Experience: Thomas Hannes, YES, Shanghai, China

P  About the job

I Worked with two fellow AIESEC trainees at Teckwin in shanghai. The subject was mainly tot do research for the possibility for Teckwin to enter the Brazilian market. This subject required a lot of searching on the internet. Next to this subject we also had to review a lot of translated documents to see if they were written in proper English.

The working culture at the job was not comparable with the working culture at dutch companies. In my experience the Chinese are not flexible, for example: when we finished a job before the deadline it took our employer a long time to give us a new project. Because of this it was not uncommon for us to spend time at Teckwin without a project. The job also did not really challenge me as most projects where really easy. In my point of view Teckwin missed the opportunity to optimally use my and my colleges expertise.

P  About AIESEC

When I talk about AIESEC i want to differentiate between AISEC Tilburg and AIESEC SISU. First Tilburg, the start of the project was not as it should be. AIESEC had a lot of problems finding suitable companies but this was mainly due to bad cooperation with AIESEC SISU. The rest of the activities that where planned before the internship where good. During the internship there was some trouble with AIESEC Tilburg mainly due to miscommunication. The reintegration was good and all miscommunications were resolved.

AIESEC SISU was in my opinion especially helpful with getting to know Shanghai. They organised a lot of gatherings and activities which enabled us to get to know interesting people and experience Shanghai. AIESEC SISU had little to do with our internship at Teckwin which is possible room for improvement.

P  About the culture

The Culture in Shanghai not surprisingly differs a lot from the culture in Holland. People have entirely different values and this influenced my experience a lot. It is very interesting to see that people can live as differently as the Chinese do and I learned a lot from this.

P  Personal Impact

The internship impacted me a lot, my main goal was to know if I could manage myself in an unknown metropolis as Shanghai. When I look at the overall experience I think I succeeded in my initial goal, I am even planning to go abroad for a longer time as I really liked the experience.

P  Will you recommend a traineeship?

I would recommend a traineeship to everyone who is a little bit adventurous. It is a great possibility to learn a lot and to develop yourself.