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Right now, I'm doing an internship at a local company in my province. In October of last year, I decided that I wanted to participate in an internship program in Japan that my school advertises. They had given us some examples of internships over there, so we didn't need to find them ourselves. But, the timing wasn't perfect, so I decided to do it this year instead.

My internship supervisor at my current workplace did work in Japan for a while, and when we spoke about it, I asked him about if he knew someone over there in the specific field that I want to work in. He told me that he does know someone that works in a company that interests me. He sent me a link to the company and asked me if I would be interested, and I answered "Yes."

2 weeks have passed since that conversation. We haven't talked about it at all, and my internship is ending at the end of the month. Further, he is leaving for two weeks next week. So there is only going to be one week before my internship ends once he comes back.

My question is, how should I go about asking him about getting a reference at this company? Should I ask my supervisor to talk to them, or should I just ask for his permission to talk to them and mention him as a reference?

I'm not sure what to do and I would love to do an internship in Japan.

Thanks,

Bokkuto

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  • Do you need a recommendation to apply at the Japan company?
    – sf02
    Aug 6, 2019 at 19:22
  • Not necessarily, but my supervisor know someone over there and would be able to recommend me for an internship so I'd have better odds of having it. That my way of seeing the situation.
    – Bokkuto
    Aug 6, 2019 at 19:37

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Your internship advisor likely got busy and forgot to make the intro for you (I doubt it was anything personal or intentional) so I'd just follow up with him and say something as simple as,

"As my internship quickly draws to an end, I just wanted to follow up with you and see if you would still be willing to connect me with your contact at (company name). Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated as I am very eager to pursue this opportunity."

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  • Yes, I sincerely doubt that it was intentional. I was just not too sure about how to bring it up without being too insistent. Also, I wanted to have an outsider perspective on the situation.
    – Bokkuto
    Aug 7, 2019 at 0:53
  • You're early on in your career and people expect a certain degree of persistence from bright, young candidates. If you haven't mentioned it at all since the initial conversation, I don't think it's insistent at all to ask again if you do so politely like I laid it out before. Sometimes people (myself included!) need some follow up otherwise I get busy and forget. I've written many references for people but most of the time it's after they've reminded me to.
    – megan
    Aug 8, 2019 at 18:28
  • Thanks a lot, Megan, it's really appreciated. I do believe that I'm having a hard time trying to be polite at the same time as persistence since it important for me. And I understand people might need a reminder and I'm pleased to do so, I'm just scared it comes out the wrong way.
    – Bokkuto
    Aug 9, 2019 at 18:16

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