Why business students are choosing internships in Israel: My story

Start-up Nation. Economic miracle. Highest density of start-ups. Innovation. Creativity. Culture. Mentality. This is probably the shortest summary I have given to answer the question “What am I doing here?”

I came to Jerusalem to do a 2-month internship in the high-tech scene for OurCrowd.

Who am I?

My name is Nikolaus (Nick) (personal website) , I am 18 years old, from Austria and currently pursuing my Bachelor in Business Administration at IE University in Madrid.

I have always been interested in entrepreneurship and this interest has shifted more to startups in the tech scene. Over the last year, friends, advisors and counselors have told me that after the first year of university it will be near impossible to get an internship with a large and well-known company.

In the case that I do get accepted my main tasks would be limited to delivering the best coffee to my superior and highly intellectual photocopying of paper work. Although this may be an exaggeration of the actual situation, I have always been sure that I want to end up in the startup scene this summer.

The second step to my decision was choosing the location. Whenever I asked someone for advice they mentioned the following locations; Silicon Valley, New York, Boston, Singapore, Hong Kong…and of course Tel Aviv/Israel. The decision wasn’t hard: what mattered most to me was the startup scene, the mentality and the possibilities to experience something exciting outside of work.

It’s not hard to guess which location won this competition going on in my mind.

Why Israel?

I thought it seemed obvious that Israel is one of the most popular targets for students from the entire world thinking about an internship for a startup. However I am learning more and more that this is not quite the case, which makes me even happier to have this opportunity.

I have never been to Israel before and although Israel’s history has always been of interest to me I have not had the possibility to experience the Israeli culture. The positive part about this is that I can give some external feedback from the standpoint of a young student living 3500km away.

So why is Israel interesting to outsiders (me)?

Why international MBA students are coming to Israel

• culture: I think apart from having the most interesting modern history of any country worldwide Israel has a lot of other attributes to offer. Such would be: the Jewish culture, historic attractions, interesting people and much more
• startup ecosystem: I decided to come here because Israel is known to be THE hub for innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship. The place where challenging the status quo has become part of everyday life.

So I thought, what could be better than working for an interesting and dynamic startup IN the Start-up Nation?

What do I expect for the next 2 months?

By becoming part of the incredible OurCrowd team I want to learn as much as possible as well as adopt the “Start-up Nation” vibe. I am positive there is loads to learn from the OurCrowd Team and Israeli entrepreneurs in general. Apart from professional skills I want to learn more about the Israeli/Jewish culture, the history of Israel, Israel’s infrastructure and maybe experience some of the reasons for Israel’s success mentioned in “Start-up Nation” from first-hand.

[xyz-ihs snippet=”NikolausLawitschka”]