CAPA WORLD

An internship that meets your interests and is a perfect fit for you? That's what CAPA alumnus Sarah Feinberg got when she spent her spring semester in London. Hear from her on how her international experience was from start to finish in a welcoming environment. Plus, meet two of her favorite doggy coworkers!

While studying abroad in London the Spring semester of 2019, I had the experience of interning at Engage Research in Wimbledon. This internship was a perfect fit for my interests thanks to the CAPA Internships team, and I truly was able to get a lot out of this four-month long internship at this insight consulting company.

Outside my internship office.

When I began filling out the paperwork for the international internship through the Pitt GBI program, I was curious about what I would get and how everything would turn out. They asked in-depth questions through a form, I gathered recommendation letters, got my visa, and had further questions asked of me through a video-interview with a member of the CAPA team, Martin Day, so that I could be properly placed for my semester-long internship.

The entrance of my internship office.

With all the details they gathered and some back and forth emails, I was placed and told about my internship about two weeks before my arrival in London. I was excited when I learned I would be placed at an internship that would allow me to explore my newly found love for market research, and I was even more excited when I learned that I would have a puppy coworker to brighten my days.

Beginning my first day at Engage Research.

My first day was January 16th, 2019, I was greeted very warmly by all the women in my office and was happily surprised to see two dogs in the office as well! They set me up at my own desk and showed me where the coffee, tea and snacks were, which they welcomed me to whenever I wanted. I signed a non-disclosure agreement, and then got to work.

With one of my puppy coworkers.

The dogs brighten our days at the office.

My days could consist of any combination of analyzing data that was collected from surveys, proof reading and testing surveys, visualizing data in presentations for clients and in-house use, conducting research on various topics, along with attending focus groups, creating calendars, running errands, getting coffee or tea, and any other task that was asked of me. I looked forward to the days that I worked because all of these activities introduced me to something new. I was able to really enhance my analytical and Excel skills through this internship, such as learning all of the different shortcuts and techniques to try to organize and find patterns in data. I additionally improved my presentation creation skills and can visualize data much better than before. I even found it funny sometimes that my internship actually helped me in class because I applied the knowledge I gained to my projects throughout the semester.

I looked forward to interning every day and learned so much that could be applied professionally and in class projects.

The culture of this internship was extremely friendly and welcoming overall. Every morning I was greeted by friendly faces and puppy licks from Pintxo and Clyde which got every day off to a great start. There were two floors, and I was on the basement floor with my supervisor Maria, and two other women Sara and Lise. We chatted most mornings and talked about life. They gave me advice on where to go and they were always interested on what adventure I had gotten into over the weekend. We all offered one another tea and coffee if we were already getting some for ourselves and all of the women were always open to questions if I had them on anything I was working on or just their jobs in general.

Logging my internship hours.

This experience really benefited me and gave me the opportunity to work in a professional work setting while also getting the pleasure of working in an international environment, working on international brands. Every day was exciting and full of new things to learn and information to absorb. I got a lot out of my internship and I’m very grateful that I had the opportunity to do what I did and meet the people that I was able to.

Thanks, Sarah!

Sarah Feinberg is a CAPA Peer Advisor and student at the University of Pittsburgh. A senior studying marketing, Sarah studied abroad with CAPA in London during the Spring 2019 semester.