My Experience Working In Shanghai

Catherine Xuan

I applied for the Shanghai Business Immersion Program on a whim during my first year at University and was lucky enough to be offered a placement – I have absolutely no regrets.

My main motivation was wanting my summer holidays to be meaningful. I realised that gaining early industry experience was the way to go. Of course, I could have applied for a local placement, but the location of this program drew me to apply for three reasons:

1. It was my chance to explore my personal aspirations of working overseas while I was still young.
2. As an Australian born Shanghainese, I grew up with an immense appreciation of Chinese culture. As I got older, my fascination extended to the rapidly evolving Chinese economy and business sector.
3. I wanted to challenge myself and develop independence by throwing myself into a new cultural, social, professional and political environment.

During my six weeks in Shanghai, I worked at Wicresoft, a subsidiary of Microsoft as a Financial Research and Business Development Intern in the Shanghai Tower (the second tallest building in the world). My work usually consisted of constructing a daily finance, politics or global newsletter that would update the international associates of Gaotime, a leading advisory and financial information provider (similar to Reuters/Bloomberg), constructing comparison reports for NYSE/NASDAQ listed Chinese companies, formulating and presenting opinions on business insights and occasionally helping with event preparation.

I was also able to attend exciting company events such as their Future Leaders Conference where the company’s top 100 employees with prospective leadership qualities gathered for a convention allowing me to meet and hear from many C-suite executives and the company’s AGM events.

From this experience, I have not only gained industry insights in the Financial Research and Business Development sector but also career path direction. I realised that the sector is not for me, but I have been able to hone in on my interests and gain clearer insight into my aspirations.

However, I was able to employ the skills I’ve learned in my degree within the workplace, enabling me to see the true benefit of the skills taught at University in a working environment as well as develop soft skills such as oral and written communication, teamwork and initiative.

Why should you do it? 

The immersion program is unique in that it allows students to not only gain valuable corporate experience but also deeply engage with their host country’s culture and develop skills of intercultural fluency and understanding that is becoming increasingly desired in the workplace.

This comes from seeing the nuances between Australian and International business, cultural experiences, understanding unfamiliar professional practices e.g. 'guan xi' in China and adaptation to social norms.

Another substantial reason to do the program is the tight-knit bunch of like-minded, exceptional friends you emerge with. You’ll form unbreakable bonds with the other students in the program with everyone going through the same first-day anxiety, too many food adventures (Chinese food is so tasty and cheap), cultural shocks among other great highs and lows for six weeks, ultimately gaining a support network for life.

So, if you’re wondering whether you should apply for the program or not, I say 100% go for it! You have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain!