Learn "Made in China" Internship

Position and Tasks, Relevance to the studies

My internship in Shanghai was a great opportunity as an outsourcing and trading intern for a small specialized textile and fashion design company I had a number of meaningful tasks.  Such as going to textile fairs and meeting potential clients as well as going to networking events.  This helped me a lot to understand the company’s aims and objectives more clearly. I was also involved in running new fashion projects such as one that the company is working for the Shanghai Expo 2010 project. My internship assignments were not relevant to my academic course work as I studied Public Relations at university.  However, I do have previous experience in the fashion textile industry as my father owns a textile company back in Spain I felt like the internship was relevant to my previous knowledge and skills.  It also helped me to improve my knowledge of the textile industry as a whole, as I learned about the Chinese Textile Market as I was only aware of the Spanish textile industry previously. As the company is a fairly small company I was always around my supervisor, who is also the owner of the company which was great as I felt I learned much more this way as I could ask her questions all the time.  This made me feel like I was at home and I have a really good friendship with my boss. In addition, this is one of the biggest advantages I would say about doing an internship in a small business  as everyone helps each other and everyone gets stuck in with the same project and all the employees are always working together with our boss which is always good as we get straight feedback on everything and on job training all the time.

Main Learning Points

During my 5 month long internship I learnt a number of new skills and knowledge. For instance, I learnt how the textile sector for children’s wear operates in China, how to outsource and trade in China for foreign clients and companies.  I found this internship really useful as due to the company being such a small company I got trained on all aspects of the job from researching for potential clients to taking the order and working on fashion projects. Whilst working in the company I actually learnt a lot of positive things about myself such as that I am a very practical person which is ideal in a job like this.  I have also found out how much of a hard worker I can be if I enjoy the job like I have enjoyed this one I will put 110% on every task. Due to all my hard work as an intern I have received and offer and I have accepted as I learned and experienced so much in only 5 months as an internship in the company that I feel I will carry on improving if I continue to work there.  I accepted the job as I liked the fact that from day one my supervisor gave me so many responsibilities and had faith in my potential which helped me. I would definitely recommend it to other interns who want to work in a very close team in a small company with many responsibilities.  For me this internship was a perfect match for me as the type of company I wanted to work for, it very much depends on what type of organization you personally want to work for. The company is such a small business that it is necessary to work together to get projects done, I can say that I always had interactions with everyone in the business.

Food, Transportation and Visa

The area where the company’s office is located is mostly all local Shanghainese people so all the restaurants are naturally local Shanghainese dishes such as baozis, noodles.   All the restaurants near by offer different local dishes all at less than 20 RMB which makes eating out everyday as cheap and fun as there is plenty of choice to choose from.  However, there are no western food chains around that neighbourhood but if I am in the mood for Western food, I just simply call them and they deliver it to my office, as most western restaurants or cafes do offer delivery services in Shanghai. I take the public bus every day to work and from work back home as it is extremely cheap and a reliable source of public transport in Shanghai.  It is only 2 RMB per bus route and it normally only takes me around 20 minutes to get to work in the morning and an hour to get back in the evenings due to the local traffic. I think it really depends on what sort of person you are as I am not good at saving my money and can’t get enough of the shops in Shanghai.  But when it comes to transportation in Shanghai it is reasonably cheap so I spend about 150 RMB a month on transportation as during the weekends I like to go shopping and I usually take a taxi or the metro.   Food can be extremely cheap over here or fairly expensive, it really depends on whether you eat in local Chinese restaurants or chooses well known Western restaurants that are mostly more upscale with their price range.  I like to have a bit of a mixture and take advantage of the fact that I can have best of both worlds.  I usually have Chinese food during the week and then treat myself on the weekends, so I would say I probably spend about 1, 400 RMB a month on food.  But if you are on a budget you could easily survive of 600 RMB a month. My accommodation costs 3,000 RMB a month which is pretty much the average price you pay in Shanghai for e decent size apartment in a nice area.

Monica (25), Spanish

Local Chinese Company Internship | Fortune 500 Company Internship