Hi! I am Iris (left on the picture), and I want to tell you about my internship experience at Pacific BMW this spring. Pacific BMW has officially hosted 30 interns (including my cohort) from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hang Seng University of Hong Kong since the Summer of 2015. I am a year III student and my major is in Marketing. The reason why I applied to this internship is to learn how they run a business in the United States, especially how to do marketing in the real business world. Also, I want to improve my English by living in an environment where it is the only language spoken.
From this internship, the first thing I learned is that being confident at work is very important. Sometimes I may be afraid of making mistakes because of lack of experience, but being confident to take action is the first step of contributing company. Although I will make some mistakes, I can learn from them and move on. Second, I learned that "Teamwork makes the dreams work", which is something I saw on the Parts Manager's wall. Especially at Pacific BMW, everyone is working together, trying their best to do what they are good at and helping each other. I appreciate that they make me feel included and part of the team from day one. Last but not least, I learned not to be afraid of being new and have lack of experience. This is because I am happy to be the person who does more than others. Since I can learn more and more from that, why not try to be the one who can contribute and learn.
As far as the challenges I have faced thus far, English as a foreign language is one of my biggest challenges and I sometimes worry that others do not understand what I want to express. Fortunately, all of the colleagues are nice to me and they make me comfortable to communicate with them. The second challenge is adjusting to the U.S. office culture. I remember my very first time I came to the office, I was impressed by the company culture here at Pacific BMW. As interns, when we complete our tasks, we are trusted to be on our own, without being micromanaged. You do have to be proactive and produce results though. One of my favorite things in the office is open conversation and snacks, which we are able to share with one another. In Hong Kong, the business office is usually silent. Everyone is on their own, so I cannot imagine this open environment in Hong Kong. So I have to remember to keep interacting with others more often. Now I enjoy this working style a lot.
For the future, I have learned to always have an open mind. I was able to explore more career opportunities because of this internship. Therefore, I want to work in other countries after I graduated to see more about the world. Moreover, I also have a lot of passion in the field of marketing, so I am excited to work on it in the future with a more creative mind. Finally, I truly appreciate that Pacific BMW gave me such a precious and valuable opportunity for me to be here for 3-months. I learned a lot and have grown up a lot here.