Prepping for your CBYX Young Professionals Year

You made it into CBYX YP - what now?

Congrats!! You made it! You’ve proven yourself capable of being a representative of the US in Germany and, if you’ve decided to take the jump, committed to going through one of the toughest, yet rewarding experience of your life.

I’ve prepared a list of things I wish someone would have told me when I was preparing for year, as well as tips for how to manage life throughout the year.

Pre-departure:

⁃ I found my pre-departure seminars and required courses unhelpful and not particular enlightening. Sometimes I felt my questions were actively being dodged by program organizers. If this is how you feel, you are not alone.

⁃ I felt stress about the idea of trying to find an internship before I even knew where my placement was. While starting early with the internship search is important (let me stress this: start your internship search sooner rather than later!), there’s something thrilling about not knowing where you’re going to be placed and just going with the flow of it. That being said, it’s a good idea to prep your resume and determine your niche/online search term keywords to get ahead of the game.

⁃ Speaking placements, don’t hold your breath. I didn’t find out my language school placement until 3 weeks before departure. I didn’t find out my permanent placement until 2 weeks before the end of language school. That’s just how the year roles - you’re on a need-to-know-basis and if the program organizers don’t think you need to know, you won’t 😆

⁃ In terms of any other pre-departure tips I can bestow, start learning German basics if you have no language skills and save as much money as you can. Your future self will thank you.


Orientations:

⁃ I remember feeling so wired during DC orientation with nerves and jitters and anxiety to get to know as many people as possible so I’d have friends and not be lonely in language school or through the year in general. This is probably an extrovert problem, but if you’re like me, let me tell you: RELAX! While getting to know the other participants is great and gives you a fun picture of the diversity of thought, background, and ambitions of your peers, it is not the end of the world if you don’t feel like you’ve made your besties for the year. In fact, the majority of the people you connect with at orientation you will only see at the mid-year and end-year seminar. You’ll make most your friends at language school. It’s hard to determine who is at your language school or not during DC/immiediete entry seminars, but once again, no stress. You’ll have plenty of time to get to know all the cool people who will be at the same language school as you during the first two program months. I talked to my the girl, who later became one of my closest friends, a total of 3 minutes during orientation. It was on a bus to compliment her backpack. At the end of entry-seminar when we all got onto our respective language school busses I felt dread. It seemed I had to talked and connected to everyone who was NOT at my language school. Have no fear! I did. eventually make friends :)

⁃ The sleep deprivation you will feel once in Germany for the entry-seminar is tough. You’ll eyelids will be so heavy and you’ll just want to sleep all day. The program staff will do everything to prevent that (and for good reason). At least you’ll be feeling like a zombie with 74 other people 😂

For the months coming up to your departure, I think that’s all you really need to know. You’ll each navigate the coming months in different ways and I’m just here to say that you’re capable, you were selected for a reason, and that you’re going to learn so much about yourself (and Germany of course!) through this year. It’s going to be hard (and I could talk about that, but I don’t think it’s necessary) but there is no other way to live abroad for as cheap and carefree as through something like CBYX (besides maybe au pairing, but do that your own risk lol)

Feel free to comment any specific questions you have. If there’s a particular hot topic, I’m happy to make more videos :)

Viel Glück und liebe Grüße!