It’s exclusive to these few Korean universities, and it’s rather selective there too – with entrance requiring something like a 3.6 GPA.  However, similar internship-only programs are available to Canadian Students in our Fall Internship Program.

In the picture you can see the people from UBC and Chung Ang on the right.  They’re visiting an engineering host company.  The person at the centre with his back to the camera is a project head at the host – and fortunately he speaks fluent Korean, so he was able to explain everything to our guest from Chung Ang.  At the left of the picture is our intern, Burhan.  He’s been working with this host the last few weeks.  When he’s done, he’ll be heading back to Laval University in Quebec to finish his engineering masters.  He’s participating in this internship through a school called Language Studies Canada (LSC).

I talked with Burhan a bit, he said that he’s been working on an independent project – designing warning lights, or rather configuring signals to warning lights for vehicle engines. It’s all rather confounding – I still don’t have a perfect grasp of all the engineering fields.

Right then, off to the beach.  This one pictured below to be precise:

Guaranteed Internship Placement in Vancouver

Year-round internship placement services including: resume writing assistance, interview preparation, and guaranteed internship placement from Canada’s Internship Experts.

Vancouver Internships are specialists in internship, and co-op placements. Since our founding in 2008, we have placed hundreds of students at internships and co-ops in and around Vancouver. Students have completed internships in fields as diverse as art gallery administration, private banking, and electrical engineering.

Our Student Internship Program is now open for Fall 2010 applications. If you are a student at a Canadian university or college, and have a GPA of at least 3.0, then there are dozens of different internships open to you here in Vancouver.

Guaranteed Internship Placements

Vancouver Internships has a 99% success rate in placing interns.  We achieve this success rate by being choosy about the students we accept.  However, once we do accept you, rest assured that you will have an internship in your field, by your start date, or you will receive a 100% refund.

Internship Fields

You can intern in any field related to your studies, provided that you meet basic program requirements. Some of those fields include:

• Accounting and Bookkeeping
• Architecture
• Law
• Finance (investments)
• Events Management
• Web Design
• Network and Systems Administration
• Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Industrial Design
• Media
• Marketing
• Hotel Management
• Public Relations
• Policy Analysis
• and many more

Your internship options can be discussed in more detail when you meet with your Vancouver Internships advisor.

Accommodation

The vast majority of students participating in an internship program in Vancouver, choose to find their own accommodation.  However, if you do need temporary accommodation during your internship, we have several hostel and student hotel accommodation options for you, starting at $800 per month.  Please ask your Vancouver Internships advisor for more information.

Requirements

To participate in an internship, you must meet all of the following requirements:

• Currently enrolled in a Canadian college or university
• Be eligible to work in Canada (while internships are unpaid, SIN cards are required)
• Have completed your first semester of course work
• Maintain a 3.0 GPA

NB: Some internship fields may have specific requirements in addition to the above.

Cost

Participation in the student internship program costs $800 (HST Included). This fee includes guaranteed internship placement, resume writing, interview preparation, and ongoing monitoring and support while you are in Vancouver. NB: This fee does not include accommodation or transportation.

If you are accepted into the program, you will be asked to pay a deposit of $300 to confirm your enrolment. Once your internship interview is arranged, your remaining fees become due. Payment can be made online by Pay Pal, credit card or Interac email transfer, or through the mail, by cheque.

Enrollment Procedure

To enroll in the Student Internship program for Fall 2010, please complete the application form here. After we have received your application form, a Vancouver Internships staff member will evaluate it and determine if you meet all basic requirements. If you meet requirements, we will contact you to schedule a telephone consultation. During this consultation, we will discuss your internship objectives, and assess your ‘placeability’ and answer any questions you may have.

If you are accepted into the program, you will be sent an internship offer letter, describing what internship options are open to you, and listing your program structure (number of weeks you want to intern, and your desired start date). After receiving this and paying your deposit, you will be officially enrolled and will begin resume counseling and your placement process.

Now this is a difficult one if you don’t know Vancouver very well.  Look at the picture: which is the student, and which is the interviewer?  I’ll give you a hint, the dress code at our office this month is shorts and polo shirts.

The student – the woman on the right – is Sandra.  Sandra comes from Germany and will be doing an internship with a local cruise ship company.  Specifically she’ll be learning about customer relations and customer service.   She’ll also be earning her sea legs, as I think she’ll be working on a boat.

Late last week we discovered that Step West had stolen the content from our website – VancouverInternships.ca – and had posted it on their website in order to represent it as their own.  Vancouver Internships Work and Travel Providers are Canada’s Internship Experts, with the best programs and services in the market – it’s natural that if they were to steal materials from anyone, it would have to be us.  They took everything from program names, descriptions, to FAQs and requirements.

With the assistance of our lawyers and the helpful people at Netfirms, we were able to force StepWest to remove the VancouverInternships.ca-copyrighted materials from their site.

However, we are concerned that our copyrighted-materials may have been disseminated in other forms, for example in brochures or manuals, or application forms, or emails etc…  And that is the purpose of this notice.  We are not asserting that this has been done, but in the event that it has, and you as a student, a host company, or a school are in the possession of any of these materials then please be advised that these are Vancouver Internships materials.  The programs described are Vancouver Internships programs and the services are Vancouver Internships services.  If you wish to participate in the programs described in those materials then please contact us directly and we would be happy to assist you.

To check and see if you are in possession of pirated Vancouver Internships materials, please visit our students website here: www.vancouverinternships.ca/students and our schools and agents website here: http://vancouverinternships.ca/index2.htm

Update 09/08/2010

Unfortunately our concerns have proven true.  We have recently come across an example of our materials posted on the website of a school that works with StepWest.

Advice

If you are looking for reputable internship or working holiday placement in Vancouver – while we can’t speak one way or another for the quality of Step West – we can whole-heartedly recommend any of the following providers in the Vancouver area:

VancouverInternships.ca – Naturally we recommend working with us.  But we’re picky and maybe only 10% of people get past the screening process.  If you want to look on your own, try our internship listings site: www.canadianinternships.ca .

InternexCanada.com – They are our largest competitor, and the first in the market in Vancouver.  They offer many of the same programs we do, though with more of a working holiday focus.

GoInternational.ca – They are our highest quality competitor, with offices in Vancouver and Whistler.  We have a lot of respect for this company.  They offer excellent work and travel programs.

Swap.ca – Run by a collection of student associations, SWAP controls their own visas – they offer assistance to help you find a working holiday placement – but are very much DIY.

Today I visited with Paulina at an international skin care company in North Vancouver. She is at the midway point in her internship and has found it challenging and exciting. All 14 employees have beautiful garden views and in this picture Paulina and the company’s owner are standing beside the indoor garden courtyard and koi pond, which I wanted to get in the picture but the glare from the sun wouldn’t let me.

Paulina’s really happy with her internship, and the host company is really happy with her.  They sent us an email recently that said: “Paulina has done high level work for us and is doing an incredible job of studying and reporting on some complex issues.  She is probably the best intern we ever had.”

For the last couple years of business, we’ve been working with emails and nicely typed letters.  I always thought brochures were kind of pointless for B2B stuff like host company recruitment.  Actually, no – I still do think they’re kind of unnecessary.

But I do have to admit they look cool, and the format does force you to be concise and to the point – so that’s positive.  Here’s the first of our brochures – it’s for casual work experience.  We’ll be doing 2 more for our other programs at the end of next week.  If you click on the picture you can sort of read it:

We haven’t been taking pictures at host companies for a while – so here’s a picture of our office.  We should put it up on the main site – I took it on my iPhone (using an app called AutoStitch).  We’re at the top, 4th from the right I think.  Soon soon enough we’ll be 4th AND 5th from the right.

Today Bander from Saudi Arabia had his interview with Marc. He owns a company that organizes events.  His office is inside a gallery cafe. The place is nice. Bander has management experience that makes him suitable for the placement. Everything was very relaxed; I didn’t feel at all like being in an interview.  We made some jokes. Bander did well. He spoke his mind, introduced himself and managed how to go through all the important stuff. I was there to help Bander but definitely he did all by himself. I just sat there, enjoyed a coffee and listened to an interesting conversation.

The pictures above show me, Bander and Marc.  They were taken with Christy’s new iPhone, I don’t know why the photos are so blurry.

Today Christy and I went to Tomo’s interview. He applied for a house-keeping placement in a hotel in North Van. I am an intern as well and it was my first interview as a viewer. I was surprised how friendly could be one of these kind of meetings. It doesn’t matter where you come from; you are going to be nervous during your interview. It is good looking at the person and see how he gain confidence progressively.

There was some that it completely make my day; I realized that somehow I helped somebody while learning.

The last few weeks we’ve been asking some of our students on placement to tell us about their jobs and what they do.  Here’s some of what they wrote in their reports back to us:

Mitsuo from Japan – Ricky’s Restaurant [ Kitchen helper]

Please describe your daily work duties: I clear and clean the tables. I prepare the knives and forks. I pass the menu. I sweep up the floor and mop the floor.

What is the most interesting part of your work: I can talk with many people in English.

Nika from Taiwan – Starbucks [food prep]

Please describe your daily work duties: Filled up cream and milk, cleaned counter, dumped garbage, kept store clean, helped colleagues whenever they need a help, sampled and displayed products

What kind of training did you receive at your work: watched a video which showed everything we should know about before start working.(like what’s a safe work environment and what’s a good customer service and so on.)

What’s the most interesting part of your work: To see lot’s of people from different country and some special events or performances come with festivals.

Ricardo from Spain – Cafe Crepe [food prep]

Please describe your daily work duties: Prepare the coffes and beverages, help in the cash machine, make pizzas, paninis, salads and other foods that my company sells, at the end of my shift when closing, clean up the store.

What kind of training did you receive at your work: they are teaching me and training me on how to make a good crepe, i have been memorizing the recipies to make them good, people in there is very friendly and kind.

What is the most difficult part of your work: the schedule that i have to follow at work, it changes every week and you never know what to expect, sometimes opening shifts, sometimes closing shifts or even middle day shifts. every week it changes but it is not an inconvinient i just deal with it.

What is the most interesting part of your work: practice my English, improve it everyday at work, and feel the commitment of working in an important company in a foreign country.

Alejandra from Mexico – Starbucks [barista]

Please describe your daily work duties: I have to be a cashier and a barista (make coffees), as well as I have to check everything in the store for example: the products, the milks and clean.

Did you meet your goals for your work term in Canada: I got goals because first when I started work there I didn’t know anything about the job but little by little I learn and know I’m really happy because I know everything and I have a really with experience.

What was the most interesting part of your work: The experience I learned many thing in that job, also the relation with people and communication with them and my partners in the job.

What was your relationship like with your co-workers: Is very good they are so friendly with me always we are talking about something I never had a problem with them, and they helped when I had some problem or doubt.

Julian and Christy from our office dropped by on Sarah today.  Sarah’s an Inlingua student, currently doing an internship in Human Resources.  She had a choice of host companies and decided to work with a mid-sized general recruitment firm downtown.  Here’s a bit from her latest report back to us:

On Monday I can attend the weekly meeting, in this meeting we discuss everything what was going on during the last week and what will be the work for this week.  I am doing researches to provide the recruiters.  Also I did some administrative work, like answering the phone, talking to clients at the front desk, sending letters.  My host supervisor let my join some interviews he has to do with clients.  In my opinion are the interviews very interesting. So I can train my listening skills, by listening to native English speakers. Additionally I get a pretty good impression how interviews are going.  At the moment I really feel happy with my placement and I am glad you were able to place me in this company.

During the interview I took a couple videos of Carlos talking about his job – here are a couple of the video attempts, we’ll probably put together an edited version next week or so for the main site.

Video attempt 1:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Video attempt 2

Click here to view the embedded video.