Blue water, big fish, beautiful reefs and new opportunities sums up Jamie’s Hospitality Management Internship. Based on Hamilton Island working for Explore as a Boat Host and Tour Guide, she’s enjoying the work she is doing and the new experiences and challenges that have been thrown her way. Find out more below about her fully paid internship:
Where are you doing your internship? 
- My internship is at Explore in the Whitsundays based on Hamilton Island, I am working as a Boat Host / Tour Guide.
What does a day in the life of Jamie on internship look like?
- My main priority is keeping guests happy and I spend most of the day chatting with them, meeting people that have traveled from all around the world. I greet and board customers in the morning, serve food and drinks, make coffee and cocktails. A couple of tours I lead are guided walks to Hill Inlet lookout and Whitehaven Beach. But my favourite part of the role is when I get the change to do deckhand tasks like settin up the back deck, dropping the tender, tying lines, docking & un-docking and picking up the mooring.
What has been a highlight of internship so far?
- Learning how to live solo in a foreign country where everything is new. It teaches you so much and the amount that I’ve been able to do completely independently is really amazing! Also I’ve met so many people and have done things that I wouldn’t of even dreamed possible at my age so the whole international internship has been really rewarding and special.
How did the internship managers assist with your internship? 
- My internship manager helped by sending my cover letter and CV to Explore which secured me the first phone call with the HR manager after I expressed my interest in working with them.
How was organising flights and everything else for an international internship?
- I was pretty lucky as I knew a travel agent that was able to tell me the best flights to take. The most difficult thing to organise is definitely housing overseas and where to live, so try and put some time into that before you leave!
Any tips or advice for student heading out on internship?
- It’s best to do a bunch of online research and talk to the terms above you to see what interests you and what connections are out there. Choose your internship for the role not the location!
Study Hospitality Management, Adventure Tourism Management or Machine Learning Fundamentals.
