The ‘excuse’.

The ill-formed idea to move to Italy popped into my head only about 4 months before I actually left.

But, I needed a reason to do it. An excuse.

I was working as a Judge’s Associate in an Australian Court, surrounded by high-achievers at all stages; some literally at the pinnacle of their career. I have to say, even with an ‘excuse’ it was still a pretty bold move to not go directly into practicing law, as is the usual path for Judge’s Associates.

At this time, the Judge that I was working for had just announced her retirement in the coming months (and long story short, my job was tied to my Judge). Meanwhile, my housemate had bought a house, and was moving out. So, it was looking like I’d need to find a new job and a new house to settle into at the same time – it was too much.

In classic millennial style, running away from my problems, I started to think: “why not move to Italy? You’ve always wanted to – why not now?!”

So, I reached out to an Italian lawyer who I had met in Brazil back in 2013. It was wishful thinking, but maybe he knew of a law firm who would hire me?

He did. His response was (roughly) this:

“For sure! I will ask a former colleague of mine in Milan. But do you have a preference of city?”

So, how did I choose where to live? In short; I didn’t.

It sounded too good to be true (and it was – read on).

My friend set me up with his colleague from Milan. I sent my CV, noting that I’m an Australian lawyer with a Diploma in Italian. We Skyped, and eventually the partner of the law firm said that was happy to have me work with them in Milan.

So, I was going to Milan.

The job.

It started off as a job. My role was ill-defined (first set of alarm bells – but I figured that’s the Italian way!) I knew I couldn’t be a lawyer in Italy (regulatory barriers), but I definitely thought that I could be useful in legal research, translations, drafting documents, filing, admin tasks, and so on.

In my mind, I would at least be earning minimum wage. In fact, in the months of Skyping prior to my arrival, the partner said something to the effect of:

“We don’t know how much we can pay you yet. It might be 1 EU, it might be 2. It’s quite complicated for us. But we will figure it out later”

The second set of alarm bells should have gone off at “it’s quite complicated…” But, being the pushover that I am, I subsequently avoided bringing up the matter of pay. Mistake.

Nope – the ‘internship’.

Literally 4 weeks before I was scheduled to fly out, I noticed that our email exchange had been re-titled to “Internship”.

Now, we all know exactly what this means – no pay.

I emailed the partner to gently bring up the issue of salary. And my suspicions were confirmed – definitely no pay.

Still clinging onto my ‘excuse’ to move to Italy, which was literally happening in 4 weeks’ time, I agreed to the unpaid internship.

This is quite a touchy subject for me, because at the very last minute I’d essentially agreed to three months of full time work with no income, in the most expensive city in Italy. I’d have no chance of obtaining another job in the meantime, without spare time or energy.

In my mind, however, I’d have my ‘excuse’ and still gain some valuable lessons from the internship – learn about Italian and European law, boost my CV, practice my Italian language, and make some good friends (it definitely hasn’t turned out how I expected, but that’s for another blog post).

In any event, I’ve since found out that this is super common for Italian interns and legal trainees – to work unpaid for up to one year (crazy, right? That’s just the state of the job market here).

And, now I’m here – in Milan!

Now, I’ve been here over two months. Only 3 weeks left of the internship (and yes, I’m counting down!)

For all the highs and lows, I am so glad that I have made the move to Italy. I’ve learned that nothing goes to plan (including my plan to move here), but it’s still fantastic for so many different reasons. And I still have so much more to experience!