21-year-old Suzi White has just graduated from Durham University with a degree in history. She spent one month on Start Me Up’s Fintech Startup Internship Program in Bali.
Graduating should be a time of celebration, but for many recent graduates, it’s a time when panic sets in about what the future holds. As an ‘all-rounder’ throughout my academic life there was never any clear direction for me career-wise.
Throughout University I felt myself moving along the most publicized option of a large corporate graduate scheme with a finance focus.
Spending a month in Bali interning for an Australian fintech startup allowed me to realize that there was another way of doing things. One which encouraged my personal and professional development, as well as allowing me to have impact from the first day.
Within my internship I took on a range of roles from marketing and research, to UI/UX work and helping the founders with design aspects of the Minimum Viable Product.
Being involved in such a variety of tasks and being present during decision-making provided me with a unique insight into how much work goes into creating a business.
When you work for a startup, you get to see how everything works from beginning to end and talk to all the members of the team – even those who are based in other countries – on a daily basis. This is unlike big corporations where you’re part of a massive department of specialists.
The internship, however, provided me so much more than work experience. Being in the co-working spaces of Ubud, I got to meet people from all over the world and gain insight into how co-working benefits businesses and the individual.
From attending skill shares and events, everyone I met loved what they were doing and would always find time to talk and give advice. This warmness and encouragement is something too that I felt was lacking in the corporate environments I had been in before.
Living in Bali also allowed for the most incredible after-work lifestyle. Eating delicious food, going to events and getting to spend time with the other interns and plan weekend trips meant that we were always busy.
As a direct result of this experience, I’ve decided to spend the next year really exploring the co-working community and have already managed to source work at a startup at home. I am, however, hopeful that I will be able to return to Bali soon and spend more time in this amazing place.
I couldn’t recommend it anymore. It’s been exactly what I needed and more than I ever could have hoped for.
Here’s a few words from Suzy about her time with Start Me Up…