My Gap Year with China Internship Placements - The Journey towards Self Discovery

I am just turned 18 and did not know what to do with my life in the future especially regarding my career decisions. I was confused between picking a career of one of my parents. Probably I like the way they are busy as Business Executives and their influences are felt in society. I was at a point in time wanting to be a pilot and another time, nurturing a career which qualifies me as a CEO someday. My mother is a pilot and Daddy is a CEO. At age 15, I was considering something else like a doctor. I was then entirely confused.
My mission in China was for a fulfilling Gap Year which will help me clarify what my passions are by experimenting with various fields of work. So I chose CIP as the Platform on which I will come to China. I noticed CIP is more than an Agency because they have a solid platform with linkages to various players like Government Agencies etc. At least a sign of credibility. I wanted some mentoring and coaching as well as a professional career guidance and advice. So I did what I was supposed to
I was nervous but upon arriving in China, I felt at home. I joined a 13 month gap year program in China. It was comprised of Chinese Language, Internship, Travel and other immersion elements.
Upon arrival, I was allocated to a career expert who took me for dinner and coffee segments once every week to discuss my career aspirations. She was so helpful in psyching me up with the right mentality. As a mother, she was good at asking the right questions to unravel my passion.
I thereafter started with cultural immersion and language classes for 3 months. I took intensive Chinese language lessons, Chinese History classes and Travel itineraries. After 3 months, I could afford basic conversation which I was so much pleased with. This pushed my quest to learn more Chinese.
I started with an internship with Copal Amba; a rating organization belonging to Moody’s Global network. I did a Job shadowing as an assistant to one of the Associate members for 3 months to learn the life of a Business Executive. I then proceed for a 2 months internship with an International Law firm. Here, my roles basically was a paralegal. It was awesome going to meetings where serious cases of Copyright infringements were discussed and possible implications for Internationalization of firms. Getting into China as a business requires so much legal research apart from the Market Entry Strategies. I was then moved to Shanghai for 5 months with Lehman Brown an accounting and Finance firm upon recommendation of my career adviser.
My mission in China led to self-discovery and career fine tuning. I finally settled on Investment Banking and Finance as my future career pursuit and I resolute about this. I was given the opportunity to experiment what I want and it yielded so much results. I paid official visits to engineering companies and also spoke with experts in various fields. I got to know so much about opportunities and possible businesses chances are in china from IT to consultancy etc. From consultancy aspect, there is still so much opportunities for foreign expertise to help local Chinese organizations to maximize their efficiency and grow.
With the kind of satisfaction and value CIP is churning, I have no doubt they are one of the best. I think this is the future of Study and Internship abroad. I noticed the components of my services were not standard but customized which caused some few delays but the output was awesome.
But it was more awesome when my parents paid a surprised visit to me 3 weeks to my departure. It was arranged to surprise me and I indeed was. I will recommend this program to anyone!