19 Aug Small Fish, Big Pond
Startled from my sleep, I groggily paw at my phone, trying to shut off the alarm I set every morning for 7:30 am. Having to leave for work by 8:00 am every morning, I don’ t give myself much time to snooze before getting out of bed and getting ready for another typical work day.
The beginning of every work day reminds me of my mornings before high school. You get up at, half-heartedly get ready and put on a uniform/suit (if your school has a uniform), shovel down some breakfast and get caught in traffic.
In this case, my commute takes me about an hour and 2 subway lines. Personally, this is my least favorite part of the day. The metro is very busy and packed in the mornings with thousands of other commuters.
With that being said, once I get into my office it’s another world. Located in the heart of Pudong, Shanghai’s Financial District, my office on the 18th floor has fantastic views of the harbor, Shanghai tower, and the Pearl tower. The air-conditioned office and fast Wi-Fi make up for the way to get to work every day.
I work at a Chinese bank, which is also one of the largest banks in the world having 300,000 employees and 23 trillion yuan in assets. “Small fish, big pond” is an understatement.
Since I work in their Life department, much of my work is based on risk management, also known as insurance. I have one overall large assignment, and sometimes I am assigned additional work.
My project is to create a 2017 campaign model to raise initiatives and an action plan for the upcoming year to raise sales numbers. Because my overall goal is to increase revenue and client retention, I have to analyze prior years’ numbers and data in order to come up with my conclusions.
The most difficult part of my job is not creating the actual campaign, but analyzing the data. All the materials I am given are in Chinese, which I find sometimes challenging. This internship has definitely been tough in pushing me out of my comfort zone. However, working with my supervisor, my boss, and all my co-workers, as well as the experience that I am getting from these foreign assignments are all opportunities that I would not be able to get elsewhere.
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