This autumn will leave an important mark on my career life, because in the first time in my life I joined a company for an internship. It was a bite-size internship though (one month, inc. a 7-day national holiday), but at least I can say that my career canvas is now not totally blank (still blank if you see from far I guess).
Anyway, a brief wrap-up for this experience. The company is HeatMate New Energy Technology, and it is based in Shanghai, China. The company started in 2016, and had a quite bumpy road from over 50 employees and a big manufacturing factory to fewer than 15 today (COVID hit them bad). Their main business is phase-change materials (in case this is new to you, PCM is for energy storage by using the latent heat during the material phase transition, like meliting-solidification) and related heating and cooling products.
Enough for the company and come back to my reflections to my new experience. I worked as an intern for basically all the departments, R&D, production, marketing, and media. Working in a small company often needs you to wear different hats! I helped with the company’s English product brochure and website design (mainly English site). Another big work is to survey the international electricity market, especially the day-night tariff, and to assess the market value for their PCM storage heater. Apart from the above, a lot of errant that you can imagine an intern should do.
One month is not long, but it turns out to be quite TIRING and EXPENSIVE. Because my wife and I rented a place close to her Uni but far from the compary, and the morning traffic was brutal, I have to spend two hours drive there and two hours coming back off work. YES, four hours a day. I know it is crazy. I also have to pay for the car and house rent, gas, and energy bills (wife also helps). I guess I get the minimum wage in the company (I hope the formal employees get well paid). After one month I actually losing money, aha! But don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining or regretting this decision, quite the opposite, I genuinely APPRECIATE for doing this internship in my personal holiday.
Well, here is what I’ve learned from it:
- Networking builds your career.
Countless when I hear people advocate or I read from books about networking, I eventually learned this myself. This internship wasn’t an open vacancy, but more of a friend referral. A guy went for the career fair at my wife’s uni, and they chatted and exchanged contacts. He knows the manager of HeatMate, and when I was looking for internship opportunities, my wife sent my CV to him. He recommended me to HeatMate, and THAT’S LITERIALLY HOW I GOT IT! So keep expanding your network, and make good use of it.
- Mindset shift: Results-oriented v.s. Detail-oriented.
I don’t think I’m a perfectionist, but doing a PhD often requires me pay much attentions to the details. The use of work in papers, one parameter in the simulation, etc. A trivial thing can mean a lot in academic. I mean it’s ok with that and that’s how a PhD should work. But in a company, the managers have little patience for detail checking, and what they care are deadlines and results (better to combine both). In a fast-paced industry, this often means you have no time or priority for details. As long as it works, keep it that way and don’t fix it.
- Communication needs life-long study.
During my PhD I have only supervisors in my communication channel, but in a company, I have colleagues who rely on my work or I need them. I have my line manager who supervises my work, and I have the top manager who I need to present my results to and persuade when needed. Different strategies and ways for each group of people. I have to admit that I did a bad job. Sometimes I say to much other times too less. Often times I feel I don’t express my points as clearly as I should.
If you’re a graduate or about to graduate soon from the uni, plan early for your career, and take oppotunities to try out new things. I assure you that the outcome will be rewarding!