Lessons from my co-op term abroad

Guest post by Grant Boothman

Co-op provides students with hands-on work experience that complements their studies to ensure they graduate ready for the working world.

In theory it’s a great idea, but in practice it doesn’t always work. But there are ways to make it work to your advantage as best as possible.

My experience would not be ideal for everyone, but my final co-op term did exactly what it was designed to do. I spent the 2018 spring term as a human resources (HR) intern with the Aga Khan University in Dar es Salaam. This was a very rewarding, challenging and fun experience.

To make co-op as meaningful as possible you have to know what you want out of it. I wanted to see if I liked working in HR and if I liked working abroad. I got very lucky with this position but knowing what I wanted out of my final co-op allowed me to focus my job search and achieve more than just four more months of work experience.  

My desk

As an HR intern my roles were to research strategies to improve employer branding techniques and research training material for preventing sexual harassment and increasing awareness of gender issues in the work place.

I worked largely independently with some support from the rest of the HR team and weekly progress updates with my boss. The autonomous work meant I had a large say in what I did. This allowed me to design four months of work that interested me and provided a tangible benefit for my boss and the organization.

I was able to tie the two assignments together by making the argument that improving the company’s sexual harassment policies would be one of the best strategies for attracting the best and the brightest of the next generation of employees.

To do this, I made suggested edits to the university’s sexual harassment policy and incorporated these changes into a five-step plan to improve employer branding. This included implementing an employee survey, creating more engaging job postings, providing more opportunities for employee training, and writing an Employer Value Proposition to create a focal point for improving employer branding techniques.

Dar skyline

Working abroad presents many cultural challenges. I learned quickly that “Africa” time is a real thing. This means meetings often wouldn’t start on-time and emails and assignments would often be late.

There are easy strategies to deal with this, like asking for things way before you need them. However, the biggest challenge was the difficulty to get anything accomplished in a timely manner. It is already hard enough to leave tangible work behind in a four-month period and I struggled even more with this working in Tanzania. These challenges are part of the fun of working abroad.  

My work was challenging, engaging and, in my opinion, far above the normal co-op “pay grade”. I believe co-op abroad increases a student’s chances of finding work that is above the co-op “pay grade”. Co-op abroad also has the added benefit of living in a different city, developing a global network and experiencing different cultures.

Some of the highlights included: eating street food for lunch, spending long weekends on Zanzibar, and watching local live bands at little Dar bars. From this experience I now have a second home in Tanzania with friends and colleagues who I will stay in contact with for years to come.

Hiking with coworkers