Thoughts On My First Internship

Before jumping into junior year, I decided to sign up for a 2-month apprenticeship with salary in a company called Mcg management consulting. Even though it is onerous to study and work full-time simultaneously, this has got to be one of the best opportunities I've ever received. Here is my genuine thought after 3 weeks into the internship. I will brief through the experience then explain what makes the company an idealistic place to kick off an internship if your future goal is to land a business-related career.

Chances are that one would get inundated with the heavy workload and the unfamiliar environment on the first few days. However, the environment here is surprisingly gregarious and comfortable. It is a more to throw parties to welcome new members into the company, which I found really sweet. There are a couple of work ethics you must abide by and some are not apprised nor written down but you'd pick up along the way. The workload, on the other hand, didn’t feel as easy. Most of the time it would involve a lot of translation and less often, writing executive summaries, resolving problems on reports, looking for information, etc. I work from 08:15 to 05:30 and have an hour break, which is quite typical for a 9 to 5 job. Basically, you are required to glue your bottom onto the chair for 8 hours glowering at the computer screen while racking your poor brain. Also, lunch is not provided, thus you have no choice except either to prepare your own or order online.

As a neophyte fledgling in the professional job market, I have to admit I couldn’t have known better. I even proudly pat myself on the shoulder believing I've done a good job. Only until recently did I notice how most of my work is in need of a lot retouches or worse, an entire redo. Sometimes I'm guided by words of mouth to get it fixed by myself and some other times, my mentors would show me how to. They are incredibly professional and efficient. It seems as if I precipitate more burdens than contributing values for the company. It's a bit disappointing, yet truly eye-opening to realize how little school alone can offer and how unprepared I am (Egoistic level -10.000). Sure, it touches here and there but just not sufficient to produce a desirable result in a timely manner. That's why the first-hand experience is of critical importance. If all you do is study and study for 4 years straight, you are denuding yourself of opportunities to not only address your deficiencies to increase felicitousness for the professional labor market but also bring existing theoretical knowledge into practical sense.

The following is a part of my executive summary after being reviewed:

One of the valuable lessons that I adopt is the fact that business documents are not literature! Businesses appreciate brevity, precision, sufficiency and most definitely, coherence (the quality of logical and consistent) in writing as well as designing. As you can observe from the attached image, inconsequential phrases and grandiloquent or ambiguous words are superseded with laconic sentences which serve the one and only purpose of delivering information. It has always been my habit to cram as many upper-level words as possible. While the habit is not necessarily ugly, it may backstab in particular circumstances such as under time restriction. When, how and where terminologies being used in abbreviations is never to be turned a blind eye toward. For example, the full name must go hand-in-hand with its abbreviation form in brackets the first time it appears in the report. Last but not least, each word included in the text needs to be meticulously evaluated and makes sense by itself. Phrases like "during the year" is worthless unless readers are informed previously of the exact year. "the annual rise" falls in the same category, since we don't know which element of automotive is being mentioned. These advice may sound obvious, however, having to read, filter out key information from 50 to 70 pages to subsequently mash them in only 1 to 2 pages is a different kettle of fish. Other than executive summaries, I also learn to design graphs, charts, etc on Excel, translate in the right way and even adopt certain professional demeanor.

Mcg is, without doubt, not the only company in Vietnam where you can obtain such marketable knowledge and skills. In fact, I was only enthralled to apply due to the fancy-looking website but as time goes on, I become more and more convinced that I made a really wise choice. Rarely do I run out of new and challenging tasks to cope with. Despite being snowed under, people would still make effort to spare time answering questions and giving me constructive advice. Let's not forget to mention a second time how congenial the environment is. So, yeah, as long as you play the rules and the rules are simple: Be productive - Be polite - No jeans, you are guaranteed to have an enjoyable time at Mcg and achieve your professional aim! The journey may or may not have come to an end, but for all certainty it has gone down as a formidable one that I would love to reminisce about whenever and wherever I go. 🌟🌟🌟