Finally a foot in the door

After a long and fruitless period of trying to garner experience in the UK I stumbled across the idea of internships overseas.

I had a wholly positive experience in China and would definitely recommend it to anyone like myself who was just struggling to get onto that first rung of the career ladder.

The internships provided by MCO were certainly more engaging, enriching and educating than any of the other financial based programs (with a different company) which was operating out of the same accomodation.

The product design consultancy that I worked for was small, but I felt like my opinions and knowledge were respected and taken on board. This certainly alleviated some fears I had before leaving for China that I'd just be doing menial grunt work.

Beijing is a whole different beast of a city compared to what I've experienced before. It was always fun to point out to people there that I had come from a country (Scotland) with a quarter of population of Beijing!

You can muscle by without much of the language, but a little goes a long way. The weekly classes certainly help you get on the horse, but trying to use it with random people as much as possible is definitely the fastest way to learn.
On one of my last nights out travelling in the Huangshan area, I had a very memorable experience where I was being served in a restaurant by two ~8 year old sisters and their amicable mother. They thought my Lonely Planet phrasebook was the greatest text they'd ever laid eyes on, and kept offering to buy it. I probably learned more Mandarin laughing and flicking through that book with them that evening than I had in my last 2 weeks in Beijing just working.

I chose China as my destination for an internship as I set out wanting to get outside of my travel comfort zone. I certainly got that and I think I will definitely return in the future.