Moving to a new city can be different, scary, but also fun! Especially if you’re moving to intern or for some other short term job, it’s important to get the most out of your move for the time that you’re there! Since I've interned in another city, I can tell you all the right things to do to get the most out of your stay.
First off, congrats on your internship! Finding an internship and then getting an offer is hard enough, so kudos to you for finding one and wanting to explore a new city! When your first day comes around, be sure and meet everyone you can! Some companies may have interns work together while others may not. On this first day, it’s important to meet as many people as you can, whether they’re interns or not because these people could be the friends you make during your time at the company.
After you’ve made some new friends, or even if you don’t — that’s okay too, you need to explore your new stomping grounds. If you can walk places, do that — you’ll see more. If you’re in a bigger city, maybe take an afternoon and stroll through the better-known areas, you might find some coffee shops or park you could relax in. If you can’t walk, take a drive or use the public transportation to take you anywhere — that way you can get to know your surroundings better, and know what’s near your neighborhood.
The next thing to do while interning in a new city is to look up all the popular things to do that you can. There are plenty of websites that offer museum tickets or park passes at a discounted rate, and they also list activities going on. During my internship, I used a website called TimeOut, which listed all the things happening during the week in New York, which made it easy to plan out my week and weekends. If you have somewhere to go and can plan activities, you’ll feel like you’re getting the most out of your time in your new city.
Another thing to keep in mind while interning somewhere else is to keep an open mind, and don’t be afraid to go to places alone. By keeping an open mind, I mean trying new things. Maybe you’ve never been to a farmers market, but there’s one down the street — go to it! Or maybe there’s a medieval festival one weekend, but you don’t know anything about that — go! There’s so much to offer in any city that you are probably now aware of, so if you keep an open mind it’ll be easier to find these quirky, fun places and things to do! When I thought about going places alone, I really struggled at first, but after I noticed that no one really cared what other people where doing, I felt fine to go to a movie by myself or walk in the park alone.
Most importantly, keep up with the people and places you meet during your internship. Clearly it’s super important to get everyone’s info at your internship, but also keep up with contact information from the random people you meet. You never know when that girl you met at a coffee shop, who works for a company similar to what you want to work for could come in handy. For keeping up with places, I liked to keep a journal. When you visit somewhere new and you like it, jot down the address and what you had to eat, or what you did at this place. So in years to come if you don’t move to this said location, you can come back and remember how much fun it was to intern for a summer, or semester in that cool city!
