The day when we don't need to explain AIESEC

I have had a few networking experiences in Shanghai which are quite interesting:

I by chance met a lot of McKinsey BAs (business analysts) at a gathering 1 week ago. Naturally, we ask each other what we have been doing and what we are doing today. When I mentioned AIESEC, no explanation needed, they all know about it!

Wed evening, I was with Aron attending Nova100's networking event. Nova100 is an organization building connections between top university talents and top organizations. They are currently Scandinavian but with ambition to go global. The Nova100 students, alumni and organizer all know about AIESEC. More encouragingly, they are thinking of cooperating with AIESEC to access top talents all over the world.

Friday I went to BAIN's office to sign contract. (Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I will be working for BAIN & Company, one of the premium strategy consulting firm's Shanghai office as an associate consultant.) The moment I walked in, one of the associate consultant said 'I have seen you! I was at a conference when you were on the stage giving a speech!' Another one said 'I have seen your picture on AIESEC's posters when I joined AIESEC!' Not only was there no need to explain AIESEC, my 2 year's fulltime experiences after graduation was very much recognized.

After all, we are all waiting for such a day that when we say: I worked/am working for AIESEC is nothing different from I worked/am working for P&G, Microsoft, McKinsey, etc. - no explanation is needed! =) Very proud!

Access to alcohol or Freedom of speech, which one matters more to you?

Last Saturday, Aron and I were invited to a dinner with a very mixed group: a few Singaporeans working for Deloitte Tax here in Shanghai, their foreigner friends, some AIESEC interns and alumni.

A middle aged Chinese lady sitting next to Aron together with her American husband. Knowing her having lived in USA for quite some time and married an American, we asked her how does she feel about the difference of freedome between living in USA and China. Rest assured that this is a sensitive question, that is why we were interested in it.

It was hard to tell she was very stupid and brainwashed that she had no understanding of 'freedom and rights' or she was very smart and diplomatic towards sensitive questions. She said, in USA, you can only drink when you are 21, however, in China, you can buy alcohol anywhere regardless how old you are.

Aron and I looked at each other, no comment! If that is the angle she takes, we certain are not in the same boat regarding what are the much more fundamental rights we aspire.

A hollywood ending

I have personally loved Hollywood movies because no matter how dramatic the entire story is, it always ends positively, giving the audience much hope in life. And here is my hollywood ending of my internship:

It started from 11.30am, a heart to heart chat with my boss. Since she is extremely busy, everytime she spent some time on me, I very much appreciated it. The talk was very nice and just something needed a bit more along the way of the internship. But life is full of 'what ifs'. There are things that I need to improve (as always) and I am sure I have learnt them the hard way this time.

Then our team had lunch together, sadly one of my managers was seriously sick and was not there. We had great conversations about each other's cultures and some burning issues of democratization. Then Catarina (one of my teammate and a very kind lady who I spoke with the most in my office) bought me a book called 'very swedish' on behalf of the team. 'Very Swedish' is just like its name, a cook book connects Swedish cousines with different landscapes. It for sure goes into my luggage and travels to Shanghai with me. Just imagine, I can point at the pictures to introduce Sweden to my parents while Aron will be cooking Swedish cousine of where he is from. (Sorry Aron, I have assigned you a role already!)

3pm, I met Electrolux interns for a farewell fika (a Swedish word for catching up over a coffee with your friend). It was so lovely to see their faces though I had not spent too much time with them. Then this is the second lesson of the day - do spend time with your pals while you are in the same place. With a bit of regret but more of delight, I felt things are ending more positively than how I felt and reacted all the time.

As Vendela (my boss) said, we learn more when it was hard times. I can't find a better summary of this experience.

Packup my Swedish memories

It is time for me to pack up my Swedish memories because I am returning home on Sept 8th - this coming Saturday. Returning to Shanghai was already in plan especially with Aron choosing to work for SIEMENS in Shanghai among the several offers he has got in hand. I have finally boosted some courage to end this internship earlier than expected, to give my time some better use.

Though my internship has not been a good use of my time at all and it ended abruptly due to some politics among colleagues, I still want to lift up my chin and end this 10 months experience with a good taste in my mouth because after all, if I take a holistic look at it, it was by all means challenging and worthwhile. Some highlights of my memories and learnings to take with me:

A real cultural experience: My Dutch experience can be hardly classified as living in another culture compared to my Swedish experience. It is not just because I had celebrated everything traditional either with Aron's family or with AIESEC friends here, starting from Lucia (in Dec), Christmas and New Year, Easter, Valborg (end of April), Mid Summer (end of June) and Crayfish Party (end of Aug). Sweden is a vivid case of how seasonal/weather changes influence people here. Swedes put lights and candles everywhere across the long dark days and paint a beautiful picture of their summers to pass through the harsh winters. Sweden also has a very strong pagen influence in their celebrations: Easter was celebrated with a lot of chicken feathers and Mid Summer is a celebration that people dance around a fertility tree.

On top of those traditional festival celebrations, I was able to be part of Aron's family and observe the dynamics of Swedish family relations. With my limited experience, I have to admit that Swedes are very family oriented. The way parents adore, care and support their kids are very similar to my own parents. I had an interesting conversation with Tomas (Aron's dad) about how parents share the same feelings universally. If I take a look at the colleagues at work, most of them try to leave as early as possible by coming to work very early and use the gym during lunch break, to spend the evenings with their kids.

Then I also had some interesting observations on young Swedish people - how they cannot stand loneliness while statistically Swedish has the largest amount of individual households in the world. My flatmate Maria tries to make all her evenings full of activities: dancing classes, painting classes, dining with friends, etc. Otherwise, she will be on her phone calling her friends and families in other parts of Sweden. What a huge cost of the extreme individualistic culture?!

Social challenges of being an expat: I have to admit that I did not work hard enough of make Swedish friends. Partly because I spent most of my time with Aron, also partly because my standard of choosing friends is a bit too high. So my social network did not go beyond AIESEC. One thing probably again is universally more or less the same is that it is hard to crack into a long established social network. And it is hard to make friends being a passer-by. Taking this learning back to Shanghai, I know how to take care of my friends who did not grow up in Shanghai as well as the AIESEC interns/alumni coming to work from another country. Forgive me bring up cliche here, the idea of AIESEC Experience has its logic here. =)

There are definitely learnings from work as well though not so much about marketing and branding but more about relationships with managers and colleagues and the way to push for changes. The most important thing is to pick myself up from where I fell, with the same level of self belief and esteem to fight for a better next step! Returning to Shanghai for interviews and will update with good news, hopefully soon enough!

This post is dedicated to all of those I have met and spent quality time here in Sweden! Kram!