It might be overwhelming at first (but you’ll get used to it)

New York City is a lot to take in at first for some people, especially those from smaller towns in the US or the rest of the world. It’s busy, people shout on the streets and at times you can feel isolated. However, the one pitfall interns can fall into is not pushing through the initial stage of the shock of their arrival in New York. You’ll be surprised with how quickly you can adapt to a city which at first sight might not feel like home to you. 

Everybody moves at their own pace, so whether it takes you days, weeks or months, be patient with yourself and push through any feelings of being overwhelmed. With time, you’ll see the business as liberating (or you won’t even notice it), you’ll see any noises as simply background noise and you’ll become connected to the city itself. Once you know your way around and have connected with other people, whether they’re your roommates or your colleagues, you’ll suddenly be able to see the amazing tapestry that is New York City.

You might have to fight to be recognised in your internship

Of course every company is different, but in general the working culture in New York is faster and more competitive than elsewhere in the world. The hours might be longer, there might be more people willing to work on the same tasks and your boss might expect more of you than other internships you’ve completed in the past. This is because New York is the center of world business; there are so many people who wanted the internship you’re about to do and your employer will expect you to prove yourself worthy of the position. But this isn’t a bad thing.

Rather, it’s an opportunity to push your professional skills to their limits. You will be challenged like never before and you will come out the other end with a better resume and better career prospects for the future. Particularly if you’re on a short internship, there is nothing wrong with trying your best to prove yourself (within reason for your own physical and mental health, of course), but be prepared for this and know it is normal is the first step. If you do a good job, you’ll find you might in fact be asked to come back or even hired for a permanent job at your new company.

You might have to draw your boundaries at work

At the same time, you need to know if your employer is exploiting the New York City working culture to take advantage of you. No matter what, you still need to know your value and value yourself throughout your internship, as your wellbeing should always come first. A good way of telling if your employer is taking advantage of you is to compare the workload and hours of your internship to those of the permanent employees in the company.

As an intern, you should not be expected to be the last to stay on at night in the office on a regular basis. If everyone is working long hours, as is often the case in banking internships and finance internship, you need to accept that this is the nature of the industry, but you should not be closing up the office at 10pm on your own. Make sure that you build a social life away from work for yourself. In particular, it’s good to have friends outside of your office, such as roommates, to allow you to draw a mental line between work and leisure.

New Yorkers are not all of one type

You’ll hear a lot of hype before you arrive about what New Yorkers are “like,” People often say that New Yorkers are cold (and other such generalizations), but often the people saying these things are not New Yorkers.

The truth of the matter is that New Yorkers are people, and no two people are alike. Yes, there are rude New Yorkers who might shock you when you first arrive, but there are also incredible kind New Yorkers who will watch out for people on the street or on the subway, and in fact the culture of New York in times of crises is nothing less than a caring community.

Just as in any big city (or anywhere), you cannot trust everyone you meet, you’ve got to keep your wits about you and you’ve got to be sensible at the same time as having fun. Your internship will teach you a lot about yourself that you don’t already know; the best way to be prepared is to not expect anything (good or bad) from the people you about to meet and to just try your best to be open yet savvy.

It won’t be all work, work work

At least we hope not! New York is the greatest city in the world, so don’t let the intense working culture worry you about whether or not you’re going to have fun during your internship. Most New Yorkers operate on a work hard, play hard mentality and you’ll find that the city in fact gives you an increased amount of energy, as there is so much going on every second of every day and it’s a wonderful adventure to explore and experience it all.