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| Summer 2006, WIE training as Accounting Technician in Hong Kong |
| Summer 2007, WIE training in Helsinki University of Technology, Finland (IAESTE internship) |
| Present, Project Executive, Jardine OneSolution (HK) Ltd |
SIU Aaron || August 2008 Graduated with BEng (Hons) Industrial & Systems Engineering
Siu Aaron, a graduate from Industrial and Systems Engineering, is now enjoying his challenging job as a specialist in Enterprise Resources Planning system at Jardine OneSolution (HK) Ltd. To help himself identify his career interest, through WIE training, he seized the opportunties to explore jobs in different industries when he was at university.
Aaron experienced several internships in different industries. He thinks it is a good way to plan one’s career. “Unless you’ve personally experienced the job and worked in the industry, you wouldn’t know what interests you most,” he says. “After the first summer WIE experience, I found that I was not interested in developing my career in accounting, though I am good at working with numbers,” Aaron says.
In his second year at university, Aaron was nominated by his Faculty to join an internship in Finland. He thinks the overseas exposure helped him win his first job. “Nowadays, many employers are looking for employees with a strong global outlook. I noticed that all the seven candidates who proceeded to the final round of JOS’ recruitment process possessed overseas experience gained from internship or academic exchange activities,” Aaron recalls.
Worldwide encounter
 During the eight-week internship in Finland, Aaron made friends with people from nearly 20 different countries, such as the UK, Germany, Ireland, Austria, Hungary and Czech Republic. He became more familiar with the characteristics and culture of people from different nations through communication and observation. He also witnessed how much beer a German could drink!
“My global sense and awareness was greatly enhanced and I became more mature,” he says. “When I shared my overseas experiences with interviewers during my job search, most of them appreciated my overseas exposure, my adaptability as well as interpersonal effectiveness,” Aaron says.
Perseverance trail
“While you may possess different skills and experiences, you also need to package yourself and present your best-self in front of potential employers,” Aaron adds. To get his first job offer, he went through a stringent seven-round recruitment process which included an online aptitude test, written test, group discussion, individual presentation, management task exercise, individual and board interviews.
“Practice makes perfect. Most interviewers tend to ask similar questions for which you should prepare in advance,” says Aaron, who was one of the four candidates made an offer by the company.
He thinks international exposure provided by overseas internships would help students stand out during job hunting. “Employers look for a good balance between academic achievements and learning from other co-curricular activities. Good academic results need to be complemented by practical experience and exposure to the outside world,” Aaron comments.
VN:F [1.7.5_995] Rating: 4.0/5 (10 votes cast)
CHAN Mei-ni Minnie || BEng (Hons) Product Engineering with Marketing || Christoph Miethke GmbH & Co. KG, Germany
 The two months in Germany was a tough test for Chan Mei-ni Minnie. Through the IAESTE arrangement, Minnie worked at a medical technology company in Potsdam, a city southeast of Berlin.
“Being alone in a foreign country, you have to try every possible means to tackle all the challenges,” she says. “This trip has strengthened my adaptability and broadened my horizons. It has been a fruitful journey for me.”
Minnie was assigned to the Marketing Department of the company which develops, produces and distributes neurosurgical products for the treatment of hydrocephalus, and was required to translate the company’s English webpage into Chinese to help the company enter the Chinese market. Through detailed review of the company webpage, which provides information about the pathology of hydrocephalus and the mechanism of the treatment products, and handling of the translation work, Minnie found that not only her language proficiency was enhanced, but her knowledge of product engineering design was also broadened. Minnie considered it a big achievement that she finished the translation work and had the translated text uploaded to the webpage before her departure.
Another task given to Minnie was to design an adjustment instrument for medical purposes for the Research & Development Department and to illustrate it with the computer-aided design software, Solidworks. Minnie felt glad that she had learnt to use Solidworks at university and had obtained sufficient experience in using the software from previous academic projects. However, she had to overcome the challenge of finishing the job in one week.
“The office closes at around six o’clock every day. To meet the deadline, I therefore had to work overtime by using my own laptop. Fortunately, I was able to finish the task on time,” Minnie says happily.
Travels with strangers 
 Other than work, Minnie had some unforgettable travelling experiences in Germany by joining the Munich Weekend organised by the IAESTE Munich Local Committee. As the Potsdam Local Committee members were busy preparing for their examinations, Minnie had to arrange the transportation by herself.
Since it would be too expensive to travel by train which costs over 100 Euros for a single ride, she got a pointer from her local friend and tried to save her costs through “car sharing”. She then searched for a car owner who had the same departure schedule, hoping to get a ride from Berlin to Munich by paying her share of gas costs to the car owner.
“I was very lucky to find two seats for my friend and myself. We only had to pay 40 Euro per person. Compared to the train ride, it was a very good price,” Minnie says.
VN:F [1.7.5_995] Rating: 3.4/5 (7 votes cast)
LAU Yin-mei Joyce || BSc (Hons) Enterprise Information Systems || SVOX AG, Switzerland
 Lau Yin-mei Joyce went beyond her limitations when she interned at SVOX, a global supplier of embedded speech recognition, speech output and speech dialog solutions for the automatic and mobile industries in Switzerland for three months.
As a native Chinese speaker, the computing undergraduate was assigned to optimise embedded speech solutions in Mandarin and Cantonese so as to meet customers’ technical requirements and market needs.
“I participated in tuning the sound phrase in Mandarin and Cantonese for a Global Positioning System (GPS). It provided a valuable opportunity for me to learn the software of tuning sound waves,” says Joyce.
She was also assigned to write a programme for departmental usage. “It wasn’t easy for me to write a programme with a specified programming language which I was unfamiliar with. I utilised my knowledge acquired through my Enterprise Information Systems study to solve all the problems step by step. I was glad to learn something new through different hands-on experience,” Joyce says.
Surmounting the language barrier
Apart from challenges encountered at work, the language barrier was another obstacle for Joyce. “To be honest, I was not that confident with my spoken English before going to Switzerland. I encouraged myself to communicate with foreigners,” she says. “If I took a passive role, I would have lost the chance to improve my spoken English and to know more about other cultures.”
 Through interactions with her colleagues from different cultural backgrounds, Joyce experienced various cultures such as Spanish and Turkish. She still keeps in touch with her Swiss colleagues after returning to Hong Kong.
When Joyce travelled alone in Zurich, she met a German girl on the way and experienced an in-depth intercultural exchange. They toured around the city and visited different attractions together, turning from complete strangers to travel companions. Joyce introduced the Chinese culture to the German girl and taught her some simple Chinese, also, she got to know more about the German culture.
Being sociable and genuine by nature, Joyce made lots of friends and spent a wonderful time in Switzerland. “To celebrate Christmas, our company held a party. We then went to see an ice hockey game and enjoyed cheese fondue in a restaurant. It was my very first time to watch an ice hockey game and have such a delicious cheese fondue,” says Joyce.
Now back in Hong Kong, Joyce continues to work as a part-time staff member for the company, which provides a valuable opportunity for her to further develop her computing skills.
VN:F [1.7.5_995] Rating: 3.6/5 (11 votes cast)
AU Chak-fu George || BEng (Hons) Industrial and Systems Engineering || Construcciones Mecanicas Vela S. L., Spain
 Offered an internship in an original equipment manufacturer in Spain, Au Chak-fu George encountered language barriers in the workplace, but he found a way to overcome the obstacles. The Industrial and Systems Engineering student worked at Construcciones Mecanicas Vela (CMV), a small-sized company providing customers user-friendly manufacturing machines.
In the office, since all the computers operate in Spanish while people communicate mostly in Catalan and Spanish, George felt intimidated under the strange environment at the very beginning.
He realised without knowing any Spainish or Catalan, the weeks ahead in the company would be a big challenge. To achieve effective communication, he communicated with his colleagues through active listening, writing and body language. “Besides, Google translator was a great help to me. With a simple click, I could find the meaning of words,” George adds.
Despite having only five members, the company operates smoothly and successfully.
George experienced the beauty of a small office and quickly fitted in with the team. He worked closely with all team members and was assigned to several important tasks.
“Before the internship, I had no real-life working experience. Thus, it was challenging for me to accomplish all the given tasks on time before the deadlines. I understand time management would be very important and therefore had set a clear work schedule for myself,” George says.
Tackle problems step by step
One of the challenging tasks allocated to George was to use the software, Solidworks, to make drawings for a machine and work out the final assembly. Unfamiliar with the software, George came across codes he did not know which made the assignment hard to handle.
“I spent too much time on guessing and trying. It was impossible to carry on working without knowing the codes. I therefore found a small but useful library in the neighbourhood and searched for information about the codes. Having found out the meaning of the codes, I carried on with my work and had the drawings finished smoothly and on time,” George says.
The on-the-job training has strengthened his professional knowledge and equipped him with new skills. “All the challenges that I confronted during the internship have enriched my experience and trained me to be an independent problem-solver,” George says. There are different hurdles in life and career. George has demonstrated how take on the hurdles positively instead of evading them.
VN:F [1.7.5_995] Rating: 4.3/5 (8 votes cast)
LEE Hoi-ying Fion || BSc (Hons) Engineering Physics || St. Jude Medical AB, Sweden
 Employees in Europe might give people an impression that they are somewhat laid-back at work. However, when Lee Hoi-ying Fion worked in Sweden, in front of her was a batch of devoted and hardworking people who offered her a pleasant and inspirational working experience.
“They all worked as a team with a high morale. Also, my colleagues were all very open-minded. They were happy to accept different ideas and opinions from others. It was very rewarding to work with them,” Fion says.
The Engineering Physics student commenced her internship in Sweden at St. Jude Medical AB, a US-based medical device company famous for making pacemakers. Working under the development department, Fion was assigned to test the impedances of a pacemaker, make a register manual using Excel, complete a progress sheet and conduct measurements on IC chips.
With the knowledge and skills she had gained through training back in PolyU, Fion handled all her tasks independently and efficiently. She also tackled different obstacles when using apparatus during experiments and tests.
Nonetheless, new difficulties always occur at work. “I needed to use the software, Matlab, to generate some graphs from the data obtained. Matlab was something completely new to me and I had to teach myself some programming skills and search the internet for solutions,” she says. “In the end, the most effective solution was to seek help from my colleagues who shared a lot of their experience with me.”
The meaning of breather
The Swedish are coffee lovers and would treat themselves to a cup of coffee amidst their busy day. “My colleagues in Sweden enjoyed two coffee breaks, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. During the break, we put our work behind us and just chatted. The coffee break was very refreshing and refuelled us,” Fion says.
Through interacting with her co-workers in Sweden, Fion has recognised the importance of having passion for work and the necessity to take a break at appropriate times. “Exposing to a different working culture has benefited me greatly. Such experience has catalyzed my growth,” Fion adds.
VN:F [1.7.5_995] Rating: 4.7/5 (6 votes cast)
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