How It All Began.

Having successfully breezed through the first semester of my academic year 2011, it was now time to worry about finding an internship.

*Twirls hair nervously*

I am apprehensive about going out to New Zealand's corporate wilderness to seek an internship as I was a foreigner. It took me an entire year to assimilate myself to the New Zealand culture - I cannot imagine myself adjusting with ease into a 'white' company as an intern within such a short period of time. It wasn't a matter of me not being able to cope - it was more of a matter of feeling like a fish out of water. Case in point? I went to numerous companies in my attempt to cold-call, and I felt really out of place as I see flocks of 'white' people, who are taller, and probably 10 to 20 years older than me, donned in corporate suits making their way through the treacherous area known as the 'corporation'. Due to my ethnic traits, I look like an underage kid when put alongside Western counterparts. Although I am not new with corporate environments, a culture different from mine would bound to imply corporate culture differences as well.

Rants aside, here is how I managed to obtain my current position as a Symposium Coordinator (Title yet to be decided?) for Unitec. It all began with a casual chat with Dr Elena, my Intercultural Communication / Doing Business in East Asia lecturer. I asked her whether there were any Asian corporations out there in the Kiwi corporate world that I could consider joining. To my disdain, the reply to my question was "New Zealand is too small, there aren't much international investors setting up headquarters here."

And... The magic sentence ensued. "How would you like to help me on a little project I am doing?"

Oh yes definitely! Working for a lecturer that I love? Working in a subject matter that is of my interest? Yes yes yes!

But first, I chose to challenge myself. Even though I felt apprehensive about joining a purely 'white' company, I wasn't about to give up without putting on a good fight. Even with Elena's offer standing in front of me, I went about seeking my own opportunities first before formally accepting the offer. I mustered the courage to go knocking about the doors of Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, Ogilvy PR and such, though unfortunately to no avail. Large corporations usually have summer internship programs but don't usually take interns during the middle of the year. Or perhaps it is a diplomatic excuse by corporations to drive off pesky interns like us. It is indeed times like these that I hate my own profession - sugar-coated PR.

Although I did not receive a positive response from the organisations, I believe that I have really benefited from this experience. I experienced firsthand the uneasiness of being in a foreign environment; I braced myself to work for a foreign company should I really get employed. All which are so valuable to my future job-hunting ventures.

As they say, it's not always about the end result, it's the experience that matters.

This blog is meant to record the progress of my work, and as a room for me to critically evaluate my internship progress. I have loved blogging since I was a teenager - I have always been actively involved with the Internet world, and I reckon this would be the most comfortable place to share my thoughts and progress with my lecturers.

Although the nature of this task is strictly academic, I hope my lecturers will take joy in reading this light-hearted (but serious) blog.

Last but not least, I just want to say that I am grateful to both my supervisors for their time in nurturing me for this internship and thank you all so much for your time. Feel free to leave comments in this blog too!

Yahui~