Steve's sandbox

Tag: Intern

  • Interning in Beijing: Alexander Johnstone – December 2017

    由于我在大学只要上早上的课，因此我来北京以后决定我要利用我的空闲时间来增长我对在中国公司经营方式的知识，而且发展未来的事业机会。因此，我上个月开始在一个跨国公关公司工作。我们组的客户是一个庞大的中国科技公司，这家公司希望在国外做更多生意，所以他们要提高他们的公共名声。我现在的责任包括做关于科技领域的研究，翻译和编辑任务。在办公室，百分之九十的员工是中国人，我是唯一的外国实习生！于是，每天很多人拜托我改善他们用英文写的文件，这样让我更好了解英语和汉语有什么区别。这份实习也给我难得机会学到我在大学一定不会学到的事。比方说，我开始做实习以后才发现中国企业的科技这么发达，他们的人工智能和无人驾驶的技术是世界上最厉害之一。这份实习给我许多机会练习我的中文。我做研究的时候需要看有些中文材料，比如报纸文章和报告，以便补充英文材料，这样就能完全理解我研究的题目。并且，虽然我在一个跨国公司做实习，但是一般来说我会用中文跟我的同事沟通。我们其他的实习生吃午餐的时候会讨论各种各样的话题，让更好了解到中国学生的生活是怎么样。
    上个星期是我参加了我们公司的圣诞晚会。我们吃了一顿美味的晚餐之后，每个组要给大家表演不同的节目。我参与了两个表演，第一个是我跟我的同事唱圣诞歌，第二个是一个喜剧，我的人物是三国演义的关羽。他是一个非常威猛的人物，不太适合我的个性！
    总而言之，做这份实习是一个很好的机会体验中国上班族的生活，并且帮我考虑我毕业以后要做什么工作，怎么找一个与中国有关系的工作。

    Work Christmas Party with my fellow interns

    ENGLISH:

    As I only have morning classes at university, after arriving in Beijing I decided I wanted to make the most of my free time to improve my knowledge of companies operating in China, as well to advance my future job opportunities. Therefore, last month I started to work at an international PR company. My team’s client is a very big Chinese technology company. As this company wants to do more business abroad, they also want to improve their public reputation. My current responsibilities include doing research into the field of technology, translation and editing tasks. In the office, 90% of the staff are Chinese and I am the only foreign intern! Consequently, everyday lots of people ask for my help to improve the language of their English documents. This has helped me to better understand the differences between Chinese and English. This internship has also been me a valuable opportunity to learn things I would never learn at university. For example, it was only after starting my internship that I realised how advanced the technology of Chinese companies has become. These companies are some of the world leading companies in the fields of artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles. This internship has also given me lots of opportunities to practise my Chinese. When I am doing research, I need to use Chinese language materials, such as newspaper articles and reports, to supplement English language materials and allow me to fully understand the topic that I am researching. Furthermore, although I am interning at an international company, I usually use Chinese to communicate with my colleagues. When I go to eat lunch with my fellow interns, we will talk about a wide variety of topics, which helps me to better understand the lives of Chinese students.
    Last week, I attended my work’s Christmas party. After eating a delicious dinner, each team had to put on a different performance for everyone. I participated in two different performances: in the first I sang a Christmas song with one of my colleagues and the second was a play. My character was Guan Yu, from the Chinese classic novel ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’. He is a very ferocious character, which didn’t really suit my personality!
    Overall, this internship is a great opportunity to experience the life of an office worker in China, and help me to consider what I want to do after I graduate, in particular how I can find a job related to China.

  • Imogen Page-Jarrett: Interning in Beijing 北京的实习生 – May 2015

    Interning in Beijing 北京实习生

    那是5月初的一个晴天，我开始在德国戴姆勒（奔驰）公司实习了。

    戴姆勒已经在中国100多年了，早在1913年，戴姆勒集团在青岛开设了第一家经销店，之后在1937年组装了800台梅赛德斯-奔驰载重车。时间来到1983年，中国汽车行业第一家中外合资企业北京吉普汽车有限公司成立，后来成为北京奔驰的前身。

    现代的戴姆勒大中华区则成立于2001年，总部也位于北京北部。到目前为止，戴姆勒集团在华已涉足包括了乘用车、轻型商务车、卡车、纯电动车、零部件以及金融服务等不同领域。数年来，秉承着“在中国制造，为中国而生”的发展理念，梅赛德斯-奔驰国产C级轿车，E级轿车以及国GLK级豪华中型越野车也在陆续在北京奔驰下线。

    我被分到金融部门，主管是戴姆勒大中华CFO的行政助理。我主要是担任内部活动策划、写文件，邮件，电子表格，的草稿、海报设计、找其他部门签字、写实时通讯的新闻等不同的责任。公司官方适用英文，所有邮件和文件都适用英文，可是工作人员90%是中国人，所以平时公司的环境是中文的。我最近发现我这两门语言都有进步。我汉语口语说得更流利，并且更理解怎么去写正式英文，怎么维护戴姆勒的标准。

    我还和几个其他实习生交上了朋友，大多也是大学生，有的已经考上了研究生了。我已经安排了跟另外一个金融实习生这个周末去世界上最“孤独的图书馆”，位于 河北省秦皇岛北戴河新区国际滑沙中心北边的海边。 透过落地窗可以看到远处的大海。 这所图书馆提供了一个回归读书本真的场所，让自己安静下来， 而这是嘈杂而又喧嚣的北京没有的。

    我特为珍惜这次实习经验，不仅仅是因为能提高我对国际机构的工作流程的理解，而还给我机会接触到新的一群人，那就是白领，而且体验中国的工作环境。我觉得在这份实习工作也会交许多好点的关系，对前途有好处。

     

    ENGLISH TRANSLATION:

    It was a fine clear day in May that I began interning at the German company Daimler (who own Mercedes-Benz).

    Daimler has already been in China for over 100 years now. As early as 1913, Daimler Group opened a dealership in Qingdao, and by 1937 they had already assembled over 800 vehicles. In 1983, China’s first China-oversees joint vehicle venture Jeep Ltd. was established, the forbearer to Mercedes.

    Modern day Daimler Greater China was established in January 2001 and headquartered in the North of Beijing, Daimler Greater China Ltd. The Daimler Group has already grown to include passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, trucks, hybrid vehicles, spare parts and financial services. In recent years, the company has been promoting the philosophy of “Made in China, for China”. Mercedes-Benz C-Class, E-Class, GLK and the luxury SUV were all manufactured in Beijing.

    I was allocated to the finance department, and my supervisor is executive assistant to the Daimler Greater China CFO. I am mainly responsible for internal event planning, drafting emails, Excel documents and other items, designing posters, getting signatures from other departments, and writing articles for the newsletter among other things. The company’s official language is English, and all emails and documents are written in English, although the office is 90% Chinese staff, so normally the working environment is in Chinese. Recently I have discovered I have made progress in both languages. My spoken Chinese is more fluent, and I have a better understanding of how to write formal English, and how to uphold Daimler’s standards.

    I have also made friends with some other interns here. Most of them are also university students, some being graduate students. I have already arranged to go to the world’s “loneliest library” this weekend with one other finance intern. The library is situated on the seafront of Beidaihe, a resort district in Qinhuangdao, Hebei province. Through the windows you can see the expansive ocean. The library offers a space to return to the basics of reading, to be calm. It is something that cannot be found in noisy clamorous Beijing.

    I feel that this internship experience is really precious, not only because it is giving me a better understanding of the workings of an international cooperation, but is also giving me the chance to meet a whole new group of people – white collar workers. I am also experiencing a Chinese working environment.

    I believe that this internship position will also allow me to make good connections that may be beneficial in the future.