Natalie Cassedy

While about 67% of students who register internships with The American University of Paris choose to stay local and complete their internships in Paris, some return to their hometowns, and others travel somewhere new in order to absorb a different culture. AUP students are global explorers and AUP alumni live and work in 142 countries, covering just about every corner of the globe, so it’s no surprise that our students use their internships to travel and explore.

Natalie Cassedy gives us a glimpse of her wide-ranging internship with Edelman Intelligence in Paris, France.

Tell us a little bit about your background.

I am from Colorado, USA. I have lived in Dakar, Senegal for a semester abroad during university and Orleans, France and Terrassa, Spain as an English teaching assistant and Paris, of course, as a student.

Which company/organization are you currently interning with?

I’m interning with Edelman Intelligence, a global research and consulting company.

Where is your internship taking place?

I work in Paris, France.

When is your internship taking place?

Summer and Fall 2017

What is your job title?

Assistant Research Analyst

What types of responsibilities and/or tasks do you have in your internship? What's a typical day for you?

I work on different projects every week doing social media monitoring and listening, or reputation analysis for our clients. I also conduct benchmark analysis, or comparing attributes and campaigns of other companies to those of our clients. To present this information, I create PowerPoint reports that are both visually interesting and informative. As a native English speaker, I proofread my colleagues reports that are written in English to ensure that there are not any mistakes.

What are the biggest challenges and successes you’ve experienced during your internship?

The biggest challenge and success come from the same project. We had to do a huge report in a very short time frame. My colleagues and I worked several hours of overtime and a few of them had to work over the weekend. It was a struggle to work long hours and make sure that the work was of high quality. However, finishing that project and receiving positive feedback from the client was very rewarding.

What language(s) are you speaking/using in your internship?

English, French

Tell us about your future goals/aspirations. Is this internship relevant? Do you think it will help you along the way?

One of my main aspirations is to live in different places around the world. This provides an opportunity to experience new cultures, cities and people. This company where I completed my internship has several locations across the world and continuing to work for them would allow me to work for different offices and continue to move around the world.

Anything else to share?

I applied for this job, not because I had a life-long dream of becoming a research analyst, but because it seemed like an interesting position and opportunity. If I had not, I would have missed out on a great and rewarding job that could become the foundation of my future career. A piece of advice that I would give to all AUP students looking for an internship is that they should not be afraid to look outside their comfort zone. You never know where it might lead.