My name is Glenda Radtke and I am ATB’s marketing intern here all the way from Austin, Texas. ATB Chartered Accountants adopted me into to their family upon my arrival to Sydney, Australia. I am in the business school back home with about a year and a half to go until graduation.

This past June I impulsively decided to take a semester off to go abroad. I needed to push myself outside my comfort zone. Since I can only speak English and England has no beaches (real beaches anyway) I was ultimately drawn to the gorgeous country of Australia! I have been told on multiple occasions by my peers and professors that marketing is something they could really see me succeeding in. So I thought, why not try a real world marketing job? And that’s how I ended up here this October.

My experience with ATB has been an enormous learning experience. What you are taught in the classroom is so far from what you actually do that they might as well have been speaking in another language.

The first few meetings I sat in I felt incredibly lost. Everyone was throwing out terms left and right that I couldn’t even have guessed what they meant. I started to feel down about the internship. I felt as if I could not help them succeed in the way they wanted me too.

On top of that I was feeling really homesick. I was in a foreign country where I knew no one coming from a place where I knew everyone back home.

The Partners were not only my mentors but they were like family to me! With the Partners by my side these past two months I have grown exponentially not only as a marketer but also as a person. Instead of trying to learn this whole new marketing world it was best to just play to my strengths.

They have helped me realize my strengths are in areas such as creativity and networking. I have learned so many different things here from high level target marketing to the basic everyday tasks of a marketer. Next Tuesday is my last day and I am sad to be leaving my first 9 to 5. I can’t thank the ATB team enough for the experience and kindness everyone has shown me here!

This article is provided as general information only and does not consider your specific situation, objectives or needs. It does not represent accounting advice upon which any person may act. Implementation and suitability requires a detailed analysis of your specific circumstances.