Asia Internship Program (AIP)

I have never learned, neither at school nor in my parents education, to deal with such different cultures such as the Buddhist one. Indeed, dealing with colleagues who never dare to say no or don’t speak their mind at all is harder that I’ve imagined.

Basically, I was really delighted that they found a tailor-made placement for me as it’s the hardest part of this kind of international trip. They also arranged all the interviews and helped me to enhance my resume to increase my chances of employment.

Despite their wise advices, I still had to obtain the Visa by myself but it was done within a few working days.

My goal was to get in touch with as many things as possible in a small company as I have an entrepreneurial mindset and I like being adaptable and being able to multi-task.

For example, I asked my supervisor in the company every time I wanted to try something different by saying HOW I believe I can improve the process. I realized that if we think about solutions before and we convince our Manager, there are all chances to change positions and responsibilities as many times as we want and can.

Fortunately, our team was very international. But out of the office, it’s a real barrier indeed when we want to order food or make Thai friends. 95% of them don’t speak a word of English.

I’ve learned some words of Thai for those purposes, but there is still a need to communicate more to local people for me and sadly I don’t think it’s going to happen in a near future.

Riding elephants in Ayuthaya -- I simply cannot imagine that in Paris.

It was really enriching for me in a personal point of view as I’ve traveled a lot during my weekends and free time in very different environments compared to Europe.

Doing an internship abroad wasn’t a part of my studies as I’m already graduated, but professionally I feel it’s a big plus for a future employment to have an experience abroad, especially in an emerging market in this region of the world where companies are more and more likely to invest.

Koh Samui and its incredible beaches, wild spots and Full Moon Party!

Absolutely, it has completely changed my vision of Southeast Asia, which I didn’t see as a so developed, exciting and modern region until I’ve landed in Bangkok.

I feel more mature and ready for the job market since my internship experience, getting on the way more confidence, ideas and connections. Nevertheless, I simply feel that I grew up much faster than in my home country.

I’ve tried to live like locals and to go in less touristic places to get this feeling. However, as long as we don’t live with them it’s hard to know what being Thai everyday means but at least I’ve got a good sample of it.

It’s definitely been a hell of a ride since day one. AIP was the first business I’ve started, and you can imagine I’ve learnt a lot from the experience. I’ve grown so much and have become a completely different person from who I was five years ago.

I think the most useful skills I’ve developed so far would be people skills. It is something that you don’t normally develop in classrooms but would come over time as you interact with more people. Working in AIP allowed me to really network and meet people from around the world – whether it is our partner companies around Asia, universities around the world, and candidates from over 70 nationalities. Everyone came from different background with different cultures, and it always fascinates me how much you can learn from people.

Over the years of working at AIP, I’ve heard so many stories from past students, and most of them are overwhelmingly positive. I can’t pick one because all of them are very special. It gives us such motivation when we hear from our alumni so I’ll share a little of different stories we’ve heard so far.

Many got their dream jobs whether it’s in MNCs, startups, or NGOs. Some started their own startups. Quite a number of people eventually landed jobs in their host companies after their internships and became very close friends with our team. They also become the point of contacts for us, which is perfect as they are able to help guide the new interns through their experiences.

Work apart, there was even a couple who met while doing our program and got married a couple of years later. It’s amazing to see how many memories we build for our interns and to see that most of them were able to get a lot more out of the experience than what they’ve set out to achieve before arriving in each of our destinations.

I’ve also wanted to experience a day in a life of being an intern in all of our programs but if I had to pick just one, it would definitely be Japan. My mother was born and raised in Tokyo, so growing up, I was exposed to the Japanese culture to quite an extent.

I love almost every bit of it whether it is the food, tradition, language, and other little things. I’ve also visited Japan a few times when I was young and later when we started to offer Japan as a destination. However, I never got the chance to stay in Japan long enough to be able to really immerse myself into the culture and community. This will also be a perfect opportunity to improve my Japanese, which I always try to pick up a little whenever I can.

I believe we connect with our interns more than any other programs out there. Our team really tries to connect with our interns on a personal level, and I think we can see the proof in the reviews that we received from our alumni.

From the start of the process during the initial interviews, we dig down on our applicants’ interests and career goals to find out how we can secure the best internships for them. When they are on ground, we help them connect with other interns and host events so they are not alone in a new country.

We understand that their experience outside of the internship is as important as their internship itself. It’s always very rewarding when our interns tell us how meaningful their internships were and how much their experience abroad will play major role in their future development. I’m proud of our team every single day because of this.

Absolutely, it is our team. We have such an awesome team that everyone works so well together. It took a while to fine-tune the way we work with one another and to have the high level of morale in the team that we have today.

Our team is very multicultural consisting of people from all around the world, and we love the diversity that we have in the office. I can see that this type of environment is not for everyone. You have to be very open-minded, service-orientated, and organized to be working at AIP. We’ve had many people come and go because we demand a high level of dedication, and for many people, it can be too much.

Most of our team members started with us as interns and some had quite a few internship experiences so they fully understand the struggle and issues our program participants go through in all the stages and can help them accordingly.

I couldn’t ask for a better team to be working with. They are THE reason why we’ve been able to grow so rapidly in such a short time and still maintain a high customer service level.