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The Luxurious Life of an Intern… Week One in Singapore

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Walking down Orchard Road is like stepping into a new world where everything is worth more than a student’s yearly rent. On my first day in Singapore, I saw more designer stores than I had ever seen in my life.  As you would expect from luxury fashion brand, Kwang Sia, the offices were in prime location, looking out onto Chanel, (obviously.)
We are living with the DHL interns in a cute 18th floor apartment. Getting ready for our first day at work involved lots of nerves, excitement and fashion decisions! When we arrived at our very glam offices, (think vogue) we were shown to our departments, Doris, the Boston student was assigned marketing, and I was assigned merchandising.

Kwang Sia is basically the company that franchises out luxury brands in Asia, so they are in control of the Versace, Jimmy Choo, Diesel, Masingaporex Mara, Hugo Boss and other designer brands in Asia. This is because it can be a big risk for Luxury brands to put stores in Asia, without deep knowledge of the market and connections.

Parts of being an intern feel very exciting and glamourous. There is a ‘pressroom’ full of Jimmy Choos, Max Mara, Versace and designer pieces, you

enter the office through scanning your finger print, and the company owners are rocking bold, colourful designer suits at all times.

In my first week I have been putting together the sales information for the bosses to view, a long and repetitive task. Doris has been busy too, putting together the press kits, and now describes herself as a ‘one-woman assembly line,’ she is also learning about loaning out items to stylists, and working on ‘EDM.’

One thing that I have struggled with is getting used to the very quiet Asian office culture, although everyone is lovely and welcoming. I was lucky enough to sit in on a meeting about implementing a new merchandising software into the company, and noticed a much quieter atmosphere compared to the Western business is conducted. Another thing that I have noticed which is different is that the average age is a lot older than it would be in England, and most workers have worked at the company for most of their lives. This is due to the more collectivist culture which values loyalty in workers and bosses.

Outside of work we are all living the expat dream, visiting the rooftop bars, shopping areas, and chilling in our very own roof top pool!! (Perks of the internship for sure!) Also hoping that the company are going to want to give me some Versace freebies but let’s not hold our breath…

GEO Kwang Sia Interns  

Week 1 at NISM: Tuktuks, Tight Bar and Too Much Tandoori…

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Saturday

We landed in Mumbai in the afternoon, where we were picked up and taken straight to the guesthouse. We were greeted by several very enthusiastic members of staff, who practically force-fed us a huge selection of curry the minute we walked through the door. We met our delegates from Groningen and Boston and then, jetlagged after our delayed flight, headed to bed for an early night.

Sunday

Having had a good night’s sleep and, falsely believing that we had recovered from our jetlag, we headed out to explore the local area. The first thing we noticed was how crazy the roads here are, resembling a particularly aggressive game of Mario Kart. We made it about 200m from the guesthouse before we realised that at some point in the next six weeks we would have to risk life and limb and cross the battlefields that are the Mumbai roads. After about 5 minutes worth of feeble attempts to ‘make it halfway and wait’, we decided to man up and made a run for it. We quickly learnt that this is the only way to get around. Whilst walking we had our first taste of monsoon weather (which we were thoroughly unprepared for) so decided to head back to the guesthouse. Luckily, we had accidently walked in a huge circle and made it back in no time at all.

Monday

We had our first day of work, where we met all the staff at NISM and were introduced to the company. Everyone was super friendly and we wnism week3ere delighted to find that the staff bring round cups of chai tea at almost hourly intervals throughout the day. One of these rounds was served with crisps and biscuits in a thoughtful nod to the British culture, much to the shock of the local staff. The highlight of the day was probably the hairy rickshaw commute with several adrenaline-inducing close calls with fearless buses. In the evening, we were all jet-lagged and exhausted so we stayed in and watched the football (sorry for the reminder Will).

Tuesday

Work was good, but the day was stolen by the discovery of staggeringly cheap beer at Tight Bar – a fluorescent haven with a noughties-Bollywood fusion soundtrack and entertainment in the form of Mr Bean playing on the big screen.

Wednesday

Work was slow to start with but we all enjoyed our orientation on the Indian culture, banking system and politics. After work, feeling slightly worse for wear, we decided to recover by doing some exercise. We found a lake nearby and whilst completing two laps of it, discovered it was a popular hangout/ make-out spot for local teenagers who seemed to find our very western neon fitness outfits rather amusing. As we strolled back, suffering in the humidity, the monsoon came to our aid and gave us a much-needed impromptu shower. When we returned to the guesthouse completely drenched, the security guards made little effort to hide their amusement at our naivety and lack of waterproof clothing. We returned to (yet again) a feast of vegetable curry, and discussed our longing for red meat and cheese.

Thursday

After a busy morning at work of further lectures on India, we were treated to an afternoon spent watching a fantastically cheesy and very long Bollywood movie called ‘3 Idiots’. Although we didn’t always understand the humour, or the need for so many unanticipated breakouts into song and dance, we were thoroughly impressed by the sporadic, emotionally deep moments (we never knew that scuba diving was such a soul-searching experience that it required a 10 minute of atmospheric instrumentals to a montage of a man crying). In the evening, we went in search of a contender against the classy establishment that is Tight Bar. Although this is a difficult task, we found a close runner-up in Royal Oak Brewery, which offers cheaper drinks to ladies, along with an entirely Bryan Adams themed playlist, which we felt was a reflection of the unsurpassable taste of the in-house DJ (yes, a DJ did this to us).

 

Friday

Today, things got a little bit more serious at work. We delegated projects based on the extensive research and data that NISM have offered us on the topic of financial literacy and financial inclusion. We also had an interesting unplanned debate with Sandeep (another supervisor), about Brexit and his interpretation of the consequences for capital markets. Tonight, we are heading out to continue our immersion into Indian culture (desperately searching for anything but curry) and our quest for a better ‘cheesy music and aged British comedy orientated’ bar than Tight Bar.

GEO NISM Interns

Week One with the Bharti Foundation

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We arrived in New Delhi on the 25th, two days before our first day of work. Our first taste of India was the surprisingly spacious and orderly airport, an impression entirely contradictory to our preconception of a lively and at times chaotic country. It only took us a short drive to get to our guesthouse on the periphery of Gurgaon, one of the myriads satellite cities of Delhi. The drive was probably the first real taste our weary and jetlagged selves experienced of the free-for-all, seemingly ruleless chaos they call roads. With cows one of many avid road-users. An endless chorus of car horns used not as an aggressive technique but more as a spatial awareness indicator. The next morning, we hailed an auto-rickshaw being pedantically cautious of fitting everyone in, before witnessing countless families squeezed in and hanging off the sides of these tiny motorised carriages. An extremely futuristic metro – miles better than the tube and Boston’s ‘T’ with far better security and even a women’s-only carriage – took us to the capital, even though we (the English interns) found it particularly odd that conversing on the metro is allowed. Some commuters even played music out loud, which we all consider a massive faux pas on tubes – it is basically a crime!

ella and andy

We opted for a safe and less intimidating introduction of Connaught Place, the former headquarters of the British Raj. Perhaps sticking to what we know, just for the first day, was a good idea when in India! Within the first 30 minutes of setting foot in the city, we were confronted with our first experience of celebrity: Ella was asked to pose with a whole family of Indians! Unfortunately, we didn’t get to keep the photo… but we were relieved none of us were blonde or God forbid ginger as the fascination would be at an entirely different level.

With the temperature edging 40 degrees and humidity at an unprecedented level, walking 9 andymiles was impressive with only a potato filled – yet delicious – pancake made of rice, a “masala dosa”, to sustain us. We managed to fit in 3 major attractions; including, an open-air observatory (the Jantar Mantar) and despite our best efforts we gained minimal understanding whilst it sadly dawned on us that people built these astrological instruments over 250 years ago, yet we could not even figure them out with the aid of simple descriptions. We also visited an incredibly beautiful and huge Sikh temple (Gurudwara Bangla Sahib), known for its golden dome and pool of water with purported healing properties. We girls came prepared with scarfs to cover our heads, yet the boys were forced to borrow not-so masculine sparkly embellished headwear (see picture!). When naively inquiring into a painting of an enormous diamond, in fact the largest in the world, we were told the British took it and it now lives in one the queen’s crowns. Our guide politely claimed that India had gifted it to the British, despite our unspoken collective understanding that they had of course stolen it…

Our first day as Bharti’s interns was full of surprises: firstly our office building actually resembled a giant greenhouse palace (see pictures) even containing a decorative fountain in its centre. Our day being filled with continuous free coffees and a never-ending buffet-style canteen, we were welcomed by the whole Quality Support Programme team, who were all extremely helpful and hospitable. We then spent the first few days trying
to grasp the incredibly complex Indian education system, as well as the different tools employed in primary research, and we have been commissioned several presentations to show our understanding. So far, so good!

GEO Bharti Interns