Internship Abroad

Internship abroad: gain work experience and travel the world

28 June 2006

Why not broaden your horizon and complete a company internship abroad? Most students who do so consider the experience to be one of the most valuable of their lives. Two ETH computer science students report about their stays in China and California.

Marcus de Luigi: Six Months internship at Wicresoft Co., Ltd, Shanghai

Marcus De Luigi completed an internship at Shanghai Wicresoft Co., Ltd, a joint venture between Microsoft and the city of Shanghai from September 2005 until the end of February 2006. He applied via IAESTE (International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience) and actually missed the deadline by one day. Fortunately, the exchange organization was generous and accepted his application anyway. After a phone screening with his future Chinese employer in which Marcus had to prove that his English was good enough, IAESTE took care of the travel formalities. Everything went smoothly and soon there were no obstacles left and the adventure in the Far East could begin.

In August, Marcus took a plane to China and traveled the huge, exotic country before starting his internship with Wicresoft in September. The company currently has about 500 employees, specializes in software development and IT support and has ambitious expansion plans, according to Marcus. He worked in the "Business Intelligence" division where software solutions for turning data about companies and their competitors into concrete knowledge for strategic decisions are developed.

Marcus' main task was to test the SQL Server 2005, a Microsoft data management and analysis solution, and to teach his co-workers how to use it. Moreover, Marcus tested the efficiency of Asterisk, an open source software which emulates the functionality of conventional telephony systems and supports voice over IP using various protocols. "Sometimes I felt a little thrown in at the deep end, since I had to be operational from the very beginning. On the other hand, I appreciated being able to work very independently", relates the ETH student.

Regular working hours were 9am to 6am, however, Marcus soon realized that it is common in China to "donate" some extra hours to the employer. Moreover, holidays are scheduled by the government. Employees are entitled to four times one week of vacation per year but according to Marcus it is normal to compensate these by working overtime and on the week ends. Marcus' accommodation was rather luxurious by Chinese standards. He lived in a 1-bedroom apartment with a view of the Shanghai skyline.

Cultural differences to the west seemed to be omnipresent: "Only few people speak English or they do not dare to because they are afraid of making mistakes. That is why misunderstandings are quite common", Marcus explains. However, being almost the only non-Asian co-worker in the division proved to be advantageous: everybody knew who Marcus was and his colleagues were very helpful when he had questions or was looking for somebody. All in all, the six months in Shanghai were a very exciting time for Marcus: "I learned a lot during my internship, not only professionally speaking but also about the Chinese culture and eventually about my own culture. It was a very precious experience which I can recommend to anybody."

Exchange organization IAESTE: http://www.iaeste.ch

Marcus Deluigi’s China Picture Gallery: http://n.ethz.ch/student/mdeluigi/linkspictures.htm

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