My Great Gap Year in China

I’d say my gap year was definitely a great experience. With the assistance of Go Abroad China, I started interning in the CRI (China Radio International) from last April. The company I worked for was great, the work I did was fun, and all of my co-workers were friendly. I worked closely with the manager and a number of other colleagues doing mostly interviewing, events and social media-type work. One particular event that I was involved in required me to host a mini-show where I have to get everyone to dance, sing and be merry in a rural community just an hour away from Beijing where tourism is growing. I also worked to build the company's social media presence across a variety of social media platforms. Most of my work was in English but my knowledge of Chinese helped me to do more - like hosting the show for example. My Chinese was not perfect as I never lived in China but it definitely improved through daily use. There were a couple of other interns from other countries I made friends with. I would say stress a lot of the following for strengthening your intern application:
- international experience and mindset, and being open-minded in general
- willingness to learn
- ability to think quickly and react positively to situations (a lot of stuff I had to do was learned on the spot)
- being able to work individually and in the team