Shanghai Internship Program with CRCC Asia

If you’re looking for an opportunity to pack up and leave to live and work somewhere else, the CRCC program is a great choice. Shanghai is a great location if you’re looking for the familiarities of home as well as authentic Chinese food and people. Living and working in China for an extended period of time can be very hard to organise yourself, so having CRCC to guide and navigate the process really helped. My only criticism of the program is that there is very little involvement from the intern in where you work (despite the industry selection).

Great opportunity to gain working experience in Asia. The business seminars really help and the mandarin lessons are a plus! This internship is truly what you make of it, the more effort and enthusiasm you put in your work, the more productive you feel. Please don't forget to travel, since you travelled all the way to China! My recommendations are Huangshan for hiking and Hangzhou if you go there make sure you visit Longjin Village. This village has great tea and beautiful sceneries. Best places!

Initially, I applied to the CRCC internship scheme as I wanted to improve my employability. Graduate jobs in the UK can be so competitive and so I was looking to gain unique experience abroad that would help my CV stand out amongst the rest; demonstrating global networks is particularly important in today’s globalised world. I thought that an internship would be a really good opportunity to get a flavour for the media industry, as well as gain valuable hands-on experience, better preparing me for what to expect for media-related roles back in London. I would say that the internship met and exceeded my expectations in this respect.

Whilst working for Shanghai Family magazine, I was kept extremely busy by my supervisor almost every day. My tasks involved editing content on Adobe InCopy to cut down on words and check that grammar, spelling and information was correct, as well as improving the articles for them to read well. I also wrote my own content for both the company’s WeChat subscription page and the cover story of the magazine. I found it super rewarding to see my name printed in a magazine as ‘Assistant Editor’! Of course, there were some challenges at times, such as juggling my own deadlines, being thrown numerous different tasks that were to be done quickly and efficiently, but I found that I thrived more from being busy at work than when work was a bit slow. I learnt to write to a standard I was proud of in much shorter time frames. I attended events, represented the magazine and mingled with the expat community in Shanghai. However, one regret is not integrating more with my Chinese colleagues, which perhaps would have aided a more authentic China experience.

Nonetheless, I found living in China to be an exciting challenge. The language was way more of an obstacle than I imagined it would be (which, in hindsight, was perhaps a bit naive of me), but luckily, my supervisor was native British and so the language barrier was not too apparent in the workplace, and more when it came to weekend trips away. Difficulties such as VPNs and menus entirely in Chinese were still apparent despite Shanghai being more cosmopolitan and ‘Western’ in comparison to the rest of China. I liked that traditional Chinese culture was easy to find, even just in the local park on my walk to work every morning.

I really gained a lot from the experience in China. I learnt that I am pretty resilient person, and I proved to myself that I am capable of thriving, professionally and personally, whilst being completely out of my comfort zone. I was genuinely surprised at just how strong my support network was whilst I was in Shanghai. I feel as though made friends for life through the CRCC scheme and I am extremely grateful for the experience.

China is an incredibly vast country, with such a distinct culture, I feel like I barely scratched the surface - 7 weeks is such a short amount of time! Although I have no immediate plans to return as of yet, I am sure that I will return to China in the future. Going forward, I feel more confident to seek work both abroad and within the media industry.

Great program. Would definitely recommend. Development so much personally and professional, and got to learn so much about the Chinese culture. Very happy with the accommodation provided, my host company and support given by the Shanghai team will out in China.
Some achievements and highlights include seeing pandas for the first time, as they are indanged and so rare to see, learning Mandarin as I've always wanted to learn the language, experiencing Shanghai's TeamLab, being able to take part in the calligraphy and dumplings making classes, and making friendships that will last a lifetime. A number or things I did while undertaking the internship included; transcribing documents and websites from automated Chinese to English to correct English, watching over interviews and pick out the best parts, help editing interviews , helping write blogs, leaflets and updating the companies website, and helping organise events. I was very happy with my placement, and was so glad I got to work along side a very supportive team. Cant thank the British Council and CRCC enough for giving me this opportunity to take part in such a life changing program.

The CRCC internship was an amazing experience for anyone looking to stand out from the crowd when applying for jobs in the future, or wanting an international experience to learn about the working culture in China. The program is well organised so that you are matched with a host company that fits your personal profile and career aspirations. The CRCC team offer you support throughout the entire process, so you never feel alone. The accommodation upon arrival in Shanghai was amazing and well equipped with everything you need. Overall, I had an amazing opportunity whereby I learned so much more about myself and China and made some lifelong friends along the way. I now feel that the program has set me up to apply for jobs on an international scale.

I knew I wanted to work in China this summer because I wanted to develop my Mandarin skills but at the same time I wanted to gain work experience which is why when I found out about CRCC Asia I applied straight away. I ended up working at Blockshine - a blockchain-based solutions provider - and had such an amazing experience. Although I was placed in the marketing department, my supervisor was really flexible in letting me work with their Legal Counsel as well. On one hand, I did a lot of market and competitor research and on the other hand, I had the opportunity to conduct research relating to the regulation /taxation laws of digital assets in several jurisdictions. I also spent some time working at Blockchain Centre which is their sister branch focusing specifically on raising awareness of this new technology while acting as an incubator. I was quite keen on learning more about blockchain since it is just slowly being adopted by so many companies and disrupting a range of traditional business sectors; and the best way to learn about it is to be directly involved in the heart of it. On top of this, I got to attend a lot of blockchain-related events to not only learn about the technology but also network with people in the sector!

The social aspect was amazing as well. I made some incredible friends and got to explore Shanghai with them. Every weekend we did something different - I feel like I know the city quite well now even though I was only there for a month. We really made the most out of our time there. Honestly coming into this internship I didn't really consider the social aspect because I was so focused on just working and improving my mandarin but I can easily say that the people made this trip 1000000x better.

To be honest, as I am fluent in Mandarin I have not found living in China as challenging as some others perhaps. I really enjoyed my internship, as it was a very relaxed environment and I got along very well with my colleagues. Overall it was a very positive experience for me. I am very surprised and amazed by how well the cashless payment system and everyday convenience in China has developed. In general it has been extremely convenient to live there (given you have a bank account), I did not have to carry around any cash, I only needed my phone. If my phone was running out of battery I could simply borrow a charger from a box with multiple chargers for loan 24/7, same goes for umbrellas, items people usually tend to forget. You can rent bikes everywhere scanning a QR-code on the bike to access them, car hiring is cashless as well, even the smallest business has QR-payment, even very senior people know how to use modern technology. In my opinion, China might not be the country with the most original ideas, but what they are really good at is copying ideas from others and making bigger and better.
It was a truly amazing experience!!

In October 2018 I began a 2-month internship programme in Shanghai with CRCC Asia. Having just returned from China, I am now looking forward to beginning an internship in January 2019 with a London-based organisation.

My host company in Shanghai was a non-governmental organisation (NGO) which specialises in providing legal advice and expertise to other NGOs, both domestic and international. During the internship, my primary role was conducting research across several different topic areas, including foreign NGO law, social enterprise regulations, disability rights and animal welfare protections. In particular, I carried out research on laws in the UK and US in order to inform comparative legal studies between China and other countries. The internship significantly developed my legal research skills, and also provided me with experience of conducting research in a professional environment. As a result of this experience, I have decided that legal research is an area that I want to work in in the future.

During the internship, I also liaised between my host company and their partner organisations in the UK. I became particularly interested in the work of one London-based partner, A4ID, and have since secured an internship position with this organisation as a result of my experience working with them through my host company. The internship in China has therefore directly helped me reach the next step in my career by providing me with invaluable networking opportunities. My next internship will also involve legal research and I am looking forward to bringing the research skills I learnt during my internship in Shanghai to my new position, and developing these even further.

One particularly memorable part of my internship was a community law event which I attended with a colleague. The purpose of the event was to inform members of the community about the work of the local people’s court. I was interviewed by a local news channel about my thoughts on the event. The interview was broadcast as part of the event’s coverage on the local news channel and their website. Appearing on a Chinese news channel was certainly something I didn’t expect during my internship, but it was an interesting and memorable experience!

I would certainly recommend the CRCC Asia internship programme in Shanghai to graduates looking to broaden their international experience. I have found the internship to be a huge talking point in interviews, and potential employers have been genuinely interested to hear about my experience of working in China. For me, it has been critical in progressing my career and ensuring I reach the next step in pursuit of my professional goals.