And we are currently down to our very last post on The Travel Intern life (before application for the new internship starts). Since this is going to sound cliche anyway, why not string all the common phrases together: 3 months sped past really quickly and in a blink of an eye, we are down to our last day.

There were so many ups and downs during our internship – from getting food poisoning to seeing our work go viral – we are glad we went through it together. Through it all, here are 9 things we would love to tell the Puppet Master and Digital Alchemist on our final week of internship.

1) The internship was overwhelming (in a good way)

From learning about different writing styles, photo resolutions, to the nitty gritty stuff that optimises our article for search engines, we were “bombarded” with so much information in the first week that it was a little tough to pull through.

But we’re glad it happened.

Putting most of our new found knowledge to good use during the course of internship, I’m sure the both of us agree that we’ve learnt a lot being interns of The Travel Intern. Tight deadlines and unconventional articles pushed our limits daily, forcing us to adopt new styles, speed up and work efficiently. While we won’t say we’re completely open to every new thing that comes in our way, we sure are more comfortable.

2)Travel (blogging) was fun, most of the time

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Waking up at 4am to catch Tuna auctioning in Japan

When we first applied for this internship, we were probably obsessed with the idea of travelling for free. The internship brief promised at least 2 paid trips. I mean… Wait what?! Free travels?!! That is way too good a deal to miss. And since then, we’ve travelled to Japan and India (and China), where which we had so much fun.

But it doesn’t end there because…

Content, content and more content.

Travelling for work vs travelling for leisure is very different. While we wouldn’t deny that it was a lot of fun travelling as a team, content collection trumps everything… Even when we were tired.

There were times we had to rush continuously, and others where we spent way too long to get the shot we want. Not to mention waking up early to avoid the crowds, and doing “embarrassing” things in the public.

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3 seconds before I lost my balance and almost face planted.

But I guess it’s pretty good if we see it as a more fun type of work instead of a less fun type of travel.

We also enjoyed the autonomy throughout the internship. Simple things like deciding where to work, article angles, and even things we’re interested in covering for our assignments.

3) Please stop asking us trick questions

We know double edged questions, when we hear one. Questions like “can finish articles on time hor?” and “we are quite lenient with you guys right?” are really tough to answer. Really. Our hearts cannot take it. 😛

4) Don’t step leh (just kidding)

From mind boggling names like the “Puppet Master” and the “Digital Alchemist”, we’ve never truly understood why you have such cool names for yourselves while we are just the “Travel Intern”. Maybe the next batch of interns can have cool names too? (To the next batch of interns: you’re welcome)

5) We reaaaally hated grew to like the Daily Snapshot

For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a checklist of things to do everyday, which we diligently craft and submit onto our group chat. Perhaps it’s because we are NOT morning people. Getting our brains to work while commuting to work was an uphill battle.

But looking back, it was probably one of the most important factor that led to the success of this internship, and also one of the most valuable thing that we’ve learnt. We wake up everyday with the thought of what we want to achieve for the day, what we plan to work on, and what our main priorities are for the day. And this is why there wasn’t a single day wasted.

It made us realise that, hey, isn’t this how we should all try to lead our lives? It could be a big task or a small task, extremely important or maybe not that important. Setting daily goals for ourselves helped us get closer to the self we want to be. The point is, when we set our minds to work on something everyday, even if we don’t achieve what we set out to do, at least we’re somewhere closer to our goal than we were the day before! Baby steps do go a long a way.

Trust us, your future self will thank you for it.

6) We’re truly thankful for the times you believed in us

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In a world where people give more criticisms than compliments, we cannot be more thankful for the times you believed in us and complimented us whenever we did well (even if it was unexpected).

For all the times we made mistakes, thank you for teaching us patiently.

7) Finally… thank you…

From having completely no idea of any marketing concepts other than the 4Ps, thank you bosses for giving us the chance to experience the magic of The Travel Intern. While we may not be able to continue being an intern of the world as frequently as we wish to, we would definitely try to travel as often as we can.

Thank you for opening us up to the various forms of social media, articles and documenting mediums. While we’re far from being experts, we’re glad to be able to say that we can now do basic video editing and write slightly better.

We’d always be confused about why we were chosen out of the other outstanding applicants, but we are truly thankful. This opportunity was golden.

For everyone out there, hesitating whether to submit your application. You’ll never know if you don’t try.

Very very much

Vetting and reviewing our articles one by one is probably a very tough job, considering that you will have to guess what we are trying to say. Thank you for constantly reminding us to write with a brand voice in mind and produce content that has value for our readers.

On a lighter note, thank you for tolerating our nonsense and lame jokes (mostly Dings), and for letting our creative minds generate all the eye-rolling puns and remarks on Snapchat.

Do add us on Snapchat @TheTravelIntern if you want to be entertained! 😉

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At the Fushimi Inari Shrine in Japan!

8) We will miss you

(Feeling the goosebumps already) You will probably be one of the youngest bosses we will ever work for. Thanks for entertaining us sometimes and allowing us to laugh at your haircut. (Yes, this joke will never get old HAHAH) Both of you are like our second parents, genuinely concerned of our well being and providing us with help whenever we need. Even things like showing up for convocation when you guys didn’t have to. #GDLL (Gan Dong Liu Lei or touched to tears)

It was an amazing journey with The Travel Intern and we will definitely miss you guys.

9) Pay raise leh please

KEEEEEDING hahaha. If we had to do this all over again, we would. So if you’re looking at hiring full-timers, don’t be surprised if you see our faces in the application page again. 😉

Interns, out.

Want to be the next intern of the world? Do stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram for more details on the next travel intern application!

2 COMMENTS

    • Hi Jiehuang, awww age is just a number! I don’t think there’s an age limit for The Travel Intern application, we are all interns of the world. With that being said, do look out for something exciting happening soon 😉

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