jump to navigation

An internship with Procter & Gamble September 14, 2011

Posted by Jeff Riley in : internships, working abroad , add a comment

Bo-Erik Abrahamsson has just spent the second year of his BSc Management Studies degree at the University of Hong Kong (a year abroad organised by King’s College London).  On his way back to London to complete the third year of his studies, he completed a summer internship in finance with Procter & Gamble in Geneva.  We talked to him about his experiences.

Why did you choose to go to Hong Kong?  Partly because I was really interested in seeing that part of the world.   A new country, continent and culture for me.  I’m Swedish and I came to London to get an international experience so it was really an extension of that.  I was also aware that in the longer term I wanted an international finance career and I hope the experience would give me some good networks and experience.  I’d completed a banking internship with HSBC and I knew they had a presence in Hong Kong so it seemed even more good place to go.  I knew the courses were taught in English and that I would also have a chance of learning Chinese which would be good for my CV

How was it?  I’d really recommend it. The people you meet and the places you get to see really opens up your horizons, and you come out from your exchange a totally different person. I got a great insight into a different culture – and my Chinese has come on really well.  There were some great teachers and it was actually easier to learn than French.

How did the P&G internship come about? I’d met them at a Careers event in the first year and after that it had been my intention to apply for an internship after my second year.  They do a whole range of different types including HR, Marketing, purchasing, consumer market knowledge and more but I wanted the finance internship because I knew that was the area I wanted to develop my career in.  Originally I thought I’d apply for a London based internship but they offer them all over Western Europe. So when I got a chance to spend the 10 weeks in Geneva I was very happy for the offer.

What was the recruitment process like? P&G have offices all over world so I was able to sit an initial verbal and numerical test in Hong Kong.  That was okay – I didn’t think the numerical part of it was that tough. After that, I was invited to go to Singapore for an initial interview.  It was very convenient not having to fly all the way from Asia to London for my face-to-face interview. Finally, I had two telephone interviews before I got accepted.  The interviews were all ‘experience-based’ which meant I got a chance to talk about things I had done in the past – what I achieved and what my motivations were.  In this type of interview they are not so concerned with where you might want to be in x number of years. It’s more about what you have done in the past which they feel is a guide to how you might be in the future.

How has the Internship been?  It’s been excellent.  The group of interns I was with were from all over Europe – Spain, France, Italy. . . and of course the UK.  Most of them were Masters degree students and many came from the top European universities. As an example, the three British students were myself and two students from LSE and Cambridge.  All the interns were very outgoing and I ended up living very close to the others. The social scene in Geneva was very good, and we also did quite a bit of travelling around and outside of the country.  Just like in Hong Kong, English was the default common language. From a work perspective I learned a lot and pushed my boundaries.  The project I was given was a 2-month assignment that the permanent staff just couldn’t find the time to do.  In my case it was a piece of financial analysis.  This wasn’t all just number crunching but also looked at what systemic changes that needed to be made. I spent a lot of time interviewing managers all over Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.  The scope of the project was really determined by the fact that I was working in a regional HQ.  I was working on my own but had a lot of support from my line manager.  I felt that my work was taken seriously and had real value. So much so in fact that I had to make a one hour presentation to a very senior audience, including the Vice President of the region.  Working at this level is fantastic experience and is great for your confidence and ambitions.  While you need to study and get good academic grades on a practical level the case studies in text books are only rarely directly relevant to what you come across in work.  Before I started my internships with HSBC and P&G I had only limited work experience in retailing, construction and agriculture.

What tips do you have for other students?  That’s easy.

Entry level emergency relief work with Medair August 3, 2011

Posted by Jeff Riley in : NGO, Uncategorized, emergency relief, international development, working abroad , add a comment

Back in March Katherine Tubb  of 2Way Development put me in touch with this emergency relief organisation. They came along to our ‘Getting Into International Development’ and went down very well with our audience. Partly because Medair offer entry level opportunities in emergency relief. But also because their speaker, Ben Paine, was adept at reading our audience and delivered a serious message with a light, informal, touch.

Now I’ve come along to one of their regular open evenings where people can find out about their work and opportunities.  It’s 18.30 hours and we are having an open air session in the courtyard of their Balham premises. This is emergency relief in itself after a day in the broiler of my office in central London. 

The only problem is that I haven’t eaten and though they have thoughtfully provided snacks I think I’m a few hundred calories down on the day.  This thanks to the lunchtime college menu which featured some fragrant Thai fish dish with rice. Nice but it that ain’t steak pie and chips.

18.50.  I’ve clearly misread the schedule which I’m now guessing said 18.30 arrival for a  19.00 start. This happens occasionally and I end up turning up really early for events. It has the bonus of making me look keen and efficient but cuts right into time I normally like to waste.

19.02 We’re off.  It’s the affable Ben Paine again.  He does a quick survey of the audience about who they are and what they have come for.  Event managers, politics students, statisticians, sales professionals all here and most considering a career change.  Ben is very encouraging picking up on the key skills and experience Medair may need in this initial exchange. IT skills, languages, numeracy all get nods of approval and even some wildly encouraging “let me grab you after”s.  The Medair team of around seven staff then introduce themselves – water and sanitation engineers with years in the field, fundraisers, and HQ administrators. This so we know who to buttonhole later. 

19.25 Ben gave a talk outlining how Medair select their zones of operation. He started with an anecdote about how they established themselves in Afghanistan ten years ago after a baseline survey which indicated that one specific region was recording the highest recorded maternal death rate  ever recorded – at any time in any place in the history of the world. The kind of anecdote that gets your attention.  This, Ben said, is the kind of area that Medair’s will work in their mission is to work with the most vulnerable people

Choosing areas of operation is done in a rigorous manner. Combining ‘where the need is’ with a ‘where is help already going’ analysis resulting in  a target list of countries.  ‘Where the need is’ is provided, in part,  by the EU’s global needs assessment reports.  The second element by a ‘Forgotten crisis assessment’ that provides a number of indices. The resulting calculation  defines target countries but the nature of the contribution is  defined by needs on the ground and affected by what other NGOs may be providing. Consequently the majority of Medair projects are in Africa but there are also projects in Afghanistan and Haitifor example.  Medair are clear that while countries such as Madagascar have a less urgent need than say Somalia,  it is a strategic decision Medair have taken to have some projects in less difficult and intense areas of the world. Bluntly, Ben said, it keeps the organisation sane.

 The sector as a whole rests on four main areas

Medair are focused on the first two of these. Providing a raft of services ranging from water and sanitation (‘WASH’ in the latest jargon), construction, health and housing.

Ben pointed out that those considering a career in the sector might consider emergency relief especially as there is a relatively decreasing need for international staff in development as local people, quite rightly can provide the necessary skills.   In emergency relief though there a continuing case for international staff.  This no longer means just British or northern hemisphere staff but people from the developing world working on an international basis with a team of local recruited staff. Even in emergency relief a key aim is to coach and mentor to create local expertise.

Innovative work.  Ben stressed the innovative nature of much of Medair’s work.  For example in Kashmir following floods they focused on the most vulnerable by targeting the most vulnerable family in a particular village and eschewing the use of tents in favour of a A-frame wooden structure with an insulation of locally available material. These transitional structures were built with local people and used as a model that could be replicated much more cheaply than tents that have to be sourced from outside the area.

 20.00 Ben is doing a masterly job. Not knocking other agencies but positioning Medair as an organisation that works in unfashionable areas – well away from the easy publicity of refugee camps near airports that are handy for the media. Also being straight about the significant amount of money Medair spend on management – 14% of their budget.  He thinks this is because Medair is a Swiss organisation and they love spreadsheets as well as being very scrupulous about making projects and staff accountable for where money is spent. Even if some of it, Ben says, is unavoidably spent from rolls of dollars kept in socks.

Ben is also great at dealing with questions from the audience – repeating them back so everyone hears and then answering them succinctly and interestingly.  For example someone asked about staff security. He quickly sketched out different ways of providing security

Unfashionable – Another theme was emerging in the talk of how Medair and the work of emergency relief yields nothing to fashion.  They work in remote places – one location Ben visited took 10 days to get there from London including two days spent on the back of a horse. They also deal with some basic issues. For example informing local tribespeople about the importance of washing hands between making firebricks from animal dung and  preparing food.  Skillfully woven into these anecdotes were inspiring stories about the difference that can be made. Though admittedly, he pointed out, it’s hard to make exciting publicity out of preventing cholera by creating a town’s water system.

Medair Values – first Medair is Christian, faith based organisation.  All of its international staff are practicing Christians.  It is not a proselytising organisation however and help is strictly given on a needs basis according to the Red Cross Principles to which it is signed up.  There are other values such as integrity and all applicants need to feel there is a correlation with their own values.

20.20 – Working for Medair.  I’m tiring fast.  What will you need to get an emergency relief worker role with Medair.  The following

Apply via www.medair.org for a place on an 8 day relief and rehabilitation orientation course (ROC) in Switzerland – at which candidates are trained and selected. This novel recruitment exercise is a field simulation and has been designed by people with 20 years of field experience to replicate in 8 days some of the pressures and responses field work brings. It does cost €500 plus transport to Switzerland but if you get accepted on to a ROC course more likely than not you will get accepted.  Not everyone goes on to work for Medair. Some are accepted but feel it doesn’t work for them and occasionally some participants aren’t accepted.   

Terms and Conditions. New relief workers earn $100 a month in year one while benefiting from a significant training component and $1200 in year two after training is completed.  Ben then outlined what felt like a very decent benefits package that includes food, transport, health and more.  Good benefits package – flights, food transport annual leave