You get out of your internship what you put in

09 Feb You get out of your internship what you put in

Hi Everyone! In this blog post I am going to discuss what the life of an intern is like!

I am currently an intern at a recruitment / headhunting firm. The business is a global business, however is based in Shanghai and is run by two women from Sweden! The workplace is small and very diverse, with a workforce of employees from Sweden, Brazil, and China, and three interns from USA and Australia. There are essentially two categories of work within the company: researchers who analyse job positions and find candidates, and consultants, who work with the client firms. Being a boutique company, the business relies on understanding the position to achieve success, and with some big-name clients, it is obviously working.

The day starts with a relaxing 8:30am wake up, which gives roughly half an hour to do my morning tasks! I then meet up with fellow intern Josh in the hotel lobby at 9, and we set off to work. Our working day is between 9-6 or 10-7 (or anywhere in between), however as Josh and I like our sleep-ins, we have chosen the latter. We then walk about 5 minutes to the train station, and get the very efficient train system to work. This usually takes about 15 minutes which gives us plenty of time to stop for coffee and food, and walk about 15 minutes to our workplace.

Our office is small yet nice. About the size of a large lounge room, there is a small kitchenette, a front desk, a small conference room, and small little desks for the 10 of us. Due to the Chinese New Year, I am yet to see what the office will be like full, as we have never all been there. We are on the 14th floor, and during the day, we don’t get much of a view (unless you count a High Schools basketball court). However at night time, we have a good view of Nanjing Road which completely lights up.

So the work… The first day involved lots of reading, particularly on the industries in which we will be finding positions. Whilst this was a bit slow, we do understand the necessity of this to succeed in our job. On the second day, we were provided with job descriptions and therefore, we, along with our colleagues, are trying to find a candidate to fill this position. Each position must be carefully analysed, and then the search begins. Most of the day involves sitting on LinkedIn stalking potential candidates, connecting with them, and retrieving their CV’s. This can get repetitive, but the desire to fulfill this position overthrows this. Josh and I like having challenges in regards to LinkedIn connections and CV’s. Although we only have 3 weeks in the internship due to Chinese New Year, we have been told that soon we will be able to start making phone calls and participate in interviews with candidates. It is also exciting to see the people that our company deals with. For example, a COO of a very large multinational apparel company just casually came into our work the other day for a chat.

Around 1:00 (or when Josh and I begin to starve), we head off for lunch, which we have for roughly an hour. The first day involved the whole workforce going out to a Chinese restaurant (which ended up going for a couple of hours). On the second and third day, Josh and I ventured off together, and went to a couple of local places for a nice feed. On the last day of work before new year, the five of us that were left went to the mall and had a very enjoyable lunch together. Due to the small nature of our workplace, everyone gets to know each other really well.

The afternoon involves the same duties as the morning. I have to admit, working til 7:00 when it is dark outside and you know every other intern has finished can be difficult, particularly to stay motivated. After work, Josh and I usually head off either home, or to meet the rest of the gang who are at an Absolute activity. I will finish this blog with what was told to us by one of our colleagues: You get out of your internship what you put in. We don’t expect you to work outside of the office and do anything more of what we ask you too. We understand that you are on an Internship, and you can definitely go out at night and have fun.

Farewell!