International Finance / Business Summer Internship- London, UK and Sydney & Melbourne, Australia

I had a memorable experience in such a great programme. Interning in an overseas firm provides me international exposure with understanding of local culture. The working environment is great, plus you can explore the city and even travel abroad near the country in weekends. Especially you can meet a group of like minded friends, which made the journey more memorable. A great point to note is the organizer are very helpful and we really enjoyed the journey.

It is my first time to work overseas! It is so unforgettable to work with different cultural background colleagues. Throughout the 4 weeks internship, I got a lot of chances to speak English with them which was an unique experience for me. Compared with internships in Hong Kong, I think that it was more interesting and inspiring to work in London because most of the colleagues were really willing to teach me and let me try different things. In weekend, we could visit attractions in London. I really enjoy this trip!

The Winter Internship Program was a meaningful journey to me in 2017. Apart from meeting new friends, I have equipped myself with different skills and knowledge. At that time, I worked in an accounting firm. My supervisor is really nice and friendly. He has thought me how to use different accounting software for bookkeeping. The trip was fruitful and unforgettable for me. I will definitely recommend my friends to join it.

It is my first time to embark a journey on my own, to a new city that I have never been, to a new living environment that I have never experienced, to an overseas company to start as a financial analyst that I have never tried. All these “never” which I can far imagine compiled what I have experienced throughout this six weeks internship in Blocks Wearables Limited in Imperial College London. On the second date of my departure in London, I had already been invited by my supervisor and line manager to meet and discuss what I am going to do in the coming 6 weeks. I felt very thankful as they cared about my job duties even as a 6-week intern, but at the same time I also worried my performance is not capable to meet their expectation, especially I was told to modify the financial model of the company and help to extend the model for the B2C & B2B market.

I had found a stressful moment in the entire internship as the concepts and complexity were far out of I had imagined before the internship started. I had a hard time during my internship as I was required to understand a very complicated financial model without very solid financial modeling skills and concepts. Even worse, I had to amend the financial model and build up some assumption and reference on my own. Luckily, I understood the financial model at last by breaking them into pieces to digest, googling and not to mention the supervision from my line manager in the finance department.

At last, I insisted, I stayed calm and I went through it with my persistence, learning agility and the incredible supervision from my line manager and supervisor. I was able to meet all the deadline and finish all the work that my supervisor gives me under the timeline that they have set before the internship starts. I sincerely enjoyed the fruition that came to the end at last and I gained a lot, grew a lot throughout the overseas internship.

After this journey on my own, I understand myself far more than I suppose to know myself. I originally think I am an extrovert with an out-going personality, but I notice my introvert side throughout this journey. I prefer to stay in the comfort zone in somewhere that I am not used to be. I am not as out-going and talkative as I think, all of these aforementioned personalities only apply in Hong Kong and in somewhere that I am used to be. Therefore, I did not speak much during the internship and I could not assimilate the team in perfection. Besides, I thought I would not miss Hong Kong and my family much during the internship as I felt I was independent, but turned out I miss my family, friends and Hong Kong so much that I almost cried. Families and friends are my core values, which exceeds academic and career, but no deny I want to have them all. After this trip, I do not think I can perform a job which requires me to leave Hong Kong for such a long period of time as I think I cannot sustain it. I prefer to work and stay local with families and friends instead.

This journey also contributes a lot to my career in the future. I am glad that I am interested to pursue a career in the finance industry. As I find it more challenging and practical compared to other industry. Besides, the salary pay in the finance industry is a lot higher than other industry, not to mention those investment banking. Thus, I think working in the finance industry might be a good option for me.

Wishing to step out of my comfort zone, in the previous winter semester break, I went to London for an oversea internship placement and was pleasantly surprised by how much I gained personally from this experience. The company that I worked for is called TradeX Capital Limited, it is a consultancy company specialised in financial services. After working for a month, I have grown to be more independent and thoughtful. My supervisor and his team were extremely welcoming, they gave me opportunities to participate in different tasks and company events and taught me the ground realities of the property and financial industry. Apart from drafting documents and working on agreements, I have also gained lots of inspirations by attending the investment presentations, in which entrepreneurs presented their business ideas, hoping to raise capital for their companies. Finishing this internship, I am walking away with many new skills and knowledge that will help me in my future career. I ended up learning a lot more than I thought I would be able to in the time span, and so many things that went far beyond the theoretical knowledge I gained in university. The tasks I performed during my internship allowed me to apply my university learning in a real-world environment and I managed to develop my interpersonal and problem-solving skills.

I have joined the Winter internship in London. I worked in a company called Key Business Consultants as an Accounting Intern. I found it quite interesting as this is my first overseas job and the working style is a bit different. This program allows me to enjoy the winter holiday and also work at the same time. I have explored a lot more British culture, like the afternoon tea and also the New Year parade.

The London Winter Internship 2018 organized by HKCareers had definitely enriched my experience. I was assigned to a property management firm as a marketing operations and business development intern. Throughout the month I was engaged in tasks like preparing financial statements for landlords and tenants, conducting market research on HK property market to estimate the company's expansion potential, and make presentations on our findings. I was “forced” to leave the “amateur” comfort zone and become semi-professional by learning quickly and picking up stuff, such as learning how to make a competitor analysis using SWOT and creating a perceptual map using Excel. It was a little tough but that's what you would experience in a fast-paced industry, right?

Overall, I learnt a lot from the internship and the programme is worth recommending to my friends.

I applied for an UK internship under the marketing field and was assigned to work at a digital marketing agency. The experience was up to my expectations.

Firstly, my supervisors as well as my collegues have given me numerous opportunities in trying out different tasks and guided me along the way. Within the 1 month internship, skills I gained includes: SEO, PPC, Adwords Research, Content Marketing and CMS etc. My daily tasks included blog writing and meta data / meta description writing, the sense of succes upon seeing the materials being published onto our clients' websites has been the happiest part of my job.

To add on, I would recommend this program to my friends as I think that the program has been well organized. The accomodation was prepared at Notting Hill, a convenient location that is close to the city center. Without doubt, the security level of the region is high. Moreover, staff from the organizers interview the program participants regularly and evaluate with the company representatives to continuously ensure that the interns are doing well at the company and are gaining relevant working experiences instead of carrying out low value adding tasks like photocopying and coffee making.

All in all, with the highly practical skills that I gained from this internship, I would conclude my winter internship at the UK as a very fruitful journey.