THE WORST INTERNSHIP I HAVE EVER DONE

Overall, I loved my experience in Shanghai as a city, it was beautiful, rich in culture and the other interns were so lovely and friendly. However, I wish I had good things to say about Startup China. Although I loved Shanghai, I left my internship feeling totally scammed and definitely wasted my money opting for such an unprofessional company.

After graduating from reading Law at a top 30 UK uni, I wanted to improve my CV by working in a Law firm in China. I found Startup China online and was sold when they promised high quality paid internships matching your skills in your preferred area. After a little research I applied for the 1 month program and was called for an interview. The interview was very simple, just a few questions to get to know me and what I expected from my internship. I told startup china I wanted to gain new skills by working in china and working on cases and getting to know the customs with chinese clients. When asked about my experience the interviewer was very impressed with my previous legal experience, I had done legal internships in two prestigious companies and had represented my own clients in a legal aid clinic and took the cases to court (and WON WOOHOO), on top of this I had other experience and had received an excellent grade on my degree. They seemed to understand perfectly what I wanted and sent me a confirmation e-mail on what I wanted to do.

I was impressed until that point. It came to two weeks before the date I had planned my departure, and still I had no internship organised for me, there were no updates on their search for an internship for me and I had paid my fees for the programme. I still needed to get my visa, so this was worrying for me. Startup China finally send me a firm that was interested in taking me on, the firm website presented this firm as big, prestegious and everyone working in the firm was fluent in English. I thought this was perfect so I told SC that I would be happy to work in the firm. Due to SCs lateness in finding me a firm, I had to pay extra to get my Visa in time for my flight.

My accommodation was nice however it was filthy but I will leave you to check that on tripadvisor.

Firstly DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THE WHOLE PAID INTERNSHIP RUBBISH. You get paid like 3 pounds a day. So its basically lunch and travel.

My first day of my internship, I walked through the door and immediately knew I was going to dislike it. The firm was a small room with a few desks and only 4 people. My supervisor came out to greet me and gave me the wrong business card so I was calling him Mr Wong the whole day instead of his real name... I should have known from that point that this internship was not going to be good. He could not speak English well, in fact only a couple of people could speak a bit of English, but not enough to give me detailed tasks. My first task was a tax research note for a French client regarding taxes, I did this within a few hours and then my supervisor told me it was wrong and I needed to do a memorandum. I edited the work as a memorandum and presented this, it was then my supervisor realised that he had meant to tell me to write a letter. After my first day, I immediately sent an e-mail to SC telling them this internship will not be accommodating to what I wanted. I sent them a list of firms to contact, which they never did. I told them I had wasted a whole day of my internship correcting work because my supervisor didn't know how to tell me to do it in English. It was like this for the whole month, and it became clear to me that either these tasks were fictitious or my supervisor had no idea how to give me tasks. As for the other staff (there would only be about 3-5 people in the room on a daily basis) they would play computer games, nap and chat online most of the day and when they did work none of them needed help with any cases, so I met no clients and my tasks consisted of correcting the poor english in documents and making powerpoints. 100% of what I did on that internship could have been done from the comfort of my bedroom in London and I did not need to spend thousands to do it in China.

I was lucky enough to be living with another intern who was working in a prestigious international law firm. She told her supervisor about my situation and he was hay to help. SC told me I could have an interview with the firm, so I did but because I was only in China for a month, they could only offer me to come back to china in July and do a 1 month internship with them then. I was thrilled at the opportunity however my problematic internship still remained. After my interview, a representative from SC told me they felt sorry for me and would give me a discount if it was up to them. I told SC I was interested in doing the internship in July and would feel compensated if SC would provide me the package free of charge in July to give me the internship I was originally promised or at least cover my accommodation. They refused and left me to do my internship, knowing I was unhappy and learning nothing in my firm, working with people who didn't understand anything I was saying.

I was told to e-mail Eric the head of the program and I spent time listing out all my reasons as to why my internship was disappointing and why I felt scammed. It was obvious SC did not research my firm and just placed me in the first firm they could find. They did not understand my skills and probably didn't even read my CV, as the tasks I was given were not challenging or educating in any way and when I asked for more challenging work I was told to write powerpoint presentations on topics I could have just learnt on google at home. There was no hope. I received no reply. They couldn't even take the time to reply to my email apologising or offering some sort of partial refund. They did not appreciate the money they stole from me was my savings which I worked hard for.

I now have to go back to Shanghai and work in the international firm that offered me an internship, which I only got through my friend who was also doing a 1 month internhship. Spending more money for the skills and experience I should have gained through SC as promised.

It was by far the worst internship I had ever done and I had a better experience in my first internship as a first year law student than this internship and SC turned a blind eye as soon as they got my money in their pockets.