Hong Kong – Best Summer I’ve had so far

12 Aug Hong Kong – Best Summer I’ve had so far

That past month in Hong Kong flew by, as I knew it would because every other blogger who has ever done Absolute Internship writes the same thing in their last post. They all write about how fast it goes and how they can’t believe it’s suddenly all over.

It is quite a shock; you arrive there and then with this group of people you end up living with them, travelling together as well as eating, working, drinking and exploring together. Start a job and get introduced to new boss, work colleagues and environment.  To have all that suddenly end and everyone go back home occurred a lot more abruptly than I anticipated.

However, life goes on. To look back over the Hong Kong Internship experience as a whole I truly believe it was the best summer I’ve had so far. Primarily because it was packed with non-stop activities from the off and I was on the go from 7am every morning to maybe 10pm every weeknight and much later than that on weekends.

I spent four weeks in a Finance Internship and was given the job title of Retail Banking Analyst. My internship accomplished what I wanted to gain from the experience and that was that I’m now able to look at a business / the world with a financial perspective on things.

Having worked in sales for a while; and in IT at another point I was able to imagine the thought process behind many business moves from an external point by mentally putting myself into the sales office or the Graphic Design role. Due to the plethora of reference points I have accumulated over the past month I can now do the same with finance. Watching Bloomberg, and more importantly the Bloomberg Asia shows, the topics they discuss now land with me better, like the penny drops just that little bit more.

This trip was my first time ever outside of Europe, so another massive benefit I feel I’ve gained from the program is that I’ve now not just visited but lived in a city 6000 miles away and seen an entirely different way of living than what I was used to. I learned to use chopsticks with some level of proficiency and experienced first-hand other elements of Asian culture.

I think that gaining experience in Asia has greatly improved my knowledge of the working world, global business and how the international financial markets are all connected. I believe that in the future after my degree is completed in two years my employability will be much greater. This will be due to primarily the skills I have acquired while working in Hong Kong but also I think the underlining reason behind it. Showing an active interest in gaining real world experience, not just in the working world but in travelling to Asia and spending a summer in a productive manner to increase my personal skills for my future career should help me stand out from any crowd during a hiring process.

I genuinely regard my experience in Hong Kong as one of the greatest means of spending a summer and I enjoyed every minute of it. From both a working, travelling and social perspective it was such a well-rounded trip that justified any opportunity cost given up to take on the experience.”