Most students usually spend their summer holiday having fun but I chose to do something different this summer. To get better prepared for the competitive workplace, I joined the Business Practice Internship programme offered by the Faculty of Business, to work as a marketing assistant in a fire and security company from June to August.

Whenever people ask about my internship life, I would definitely say “I had a good time”. With an enthusiastic passion for the marketing industry, I had a clear goal during my internship at Chubb Hong Kong Limited — to learn as much as I could from the real business world.

My major duty at Chubb was to keep track of the salesmen’s progress on the sales of fire and security products in significant projects, such as the Venetian Macau project. This was a valuable opportunity for me to gain a better understanding of real business transactions, including designing sales kits, searching for business contacts, approaching the right persons and recording data until the end of quotation or orders. This experience was something that could not be learnt from textbooks.

I had not had any previous relevant working experience, so at the beginning of the internship I found it was not easy to apply my knowledge to the real business environment. In order to learn from other colleagues, I regarded myself as a trainee and asked for guidance using the effective communication skills I learnt at the University. Not only did my marketing knowledge improve but my communication skills have also been enhanced.

The work culture at Chubb also impressed me. Chubb is a structured foreign company that encourages its employees, regardless of their rank, to freely express their views and ideas. Even as an intern in the company, I shared my own ideas with my supervisor and the general manager on how to improve the motivation of the sales group.

Although my proposed incentive scheme was not applied by the management immediately, this valuable experience encouraged me to think and express myself more in future. The more I think and express, the more I could contribute to my company. I believe that with constructive contributions to a company, my dream of becoming a marketing director will come true very soon.

Last but not least, I have to thank the programme management team in the Faculty of Business, which gave me a precious learning chance over the summer. I was also honoured to receive the “BBA Business Practice Internship Scholarship”, a new scholarship awarded to students who have outstanding performance in the internship programme. The scholarship was definitely recognition of my professional performance. I very much hope that the scholarship scheme can be continued to encourage more students to participate in and benefit from the internship programme.