Experience: Rick Luttikhuizen, YES, Shanghai, China

About the job
Together with two other guys from Holland I did an internship at Teckwin, Shanghai. The company of our internship was a manufacturer of large flatbed printers and ceramic tile printers. We had several marketing jobs like reviewing the website and brochures, participating with tradeshows but the main project was to investigate if and how the European market and the south American market could be expanded.
During the internship I discovered several differences in doing business in China instead of in Europe. In China the boss takes all the decisions without any discussion, they are very short term orientated and do not look back to the past.
About AIESEC
AIESEC supported us in advance, during our internship and with our reintegration back in the Netherlands. In advance there were several seminars about the culture, visa and entrepreneurship. During the internship AIESEC SISU organized several parties with other interns from all over the world, this was as great opportunity to discover several cultures but especially the Chinees culture. However AIESEC SISU is far less professional compared with AIESEC Tilburg, almost all the members were freshman and a lot of them were not from Shanghai. After a few weeks we knew the city center better than they did because they live the whole week on the campus.
About the culture
The Chinees culture is quietly different than the western culture, the first impression of the people can be that they are very rude. They spite of the ground, you can hear them eat and when you want to exit the metro everybody will enter the metro before you have the possibility to exit the metro. But when you know them better they are very friendly, it don’t mind what you ask them, they will help you. However most of the time it is quite hard to ask them anything because most of the Chinees people don’t speak English, but also with your hands and feet you can make yourself

understandable. Another important aspect in the Chinees culture is status and one of the most strange things how you can notes that on the streets, is that every man who doesn’t work with his hands has a very long pink nail.
Some other thing that are typical Chinees are safety, ambition and non creativity.
Personal Impact
It is hard to describe how this experience has changed me, but I am sure that it has changed me. You have to ‘survive’ in a complete different culture without any help of friends or family, because of this I think I am more self-assertive and increased my social skills.
Will you recommend a traineeship?
I will recommend everybody to do an internship abroad, it is a great experience and it will change your life. A great place to do your internship abroad is Shanghai. I think that the city is really unique, compare with Europe it is very cheap but it as modern as the biggest cities in Europe. This combination makes it a really good city to live. 

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.

Experience: Kamran van Roosmalen, Nanzan, Japan

I joined the AIESEC program because of my desire to go to Japan for an internship and learn about the Japanese office life and working environment. In Japan I spent two months with the international trade and manufacturing company Tsuchiya.co.ltd. Tsuchiya is situated all over the world with offices all over Japan and the rest of Asia as well as in the USA and one in the Czech republic. The company is located in the city of Nagoya, which is known for its history with Toyota and the Japanese automotive industry in general. As with most companies in this region, Tsuchiya’s is mostly involved in working with the automotive industry, Toyota being their biggest client. Companies hire Tsuchiya to provide them with the components or parts that they need. If Tsuchiya does not have the capabilities to create this they search for companies that can. For the AIESEC program this company provides a two month traineeship. Alongside me there was another AIESEC member whom joined me from the Czech republic.

Tsuchiya has brought us to various companies’ manufacturing facilities as well as their own. Additionally, due to their high involvement with working with Toyota they took me along to visit museums about the history of Toyota as well as the Japanese automotive industry. However, outside of company visits with the sales team there was no real work for us at the office. As with a lot of (traditional) Japanese companies Tsuchiya is hierarchically organized with a lot of seniority still present. This was apparent in the office as the desks were ordered on seniority with the head of the office sitting in the, where he has view over all the employees. Working in a Japanese company involves a lot of routine and etiquettes. I had to be at the office every morning at 8.30. being late, is generally not tolerated and should be noted beforehand, even if it’s only for a few minutes. In the morning every employee should be greeted by saying ‘Ohayou gozaimasu’! which means the same as good morning. During the day when encountering other employees (for example during lunch) you should say ‘Otsukure sama desu’ which loosely translates to “I am tired” but is meant to be polite to each other. My day at the office would end at 17.30 and upon exiting you should say to the boss (and your coworkers) ‘osakini  shitsure shimasu otsukere sama deshita’ which translates to “excuse me for leaving before you I have become tired”. This is the most polite way to say it but can be shortned to just “otsukure same deshita”. The company has been very kind and caring to us and we have been very well received by the coworkers.

AIESEC Japan showed great excitement for having us. I have noticed however that my AIESEC members in Japan have very little experience with being abroad and talking with foreigners. This is represented by the majority of the Japanese that generally rather stick to their own country and their lack of proficiency in English.  At times this was quite troublesome as Japanese are often afraid of making mistakes so they rather avoid conversation. After our arrival AIESEC Nanzan picked us up and showed us to our residents. However, after our arrival date, with the exception of our first day at the office, we would not have contact with the AIESEC members until our kick off presentation day a week later. This meant we had to explore the city on our own initially. I have told them to not wait before the kick-off day to introduce the members but doing it earlier. I have no problem figuring stuff out on my own but other AIESEC members might have more difficulty with this. After this we had a lot of fun with the members by going on various trips and they were helpful with anything we had problems with. Most trips involved going to see historical samurai castles that are in the area as Nagoya was an important city during the Tokugawa period of Japan.

Japan is a very different culture compared to the Netherlands and involves a lot more etiquettes and habits in society. This is mostly due to the collective nature where the people are more concerned about the society and how others view them. The Japanese are generally very respectful to each other and also behave honorably. For instance, giving tips is not accepted Japan and can actually offend. Additionally, it was quite surprising to see such clean streets in such a big city and there was no garbage bins in sight. A big and well known difference is the way the Japanese great each other. Instead of shaking hands they bow to each other, the bigger the bow the bigger the sign of respect to the other person. So if the person you are greeting is at a higher social status you should make a deeper bow. Within the office life giving business cards is also very important. The way of giving cards is by holding the card with both hands with your name facing the direction of the other person and introducing yourself. The other person will do the same before the cards are exchanged. 

All in all I highly recommend Japan and the company of Tsuchiya for an internship. The people are incredibly kind and the Japanese culture is very unique and interesting. However, there are challenges such as the language barrier. It is highly recommended to study some basic Japanese before going. Additionally, as interesting as the traineeship was at Tsuchiya it was not very challenging for there was not “actual” work. But for a two month traineeship it was very interesting and the good payment was also a bonus. I came to Japan with the goal to learn about the culture and the business environment which I think was a success. Unfortunately the two months felt really short and I hope to go back there as soon as possible. 

Experience: Elke Kemperman, Shanghai, Mainland of China

On the 12th of April my big adventure started; that day I said goodbye to Holland for 3,5 months and I stepped in to the airplane to head off to Shanghai City. Today it is July 30 and the big adventure is already over. In short I can say that it was an amazing, wonderful and above all unforgettable experience. In three months I have met so many new people, had a nice internship, had nice trips to different cities/ countries, had some great time dining/clubbing and I experienced the amazing culture of China.
Before it all started on April 12, already quiet some steps had to be taken to get myself prepared for the YES- program. First of all, there was the YES selection evening in which it was tested whether you were suitable to participate in the YES program. Finally, after a week of full of stress and nervousness ;) I received the news I was hoping for: I was accepted and from April on I would become a Shanghai resident together with Dennis, Rick, Thomas and Tim. In the months before our departure all kinds of preparation sessions were provided by AIESEC Tilburg, while AISEC SISU (AIESEC residence located in Shanghai) was busy arranging our internship. This is also where we had our first experience with the Chinese culture: for both AIESEC Tilburg and us it was really hard to communicate with AIESEC SISU and all the internships were arranged very very last minute (which means I had my Skype application only 3 days before departure). So, keep in mind that it will be very likely that not everything will/can be completely arranged well in advance. Furthermore, during the sessions of AIESEC Tilburg all kind of information was provided on what is important to arrange. However, sometimes I had the feeling that the AIESEC member weren’t as up to date as they should be on several topics (e.g. the visa procedure). As advice, make sure your flight and visa are arranged on time (preferably at least a month on beforehand), since this can save you money on your flight and a last-minute trip to The Hague to pick up your visa just before your departure.
On Friday, April 13, Rick and I arrived in Shanghai were we were picked by one of the AIESEC SISU member (We could recognize here by the nice giraffe sweater she promised us to wear that day and yes, this type of clothing was already a good indication of what the average Chinese would wear). During the first days different AIESEC SISU members showed us different parts of Shanghai, helped us arranging Chinese phone numbers and helped us making appointments with different housing agencies.

After one week of getting used to Shanghai, behaving as a tourist and moving into our apartment it was time for me to get started at my internship at an NGO called GoodtoChina. GoodtoChina’s goal is to supports sustainable living through environmental projects, social initiatives and consulting projects and is run by a very passionate and lovely women called Susan Evans. As I have a background in the field of business and logistics, she asked me to make a complete map of all here suppliers, the internal processes and the contact with clients. Furthermore, she always got me involved in new projects, interesting meetings (for example with the top-management of IKEA Shanghai) and was always interested in sharing thoughts with me on various topics. Furthermore, I really liked the informal working atmosphere and the team of GoodtoChina which consist out of multiple interns. All the other interns were also students, coming from different countries all over the world, who made my days at the office real fun and with whom I spend some evenings dining and drinking. I think I am very lucky with the internship that is provided to me, especially compared to some other internships I have seen/heard about in which the tasks and working environment weren’t as appealing as at GoodtoChina.
Since I only worked for four days a week, there was also plenty of time to discover Shanghai, to plan some nice trips in China and to experience the Chinese Culture. AIESEC SISU arranged several activities during our stay in which we could participate and could experience how they spent their time; e.g. we learned how to cook dumplings, got the chance to were traditional Chinese clothing and of course also a karaoke night was part of my AIESEC-SISU experience. On the other hand it was also great fun to show them some things they haven’t seen/done before: typical Dutch food, going out to one of the many clubs Shanghai knows etc.. Furthermore, there was plenty of time to discover other beautiful places in (and around) China. We have visited places like Hangzhou, Suzhou, HongKong and Beijing. Especially the trip to Beijng was pretty impressive, as the city is completely different as Shanghai and you really see the traditional culture of China and also a lot of residues of the communistic period (e.g. the forbidden city, Tiananmen Square (also known as ‘Plein van de Hemelse Vrede’). Also, the Chinese people there are less familiar with western people (which most of the time resulted in some nice picture taking activities with us as Western people in the center of the picture).
After my three-month stay in China I travelled for 2,5 weeks in Indonesia and I can only describe this period of 3,5 months as an amazing and unforgettable period. I found it very interesting to have the chance to go abroad and to experience how it is to live in the dynamic city that Shanghai is, to work with people from all over the world, to discover the mainland of China and to meet many new and amazing people. It definitely exceeded my expectations and I would recommend everyone to experience it their selves.
Enjoy it! One of the best things I ever did! 

Experience: Dennis Rudolph, Shanghai, Mainland of China

It all started - around the beginning of 2012 in which I got the notice about the opportunities of joining the “YES program” with AIESEC, a management internship. I joined the information session, listened to the speakers about the content and got very excited due to the experience story of one of the previous participants of the program. And with me four other students from the Tilburg University. The next thing to do was applying for the internship, writing a motivation letter, a curriculum vitae and passing a selection procedure in which a roll play, discussion and some questions with respect to handling specific situations came across. After passing the selection procedure the following months to until the flight to Shanghai went by very fast. During this short and hectic period there had to be arranged a lot of things with respect to stay in Shanghai and the flight ticket had to be booked. Vaccinations, travel insurances, a visa, extra bank card, credit card and the flight tickets were one of the main things to arrange. Besides my/our effort, the people from AIESEC prepared us in making this big trip, from providing information about the required documents to a master class in which culture was one of the main topics of discussion. From the Tilburg department of AIESEC we received significantly more guidance compared to the AIESEC department of Shanghai. The department of Tilburg, arranged the company, provided us with several meetings in which we were prepared for this adventure. The department of Shanghai on the other side, only arranged a couple of events with other interns and did not had any contact with the company or arranged other meetings. As said earlier the time from passing the selection to the flight to Shanghai went by very fast and this also had its consequences, the internship was arranged one week before the flight to Shanghai for instance. After all everything was arranged in time and the adventure started. However, just before the flight I became sick and it lasted until the first week in Shanghai. Luckily, I was not on my own during this week and the other participants provided me with some care and arranged the apartment in which we have lived for three months. These three months provided me with amazing moments, which have become good memories. During this stay we changed from participants to friends and we got to know each other very well.
The internship - was at a manufacturer of large format printers, Teckwin. As said before I was not on my own in the YES program and two other guys and me did our internship at this company. During the internship we were guided by a kind of mentor, which educated us with basic knowledge on the different type of printers and provided us with the assignments, work. Most of the work we had to do, was about doing market research with the focus on expansion of the market for Teckwins’ printers. We also got a lot of assignments in which we had to check brochures and manuals on grammar. The mentor was very friendly and if there were any problems we could call him. Besides the contact with our mentor we only saw our boss a couple of times and there was no further contact with her. There was also little contact with another woman who also gave us a couple of assignments. Unfortunately, we did not had much contact with other people in the company, because we had our own assignments, own office and it was difficult to communicate with them due to the language barrier (most of the other employees do not speak English and we do not speak Chinese). Although the internship was not that challenging in the sense of workload and difficulty, I have experienced a typical Chinese business culture. First, of all it is noticeable that Chinese people do not always say what they expect/feel. This was an interesting learning experience as I found out that this could create conflicts and difficult situations easy, because as being a person from the western world I am not used to this kind of “communication”. Besides this I also experienced that you have to be very flexible in a Chinese company and that there is not asked up front if you are ok

with working overtime during weekends or events, which also occurred during our internship a couple of times. So, the main experience from this internship came from the typical Chinese environment we were situated in.
The stay – in Shanghai was an amazing experience and I will never regret the decision to go on an internship with AIESEC. The apartment we have lived in is situated in an above average and very safe area of Shanghai and I did not experience any dangerous situations. In my opinion, Shanghai can be characterized as a large modern Chinese city, which shows a lot of similarities with large western cities. The people in Shanghai were very friendly, but starting a conversation was not that easy, since there existed a language barrier. If a Chinese person spoke English it was most of the time a student or a business person. Furthermore it is noticeable that, we have not experienced violent people in Shanghai even in the area of the clubs people were not violent. One of the reasons why Shanghai is an amazing place to live in for me is that there is always something that you can do. If you are hungry you can find a lot of BBQ shops on the streets were you can order snacks till late. If you want to go somewhere for a drink, there are always clubs and (karaoke)bars open. The clubs are very nice to see and can be very cheap if you choose the right ones. Everywhere you want to go in Shanghai you can go by metro or taxicab, both are very convenient and very cheap compared with the Dutch prices. There are a lot of beautiful places to visit in Shanghai, to mention some: the Bund (skyline of Shanghai), the Tv tower (in which you have a view all over the city), a lot of temples, Yuyuan garden and many more in and around Shanghai (a travel guide was very helpful). Besides Shanghai we also went to three other places by airplane and boat: Beijing, Hong Kong and Macau. These places are relatively easy to reach from Shanghai and are very nice to stay and travel in. In Beijing you can see some traces of the communist period of China, it has its own character and some places are very recommendable to visit during a stay like The Great Wall of China and The Summer Palace. In Beijing we also rented bicycles as it is convenient and nice to cycle to several sights. However to some places we had to go by taxicab or bus. Hong Kong is like Shanghai a modern city with a lot of skyscrapers and from The Peak you have a beautiful view over the city. Macau was very cool to see as it is the Las Vegas of Asia. These three places we visited during the weekends and a couple of days is enough to see these places. Next to the group of the YES program, we also got to know other people who we went out with for dinners and visited clubs with. This experience story is just a small part of the stay and there is too much to tell in only two pages, but one thing can certainly be said about Shanghai: It is an exciting city to live in! So, I would definitely recommend an internship in a city like Shanghai.
Personally – I also went through some changes. I have learned to say no to other people more easy, which is sometimes better than accepting everything that is asked from you. Furthermore, I lived in a more relaxed way in Shanghai than in the Netherlands which was very comfortable, this is sometimes difficult for me to do in the Netherlands but now it is more easy than before. I think the stay also gave me the impression I am able to live on my own in another country in the future, which is very important for me as I am interested in an international career. I did not had the feeling of homesickness or such, but maybe this had to do with the fact we lived with the four of us in the same house and three of us saw each other the whole day at the office. 

Experience: Joep Obdam, Mexico-City, Mexico

Experience story of Joep Obdam.

On the 26th of February I went to the country of tequila, sombrero’s and mustaches; Mexico! At least, those were my first thoughts which came up when I heard about Mexico. Soon I realized Mexico was far more than only these thoughts. Mexico has a lot to offer, it is a beautiful country. Not only because of its beautiful beaches, natural resorts and pyramids, but most of all, because of the different kinds of people and traditions you can find there. The Mexican culture is in all ways different from the cultures in Europe which is great to experience!
When I arrived in Mexico two Mexicans from the local AIESEC committee picked me up at the airport and started to explain all the basic things I needed to know about Mexico. The first week I spent with Jorge from the AIESEC committee. He introduced me to all of his friends, the other trainees and people from work. In the first week I met lots of new friends from all around the world who were all inviting me immediately for all kinds of activities. I ate with their families, I spent nights in bars with them, I travelled together around in Mexico etc.. In the four months I was in Mexico I wasn’t bored for even one minute! AIESEC made me feel comfortable from the moment I arrived. AIESEC was not only helping me to integrate with the social communities in Mexico, but they also helped me with arranging my VISA, my salaries and, for example, my vaccinations. They told me to call them as soon as possible even when I had a tiny little problem! Of course they didn’t help me always immediately, I think that was part of the Mexican culture, but the intention was there.
AIESEC helped me in finding an internship at PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Mexico-City. I liked this internship because it was a prestigious job in accounting at a big multinational. During my internship I was helping people from, for example, Canada who were working in Mexico and who had to pay Mexican taxes. We worked in teams, which was great. There was a competitive atmosphere, people were very ambitious, but at the same time my colleagues helped me with every question I had and were very flexible. I always had lunch with the other trainees from all over the world from different departments in PwC. We created a very cozy and nice environment for everybody. I was saying “yes” to all invitations I received from my friends in Mexico. By doing this I was able to discover easily the way of living in Mexico. For example, in Holland everybody is always in a hurry and has a tight schedule. In Mexico this is not the case. The traditional Mexicans (but also my friends from Latin America) don’t respect time. In Mexico the idea of being too late is not like 5 minutes, but they start feeling uncomfortable when they are 45 minutes or more too late. I had to get used to this concept, but when you are waiting one time like 30 minutes, you will make sure it will not happen again. Mexicans are very friendly and will always find some time free to start a conversation. They are very hospitable and they are open to meet new people. Every weekend I tried to travel to another city, just to see as much as possible from Mexico. When I finished my internship I made longer trips to the beaches and natural resorts which were amazing. You can see things in Mexico which you cannot see anywhere else. You can see the people changing when you are travelling through different parts of the country which makes it very interesting to try to start a conversation with them. During my stay in Mexico I discussed a lot the differences between the poor and rich (which is huge), nationalism, ambition, politics, economics and, for example, the differences in opportunities for Dutch and Mexican people or another part of the world.
Some remarkable things of Mexico-City: Mexico-City is one of the biggest cities in the world, you can find the biggest and most prestigious buildings, but at the same time you can find people living on the streets begging for money or food; in Mexico-City you can buy food on every corner, because the typical Mexican likes to eat a lot and during all day; walking on your own on the streets after 10 pm is too dangerous, the criminal rates are enormous. All these little things made a huge personal impact. I discovered a part of the world I haven’t seen before. It is really different from Europe and even sometimes it makes you feel guilty, for example, because in Holland everything is arranged very well, you can choose your own future path and there are lots of opportunities for everybody, but in Mexico the poor people don’t even go to school, or some students cannot go to study abroad, because they don’t have the money for it or will never get a VISA. During my experience I learned a lot about different cultures and every moment helped me understanding more the different views of life in the world. I would recommend this experience to everybody. Going abroad with AIESEC opens your mind and is a great experience!

Experience: Servaas Frissen, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

Now this is a story all about how,
my life got flipped turned upside down,
and I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there,
to tell you how I worked as an intern in Ciudad Juárez.

Sorry to startle you all with the whole reverse Bel-Air routine there, but bear with me please, the story actually gets interesting as you read on. To get going with the thrust of it, I can absolutely positively advise everyone to spend time working abroad. I got a neatly wrapped package of the warmest, most educational, and most useful experiences I’ve had in a good while, and, remarkably, ran across all of those in a year I spent in the most dangerous city in the world.

About three months after I enrolled into AIESEC and went through the entry procedure, I managed to obtain an acceptance note for a 12-month internship in the Intercompanies department of the automotive branch of Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI) in Ciudad Juárez, a Mexican bordertown with El Paso, TX. My title there was ‘Intercompanies Analyst’, which in this case meant I was assigned some plants acting as buyers and suppliers in the automotive industry of Northern America, the bookkeeping of which I had to maintain. On a monthly basis books had to be closed, meaning they had to balance out as closely to 0 as possible. My department had made a reputation as the closest community in the Shared Service Center (SSC) it was part of, even though 8 of its 35 employees were AIESEC trainees. All this was as good as it sounds in theory. All members of my department were genuinely interested in, and ready to help and cooperate with, the trainees (which, incidently, came from Greece, the Czech Republic, Iran, Brazil, Sweden, France, Colombia and Chile), whether they came to Juárez Spanish-speaking and well integrated in Mexican culture, or new to all of that and shy. In the various departments in the SSC, 14 interns enjoyed the same warmness.

The same applied for AIESEC Cd. Juárez, our intermediary for all official business with JCI. Right from the start, I think I speak for all of the interns there if I say AIESEC made us feel welcome, at ease, and at home, even though most of us travelled half way around the world to get there. On some occasions we noticed that the LC members were learning new things about their functions as they went along, especially in issues with migration and the red tape which is usually associated with that. Even though the major part of the issues was not their fault, nor their responsibility, they went to great lengths to solve all of them.

What were the aspects of working and living in Mexico I noticed the most about? Well, they work like horses, to begin with. 10 Hours a day, 5 or 6 days a week, tardiness not accepted & personal phone calls seriously frowned upon, we were completely theirs until the workday was over. Seeing as we were all in the same boat, it didn’t bother me to be honest. After all, gaining experience in my field of study was one of the reasons I came there. But, coming from a reasonably cold country with quite the uninteresting landscape, every day after work felt like going on holidays to me. Get off work, go to the gym, work on your sun tan, drive your Cadillac around spilling cheap gasoline, and pick up some friends to go drink in the park, or in one of the cheap rooftop-bars the city had to offer. Sounds like an apt compensation for the time and energy lost at work during the day, don’t you agree?

As time progressed, the work vs. holiday ration became even better. I got experienced and learned to work more smoothly, created some teams to work on various projects aimed at simplifying, improving, and speeding up our department’s processes, and all my colleagues became warm friends I hung out with after work too. This had to be it: the AIESEC dream. Working a job which is as interesting and challenging as you choose make it yourself, with people you appreciate and who appreciate you back, knowing you’ll leave your imprint on their work after you leave, and combining all that with a constant feeling of being on holidays after work, getting an in-depth view of a culture which is as unusual as it is interesting. Oh, and did I mention that the salary I received was twice as much as I needed to survive aptly?

Specific elements of the culture which were unusual to me? Women and relationships was one I got involved in on a personal level. Women were to be treated as princesses constantly, which meant I roamed the city holding open doors, paying for food and drinks, and waiting for the third date (hehe, I’m kidding. I never did ;-)). Dating there was a hasty game, as a non-negligible share of the girls my age was engaged or married and / or had children. Another group of people to treat differently from what I was used to, was the government and governing organs. I drove my Cadillac without licence plates, I didn’t have a driver’s licence, nor car insurance, and yet, somehow, a mere 20 dollars managed to get me through the 5 time the traffic police stopped me. You do the math. A little clue: any health insurance pass can be used as a driver’s licence if it’s in Dutch.

In all seriousness, I had a fantastic year there. I figured the best way to prepare up front for its culture was to realize that perfect preparation wasn’t possible and that I had to be open for whatever was going to happen. I spent as little time as possible in my comfort zone, said yes to every proposition, and tried my hardest to insult no one in the process. I came back with loads of experience in my field of work and in my life, I learned to speak Spanish, to drive a car, to teach piano and I gave a piano concert at the end of my internship which was visited by over 200 people. I embrace Ciudad Juárez, its people, AIESEC, and the whole experience of doing an internship. As a fact, I’m looking for another AIESEC internship in Latin America now because I haven’t nearly had enough of this. Time to get to it!

Servaas Frissen from Tilburg, Holland
Servaas.Frissen@gmail.com

Experience: Christel Holgado, Prague, Czech Republic

The experience story Christel Holgado at AccentureI worked at Accenture for 8 months. Accenture Prague provides HR Services for clients all over the world. Our team was responsible for contract production for a big international company in the Netherlands. I think my experience in Prague was the best my study career; this is my story:

16 July 2010: my flight to Prague and I had never been to this city before. My purpose was finding a job in HR and I preferred a job somewhere in Asia and then it turned out to be a city in Eastern Europe. I arrived at Prague Airport and my buddies from AIESEC took me to the AIESEC flat. That was the beginning of 8 wonderful months.. We dropped my suitcase and moved on to a party where I would meet other AIESEC’ers. Everybody was waiting for “the new trainee”.

My first week at Accenture was hard, in my induction week I was overloaded with information. Of course everything was new to me, I had to get used to my new place, getting up early everyday and travelling to the office was something I had to get used to. Luckily there was one girl who started at the same day in the same project. I was lucky that in my first week a big teambuilding weekend had been organized. It was great, even though I started my first week of working completely exhausted. But this was just a perfect opportunity to get to know your colleagues (also in a different way). I will never forget this first week in Prague..

First I started workshadowing to get to know the computersystems. My main tasks would be composing employment contracts for new hires and employment changes (promotion, salary increase, change of working days). After the required trainings I had to start working on my own. I had to ask a lot of questions since the whole process of composing contracts is quite complex. All requests have to be validated; they have to be in line with the policies of the client.

After two months my lead asked me if I would like to train two new colleagues within our team. I was surprised that I would be asked for this opportunity after such a short period. Of course I was enthusiastic and when I left the Accenture I realized that the colleagues I left behind were trained by me. This was a nice experience, sometimes it was hard. Every new colleague needed a different way of training. I think patience is the best way of training. Our team consisted of different personalities, which is in my opinion a good thing. You learn how to deal with them and you can learn how you can act on their behaviour.
Before I came to Prague I expected a job with more responsibilities. But I must say I learned a lot, in every way. I found out how I am within a team, my strengths came up by receiving feedback from my lead and colleagues. This whole experience with working in a very dynamic environment showed me all the things I have only heard in lectures at university. HR Outsourcing had always been an interesting topic for me but it was just theory. I can honestly say: Now it makes sense.

AIESEC Praha is well organized. I was so happy that I could live in an AIESEC flat, even though it was such a mess sometimes. The flat is located in a perfect area, in a shopping area and all the public transport facilities around the corner. The city centre is not far from the flat. In our flat all the parties were held (welcome/goodbye parties, Christmas) every Wednesday was movie night and we celebrated New Years Eve with 30 trainees. I went to an AIESEC conference once, because I wanted to get to know the other trainees and AIESEC in general. After my arrival in Prague a bunch of AIESEC trainees came to Accenture, that was really nice. In the end we were living with 5 Accenture Trainees in the flat.


As many tourists experience, Czech people are not always in a good mood. This was the first thing I had to get used to. Service of the waiters is sometimes rude, they just don’t care about it. Also colleagues keep distance. A lot of Czech people do not speak English so they just walk away from you once you start talking. When you are living abroad you just realize how great things are arranged in your own country, like healthcare. One day I got crazy because I felt so bad, only because I had to cough a lot. All my flatmates were saying that I had to go to the doctor or hospital. Even my Czech colleague sitting across me complained that I should go to a doctor. I was thinking: we don’t go to the doctor for a cough, I was so annoyed..

During my internship I met amazing people. My colleagues were also my close friends. We travelled a lot together, we celebrated weekends and went to the gym etc. I felt so sad when I left. I will meet them soon, we will have a reunion with the five of us.

Experience: Joeri Jansen, Baroda, India

Before actually leaving to India for a MT, the LPS organized by LC Tilburg made everything more concrete. By talking about expectations and plans of others who were also planning to leave, I realized that the start of my adventure was really getting close.

Some weeks later I said goodbye to friends and family, packed and arranged everything, and got on the plane, leaving the Netherlands for five months. When I reached Baroda, the city where I would be going to live and work, I got picked up by one of my Dutch colleagues and a local AIESEC’er. We went to our apartment by ‘auto-rickshaw’ seeing a lot of people and cows on the chaotic roads, so the first Indian experience was already taken care of. The first days were quite hectic and chaotic, but I got used to it faster than I expected beforehand.

One of the things why I went to India was to do an internship. I was an intern at an Indian IT company with Dutch and German partner companies. I was part of a team of German and Dutch interns, with whom we lived together in an apartment arranged by the company. Within the internship I focused on business development and project management. In practice, business development meant that I was looking for potential new Dutch partner companies to cooperate with. As part of this, I also joined the CEO for a business trip to the Netherlands and Germany, to meet some of these potential partners and to meet some of the existing partners of the company. This was a great experience and it was also nice to see some of my friends again, but I was also glad to go back to India after the trip. Back in India, we started working on new projects (also from companies we met during the business trip) doing the project management, which included talking to both the Dutch partners and Indian software developers. Later on I focused on the processes within the company and set up a customized CRM-system. Overall, the internship was not always that challenging, but I had a lot of freedom, learned a lot and really contributed to the company.

We (the other interns and me) were lucky not having to work in the weekends, so that we were able to see other places in India. Usually we took a sleeper train or bus on Friday evening, spending the weekend somewhere else and then again arrive in Baroda on Monday morning. It is an amazing colorful way of traveling through India, with a lot of people around and it is impossible to get bored during such a trip.
Picture: The day before ‘Holi’ festival at the office.

Looking back, the only conclusion is that I had a great time, saw most incredible places, learned a lot and made many new friends. I will definitely recommend a traineeship like the one I did. As long as you are really motivated to do something like this, everything will be fine, and you will also have an awesome experience abroad.

Experience: Jeroen de Vries, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

In September 2007 I started with the master’s degree Financial economics and I decided to attend as well those courses of the Accounting & Finance master’s degree which were not similar with the courses of the master’s degree I actually signed up for. In the summer of 2008 it became clear to me that in the upcoming study year I would have no study obligations in the second and third block of the school year as those two blocks are usually reserved for taking on seminars, something I had done already in that current year. As I hadn’t been abroad yet in the form of participating in an educational exchange program and I also wanted to gain some practical work experience I decided to apply for an internship through AIESEC as it would allow me not only to gain work experience in a new environment, but also fill up the gap of the upcoming school year.

After being selected for the program I attended a preparation seminar in order to get to know more about the history, structure and culture of AIESEC as well as to receive information on how to find an appropriate internship in the database. During this meeting I was also assigned a coach to help me find an internship and I made appointments to structure the search process. In my case things happened all very fast. I got in touch with the MD of Yahoo! Middle East Ad Sales Rep. and after having talked to each other a few times on the phone in the time span of a few days, I finalized the Acceptance notes with AIESEC Dubai and found myself flying 8 days after the first time I had spoken to my new manager.

Arriving at the airport I got the message that nobody was able to pick me up, and that I had to take a cap to the MC office from where they would bring me to my apartment. In the cap I got my first glance of the Sheikh Zayed Road, a road where Dubai’s highest buildings are built close next to each other. Together with seeing the Burj Al Arab, the famous 7-star hotel, it was highly impressive. I met the MC members in the office and later that day I was brought to my apartment where I would have to settle in a shared room for the next 4 months. Looking back, accommodation and transportation were the two only things that were disappointing in Dubai and are the result of a city that still is under development. Paying approximately €550 to share a room with 3 other guys, although it was a big room, wasn’t the situation I expected. Furthermore you couldn’t rely on public transportation as that was very irregular but luckily there were alternative options like cheap tickets, work transportation shuttles and low car rental prices. I ended up renting a car for 3 of the 4 months I stayed in Dubai, sharing the car rental with two other Aiesec’ers that were living in the neighborhood and worked in firms located on a walking distance to mine.

On the 26th of November I had my first working day and I was very pleased with my colleagues and manager. I worked closely with a guy from Jordan and a guy from the Philippines and my manager himself had Pakistani roots although he had spent most of his life living outside Pakistan. I was assigned the role of Sales executive, a position that consisted of trying to achieve sales of banner spaces on the website of Yahoo! Further responsibilities included the monitoring of print and online advertising, the making of presentations and proposals and internal performance analysis. I visited congresses and expos to meet potential new clients, maintained relations with existing clients and called up or e-mailed companies in order to send them advertising proposals. I had a good relationship with my manager as he took the time to discuss several work and non-work related issues and experiences with me and he ended up giving me a €250 bonus at the end of my internship. We also discussed possibilities to extend my contract but that wasn’t an option for me as I wanted to return back to Rotterdam in order to finish my studies.

In Dubai there were approximately 25 interns, from a lot of different countries. Most interns over there have contracts with durations for longer periods and this allows for interns to bond. At the time I came to Dubai a few other interns also just had started and there were a couple of them which were there already for 1 or 2 months, but were very open to meet new interns. When you are for a longer time abroad you develop friendships and in allocating your free time you tend to see those people you know better more, than you see new interns. This resulted in me getting to know the new interns better than the ones that were there already for a longer period. Alternatively approaching the end of my internship I also interacted less with the new interns arriving as a result of having already a tight group of friends. I met some Dutch people on my own and hang out a lot as well with those Aiesec’ers I met in my first month. The countries those Aiesec’ers were from included Finland, Hungary, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Peru, Colombia, Romania, Poland and Lithuania. Together with meeting other Dutch people, roommates from the States, Australia, France, Greece, Germany, Palestine and Spain and working closely with a Jordan and a Philippine colleague and British clients, you can say that it has been a pretty international experience.

Characterizing my experience was the high individuality of meeting with other Aiesec’ers and taking care of things when I arrived. As stated before, I was brought to my apartment from the MC office on the first day, but apart from that I didn’t receive much assistance from the LC body. The first activity they organized from the moment I arrived was in my third month of stay and besides not being picked up from the airport I also had to deal with arranging my own transportation for my first workday and getting the necessary supplies for my stay. Although the low involvement of the LC team was often discussed among the interns, I didn’t mind taking care of those things. I saw it as a luxury that AIESEC normally provides a certain assistance and considering my openness to also work abroad when I graduate, I toke this individuality for granted as I also wouldn’t get this assistance when I would find something on my own.

Daily activities in my free time of my 4 month stay were the visiting of buildings and malls, going for sheshas and going to the beach although my stay was from November to March. Famous buildings in Dubai are the Burj Al Arab (7 Star Hotel), the Burj Dubai (tallest building in the world), the Emirates towers and the Atlantis Hotel. Sheshas are water pipes in which you place tobacco with a flavor and then smoke it. Although I am not a smoker I certainly enjoyed going for sheshas. The weather during those months was between 25 and 35 degrees Celsius and were described as the best months to be in Dubai as temperatures reach out to 50 degrees Celsius in the summer months. Nevertheless, the weather was good enough to go to the beach on weekends from February on. I also went to see a tennis match between Nadal and Murray at the Capitala Open in Abu Dhabi and a friendly match between AC Milan and HSV were I saw players like Ronaldhino, Backham and Maldini from closely. I went ice skating and snowboarding on artificial made skating rinks and ski runs, I went for desert safari’s where camel riding, BBQ’s and sand boarding were included and went out in clubs that were located at the top of a hotel that were constructed like a pyramid and in clubs located on the 62nd floor of a building.

The highlights of my stay were however my trips to Oman. It was there were I saw very impressive caves and mountains. Besides its beautiful nature, the hospitality and kindness of Omani people is amazing.
After having experienced all those things and the internship came to an end, I had a last farewell dinner with friends and the next day I was heading again to the airport. Going 4 months to Dubai seemed a bit long in the beginning but I didn’t regret a day looking back on it and I call myself very lucky and privileged to have been part of this experience and to have met so many amazing people in the wonderful city of Dubai.