Hong Kong Hong Kong Hong Kong I love you so much
Christmas 2009/ New Years
The long overdue photos are up!
New Years at Bistecca in LKF. Bistecca is an amazing homestyle rustic italian restaurant. I know I will be returning.
Emile's birthday. Sausage party +1
eeeee!!!!
Fresh seafood dinner on Lamma island
went to the HK museum of history...we had buckets of fun har har
you know just hanging out in rural china circa 1900.
some of my ladies...cant remember the name of the club.
Summer Internships
So I am searching for a summer internship in Hong Kong and it is proving to be extremely stressful. I have cold emailed so so so many people, the whole HK business community must think of me as "that annoying girl". As some of you know...cold contact has a 99% failure rate. That is, for every hundred contact attempts you make, expect to hear back from 1 person. I sent out about 30, and I have one lead (who has since stopped emailing me, but i like to think he is just thinking about what to do with me instead of thinking maybe he forgot about me over the weekend). Fingers crossed! Knock on wood! Lucky rabbit foot!
I asked a guest lecturer who used to teach in HK for any suggestions on tactics to get internships...he said go to their office and meet them in person. "As soon as they see you they will know what an amazing wonderful person you are and hire you". Keep in mind this is the first time I ever spoke to the guy. Sweet, maybe even informative, but awkward, so very awkward... :|
...and like im gonna fly to HK and show up at random dudes' offices begging for a job.
______________________________________________________________________________________
This brings me to the subject of internship search companies/ internship program companies aka. ingenious ways to suck the money out of your wallet.
Internships in this day and age are increasingly hard to find. With the recession causing mass unemployment, a new class of internship seeker-- made up of mature students (who have more than enough experience under their belt but just want a new degree) and bored unemployed people (who just want to get more experience and fill any gaps in unemployment) -- has emerged. These people are competing with students who have little to no professional experience but rely on internships as the stepping stone that gives the professional experience needed to kick start a career. Gee, I wonder who wins out... obviously people with more experience!
Enter, brilliant money making idea! Many companies have emerged that offer services that will hook students up with the internship of their wildest dreams! In the city of their wildest dreams! With housing! Fun activities! ETC! Of course, dream fulfillment is never free and fees can run between $4000-$8000 for a 2 month unpaid internship. RIDICULOUS! But at the same time...hey you know, youd get a really good internship that you would never be able to land on your own right? Maybe even a job offer at the end? For those who have the money, its still attractive enough. Attractive and painful, very painful.
After I went on an angry rant about these companies swindling cash (and at the same time praising their brilliance-- I wish I had come up with that idea), my dad suggested I look into them as a Plan B. It is my career in question after all. So yes, I contacted two of the companies. Next Step Connections (Greater China) and University of Dreams (Worldwide, US based). U of Dreams is the bigger and pricier of the two, with an $8000 program fee and $1000 (slightly refundable) deposit for them to find you an internship. They are giving me stress up the wazooo! Yes I want them to find me an amazing internship BUT what if i find something by myself and decide i dont want their help anymore? Well that is $1000 down the drain and if they find out that you were wasting their time (which you were) then its $1000+$3500= $4500 down the drain! yeah $4500 is not worth something that will amount to nothing. This is why they are Plan B and I will wait until everything fails before turning to them.
Btw, $8000 includes housing, food, transportation. ALL THINGS I DO NOT NEED IN HONG KONG. and they refuse to reduce the fee to not include those things.
what to do what to do
Here is a related New York Times article:
Unpaid work, but they pay for privilege
The long overdue photos are up!
New Years at Bistecca in LKF. Bistecca is an amazing homestyle rustic italian restaurant. I know I will be returning.
Emile's birthday. Sausage party +1
eeeee!!!!
Fresh seafood dinner on Lamma island
went to the HK museum of history...we had buckets of fun har har
you know just hanging out in rural china circa 1900.
some of my ladies...cant remember the name of the club.
Summer Internships
So I am searching for a summer internship in Hong Kong and it is proving to be extremely stressful. I have cold emailed so so so many people, the whole HK business community must think of me as "that annoying girl". As some of you know...cold contact has a 99% failure rate. That is, for every hundred contact attempts you make, expect to hear back from 1 person. I sent out about 30, and I have one lead (who has since stopped emailing me, but i like to think he is just thinking about what to do with me instead of thinking maybe he forgot about me over the weekend). Fingers crossed! Knock on wood! Lucky rabbit foot!
I asked a guest lecturer who used to teach in HK for any suggestions on tactics to get internships...he said go to their office and meet them in person. "As soon as they see you they will know what an amazing wonderful person you are and hire you". Keep in mind this is the first time I ever spoke to the guy. Sweet, maybe even informative, but awkward, so very awkward... :|
...and like im gonna fly to HK and show up at random dudes' offices begging for a job.
______________________________________________________________________________________
This brings me to the subject of internship search companies/ internship program companies aka. ingenious ways to suck the money out of your wallet.
Internships in this day and age are increasingly hard to find. With the recession causing mass unemployment, a new class of internship seeker-- made up of mature students (who have more than enough experience under their belt but just want a new degree) and bored unemployed people (who just want to get more experience and fill any gaps in unemployment) -- has emerged. These people are competing with students who have little to no professional experience but rely on internships as the stepping stone that gives the professional experience needed to kick start a career. Gee, I wonder who wins out... obviously people with more experience!
Enter, brilliant money making idea! Many companies have emerged that offer services that will hook students up with the internship of their wildest dreams! In the city of their wildest dreams! With housing! Fun activities! ETC! Of course, dream fulfillment is never free and fees can run between $4000-$8000 for a 2 month unpaid internship. RIDICULOUS! But at the same time...hey you know, youd get a really good internship that you would never be able to land on your own right? Maybe even a job offer at the end? For those who have the money, its still attractive enough. Attractive and painful, very painful.
After I went on an angry rant about these companies swindling cash (and at the same time praising their brilliance-- I wish I had come up with that idea), my dad suggested I look into them as a Plan B. It is my career in question after all. So yes, I contacted two of the companies. Next Step Connections (Greater China) and University of Dreams (Worldwide, US based). U of Dreams is the bigger and pricier of the two, with an $8000 program fee and $1000 (slightly refundable) deposit for them to find you an internship. They are giving me stress up the wazooo! Yes I want them to find me an amazing internship BUT what if i find something by myself and decide i dont want their help anymore? Well that is $1000 down the drain and if they find out that you were wasting their time (which you were) then its $1000+$3500= $4500 down the drain! yeah $4500 is not worth something that will amount to nothing. This is why they are Plan B and I will wait until everything fails before turning to them.
Btw, $8000 includes housing, food, transportation. ALL THINGS I DO NOT NEED IN HONG KONG. and they refuse to reduce the fee to not include those things.
what to do what to do
Here is a related New York Times article:
Unpaid work, but they pay for privilege