Julia Eileen Bose, a Year 2 Diploma in Accountancy (ACC) student, had an experience of a lifetime when she secured an internship with German pen maker company - Schwan-STABILO Schwanhäußer GmbH & Co. KG. Schwan-STABILO is better known as the company that manufactures the famous Stabilo Boss highlighters, as well as cosmetics for Chanel, MAC and Estée Lauder.

Julia shares her overseas internship experience with us in an interview:

Describe what you had to do on a typical day.
I worked mainly in the Finance Department of Schwan-STABILO. I was tasked with anything from sorting invoices to improving the company's international consolidation package.

Pictured Left: Julia posing in front of the National Parliament House (Bundestag) in Berlin, Germany

Tell us the highlight of your internship.
My work in the company's international consolidation package was published for all the subsidiaries to see! It's basically a package that's sent to all overseas subsidiaries, informing them of how the accounting procedures are carried out by the company. It meant a lot to me because as an intern, I wasn't expecting to do something so important.

Did you face any challenges working there?
It's extremely challenging to get to work on time. In Germany, if you're 15 seconds late for a train, it means you'd have to wait another hour for the next one. So if I missed one train connection, it meant I would be at least two hours late for work!

Apart from work, what did you love about being in Germany?
A couple of times a week, I'd take a short walk in the fields around the office building and sit there to have lunch. It felt really surreal to be sitting just a few feet away from a herd of cattle, just minutes away from the office. I loved that I could easily get away from the stress of work.

You must have really enjoyed your internship?
I never expected to get the opportunity to travel during my internship. I was based in Nuremberg, in the German state of Bavaria that's about an hour's drive north of Munich. So I am really grateful that I was able to travel to Paris, London, Cambridge, Munich, Berlin and Bamberg. I managed to see so much! It was indeed an extraordinary and enriching experience!


Pictured Above: Julia (right) took time out to visit her friend, Charlotte, in Paris, France