A Day in the Life: SA Intern in Dubai
From a Johannesburg suburb to the Dubai Marina — what a typical Tuesday actually looks like when you're doing a business internship in the UAE on a South African passport.
Lethabo is a 3rd-year BCom Finance student from the University of Pretoria. She spent 4 months doing a financial analysis internship in Dubai through Internship Abroad. This is based on her account.
6:30 AM — Wake up in the Marina
The apartment is small but the view makes up for it. Floor-to-ceiling windows looking straight at the Marina — at this time of morning the water is completely still and the buildings are catching the first light. I share a two-bedroom flat with another intern (a German guy doing marketing at a different company). Rent is AED 2,800/month between us — about R7,600 each. That sounds like a lot, but considering what you get and where you are, it's manageable.
I make coffee at home. That's the single most important habit I've built to keep costs down — Dubai's café culture is beautiful but expensive. A flat white at a Jumeirah café runs AED 28 (R380). At home it costs me R15.
7:30 AM — Metro to Business Bay
The Dubai Metro is genuinely world-class — clean, air-conditioned, on time, and cheap. I take the Red Line from Jumeirah Lake Towers to Business Bay. The commute takes 18 minutes. A monthly Metro pass costs AED 345 (~R935). In Pretoria I was spending more than that on petrol just to get to campus.
The Dubai Metro is how you really understand the city. Every carriage is packed with people from 80 different nationalities — construction workers, executives, interns, families. It's one of those things that just doesn't exist in South Africa, and being in it daily does something to how you see the world.
9:00 AM — Office standup
My company is a mid-sized financial services firm. Their Dubai office has about 120 people — mostly Indian, South Asian, and Western expats, with a few GCC nationals. I'm the only South African.
Standup is 15 minutes every morning. My team lead (Pakistani, Harvard MBA, genuinely one of the best professionals I've ever worked with) runs it with precise agenda management. This is what I mean by career value: the standard of professionalism I'm around daily has recalibrated my baseline for what "good" looks like.
My work is real work. Financial modelling, Excel, PowerPoint decks for client presentations. I was nervous I'd be making coffee and filing documents. I don't do either.
1:00 PM — Lunch at the food court
Dubai has incredible food at every price point. The Business Bay area has a food court in the ground floor of our tower — I usually spend AED 25–35 (R340–R475) on a proper meal. Biryani, shawarma, Thai, sushi — it's genuinely international.
The worst thing about Dubai lunch culture: everyone talks shop. I've had more useful career conversations over lunch here in 4 months than in 2 years at university. People are generous with advice if you ask good questions.
5:30 PM — The walk home
I sometimes walk home in the evenings when it's not too hot (October–April is perfect). The Marina Walk runs 7km around the waterway — other people walking dogs, running, sitting at restaurants. It's a genuinely beautiful place to exist in the evenings.
8:00 PM — Tuesday night at the old souk
One thing Dubai offers that people don't expect: history and culture, if you look for it. Deira — the old part of the city — is a different world from the Marina. The spice souk, gold souk, and the abra (wooden boat) rides across the Creek are cheap and genuinely fascinating. I try to get there once a week. It grounds me in the actual place, rather than just living in a glass tower version of it.
What People Get Wrong About Dubai
Dubai is not just malls and skyscrapers. Yes, that's part of it. But it's also an incredibly functional, safe, diverse, and surprisingly affordable city if you live like a local and not like a tourist.
The one honest challenge: the heat from June–September is genuinely brutal. Almost everything moves inside. If you're going in those months, you need to make peace with that.
The SA-specific reality: the UAE e-visa process made this one of the easiest destinations for me to go to. No Schengen headaches, no J-1 program complexity. The visa was sorted online through my airline in a few days. That simplicity is worth a lot.
What I'd Tell Other SA Students
Go. The career value is real — I've already had two LinkedIn messages from recruiters in South Africa who noticed "Dubai financial services" on my profile. The personal growth is real. And it's not as expensive or complicated as it looks from the outside.
The total cost for my 4 months was about R75,000 — including flights, UAE e-visa, accommodation, food, transport, and social. That's R18,750/month all-in. For the experience, it was the best investment I've made in my career.
Your Dubai internship starts with a free profile
Join free and we'll match you with companies in Dubai that fit your field and experience level.
Join free Dubai details