I arrived in Glasgow with a suitcase and a lot of hope. That is honestly the most accurate way I can describe it. No contacts, no network, no real sense of how things worked here. Just me, a university place at Strathclyde, and a quiet determination that this had to work out.
What people do not tell you about moving abroad is that the hardest part is not the distance. It is the silence after you arrive. You are in a new city, surrounded by people who already have their circles, their routines, their lives. And you are starting from zero. Every single day.
For the first few months, finding real opportunities felt like running into walls. I applied, I followed up, I kept going. Not because it was easy but because going back without trying was never an option, I was willing to consider.
Then, within four months of arriving in Scotland, I found the Scottish Chambers of Commerce.
SCC is one of the most respected business organisations in Scotland, representing thousands of businesses and shaping the conversations that matter at a national level. Getting an internship there, this early in my journey, felt surreal. I genuinely did not see it coming. But the moment I walked in, I knew it was different.
The environment at SCC is something I did not expect. It is professional but it is human. People actually talk to you. They include you. From day one I was not sitting quietly waiting for small tasks. I was writing social media copy for LinkedIn, Instagram and X that went out to real audiences. I was drafting outreach emails on behalf of the organisation. I was building full Canva content campaigns across multiple pillars. I wrote a blog post in the voice of the SCC CEO. I worked on content for Business Scotland Magazine. I built presentations for international delegations.
Real work. Real responsibility. Real stakes.
There is something about being trusted with work that actually matters when you are thousands of miles from home. Every piece of content that went live, every email that landed in someone’s inbox, every campaign that came together, it all meant something deeper than just ticking tasks off a list. It was proof. Proof that I belonged here. Proof that the journey was worth it.
The culture inside SCC taught me just as much as the work itself. I learned how to communicate professionally across different levels of an organisation. I learned how to take feedback and come back better. I learned that good marketing is not just about being creative, it is about understanding people, understanding context, and understanding what actually needs to be said.
Scotland is more welcoming than I ever expected. I say that not as something polished for a magazine. I say it because I have lived it.
One day I will look back at this chapter and know this is where everything changed.
Khuzema Raj is an MSc Digital Marketing student at the University of Strathclyde and a Marketing and Communications Intern at the Scottish Chambers of Commerce.
