Work

I worked at the QAPCO plant in the south of Mesaieed. The company's main product was polyethene, which was produced out of the natural gas in Qatar. We were picked up every morning by a driver who brought us directly to the plant. We also had a driver back to the accommodation every working day. The working week starts on Sunday in Qatar and ends on Thursday. We had to work four hours per day where we had to visit different departments and workshops. We did not have any tasks, the purpose of our training was to learn and to understand the working process of the company. Therefore we were offered several lectures and we were allowed to enter the plant with different departments and observe them during their work. The whole training was lent on to a course at Qatar University. The students there have to do an internship like that and have to hand in reports about their work, what we didn't have to do. My supervisor from the HR department was really motivated and wanted me to have a good time in Qatar.

Experience

I was going by Emirates with one stop in Dubai. The flight was one of the cheapest and with an acceptable stopping time in Dubai. Additionally, I was able to take 30kg of luggage with me. The company organized a driver for me from the airport to the accommodation and back to the airport at the end of my internship. I lived in Mesaieed, a small worker city in the south of Doha, the capital city of Qatar. The accommodation was the QAPCO club, which was owned by the company itself. I had my own room with a separate bathroom and a mall entrance room. I was allowed to use all the facilities the club offered, including the gym, swimming pool, restaurant, football and tennis fields, and billiard tables. The club is offered to the employees of the company to give them a possibility to relax after work. I was allowed to order all meals to my room and everything was paid by the company, so I didn't need to pay for any meal there.

Discover

The company changed the accommodation from Doha to Mesaieed just a few weeks before I arrived, but they didn't offer a driver for that. Due to the poor public transport, we had to pay taxis or private drivers to get to Doha. IAESTE in Qatar organized two meetings, one at Souq Waqif, the old town of Doha, and the other one was a safari trip to the south of Qatar with some Japanese exchange students. All the other program was organized on our own. We met a lot of students from Qatar University, who picked us up several times. Most of the time we spent our free time in the QAPCO club, but if we were in Doha we had shisha at Souq Waqif or we visited a juice bar or a hotel. We also went out to a club once, but the alcohol is very expensive as well as the entrance fee to the club. For me, a big highlight was the World 9-Ball Championship, which took place in Doha during my time there. I visited it several times and was able to talk to all the stars of the scene. In the end, I can say, that my time in Qatar was really good. Although the work was not like expected, I met a lot of interesting people and created new friendships. Discovering this Muslim country teaches me a lot about understanding different cultures and religions. Qatar is a very international country due to just 15% of the inhabitants of Qatar hold Qatari citizenship. The company offered us some documents so that we can read about, how we should act and dress in public.