The Intern Files
James Brownsmith - Cotswold House

I was working for a company called Cotswold House Limited Group and they had a hotel that was called Cotswold House Hotel. It was located in Chipping Campden, England and I was there for about six, six and a half months.

Finding the Fit

I think a lot of it for me came down to location and also sort of I got a good feel for what the company was about. Several of the companies were very corporate, so there was a lot more sort of structure to it. I was looking for something that gave me a little bit more flexibility as far as what I was doing. And so I went for a smaller property like the Cotswold House Hotel for that very reason. Other reason, location. I really, really wanted to go over seas and I was looking at New Zealand and I was looking at England and England just really provided me with the opportunities that I was looking for as far as an internship and it had that location appeal.

Adjusting

Going over seas it's a bit of a culture shock getting over there trying to figure out what it is exactly that you're supposed to be doing in this internship you've been thrown into the pen with all the wolves and everything so to speak, and so you have to sort of get your bearing, get your grounds become comfortable and then as you become comfortable you'll notice that your superiors, the people who are over you watching you mentoring you and everything, they'll start giving you hints. You've got a little bit more freedom. You've got a little bit more freedom. When I sort of started to sense that, that's when I sort of grabbed it by the horns and said, "Okay, let's do this."

Contribution

My internship landed right on a split of seasons. So right when that seasonal change came it was time to start redeveloping the menus. So what did I do? I was in there ordering all these different ingredients, figuring out what was on the market, all of those things, and starting to develop new menu items for the new season, and working right next to the executive chef and the sous chef, trying to figure out what can we do? What works? How can we change it? Let's do a cost analysis.  They let me take part in some of the management of the food and seeing how much these things were going to affect our gross profits.

Challenge

I'd have to say the biggest challenge was developing a sense of urgency. When you start working, especially in the hospitality field, you end up going to school, getting your education, they teach you all about what it is that you need to be doing, but then once you get put into that sense, that work environment, you have to take those skills and learn how to do them really, really fast and you have to learn how to keep up. You can't spend twenty five minutes mashing potatoes because you've only got three hours to do all of prep your before service is starting . That was a really, really important skill that took some time to develop but I think that's probably one of the most valuable things I actually gained from my internship over in England.

Embracing Culture

I had a friend of mine when I was over in England who, when I was leaving, shook my hand and said probably one of the most powerful things, the most meaningful things, that someone could say as your about to get on a plane to fly back to your home country. He said, "Jamie I'd just like to tell you I consider you to be an honorary Englishman," like I had actually become a part of that culture in the time that I had spent there. That was a great feeling. That was a really great feeling.

Advice

Do your homework. Doing your homework is very, very important. You really want to make sure you really have an idea of what you're getting yourself into. I think a lot of people, I know a lot of people have done an internship who absolutely hated it. Wasn't the right corporate culture. They didn't realize the work that they were doing. They didn't get to know their supervisor. They didn't ask the right questions when it came to the interview to find out exactly what it was. And then I think the other most important thing is introspection, figuring out what you want. You really need to know what you want. If you don't, then you can't expect the employer to know for you. And if you can't figure it out, you have nothing to base your evaluation of the employer that you are applying to. So you really are just going to dig yourself an early grave and have a very unpleasant experience.