06 Dec First Days in Shanghai
After settling in and getting acquainted with my surroundings and the other Shanghai interns it was time for my first day at work. I had heard that some finance internships can comprise mainly of coffee delivery and filing whilst others pushed interns to learn and use the skills they have gained from university doing real work. I would definitely say this internship is the latter.
My manager first sat all the interns down and stated what we had to do in a specific time period. This seemed simple enough. However, as the first two days went by I came to understand how enormous the task actually was. Essentially, we were set a task to complete financial modelling and pitchbooks for 250 companies in 18 working days. There are six interns currently working at my company which equates to roughly 42 companies each – there is no shortage of work to do!
The cuisine in Shanghai differs greatly as I expected from Australia. It has taken some time to get used to but is a great experience. The value for money here is amazing – I had quite a large meal yesterday in the finance district for roughly $5 Australian. The same meal back home would cost in excess of $25.
Catching the train to work has been an experience in itself. At home in Australia my friends and I often complain about the lack of space on trains in Melbourne. We are quite well off compared to the people over here. The trains are so full you cannot move. The concept of personal space really does not exist. There is an alternative however; one can take a taxi to work which is only a little more expensive than the train. The way of driving in Shanghai could be described as creative or unique. Others may think it is simply ridiculous. I have lost count of the number of close calls I’ve had where I thought we would have an accident, but as I use taxi’s more I am starting to understand that it’s just the way it is over here. Surprisingly, I haven’t actually seen any accidents. I’ve come to the conclusion it takes a lot of skill to drive in Shanghai!
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