InternshiP

I named this file under “When I’m in KL” as I planned to write a story while I lived there. It turned out that I should rename it into “My Bloody Internship”. Just kidding, I didn’t do that. Ha! Anyway, since some of my juniors and fellow students frequently asked “How was your internship?”, “Oh, you just got back from KL? How was there?”, etc then I decided to write this one simple note regarding what kind of lessons learnt from my internship experience in one of a foreign-based consulting firm.  Just so all I need to do is referring them to this post when they ask! *Brilliant. Hihihii

Seen from my introduction paragraph, you may sense that it wasn’t a pleasant one. Well, the answer is a “Yes” and a “No”. No matter how bumpy it was, lessons still learnt somehow. J There were always two sides of a coin, right? So I’d try not to set aside all the good things it brought to me.

The story began when I just finished my thesis defense and comprehensive exam as a mandatory in order to obtain my bachelor degree in Economics. I’m a kind of active person who cannot sit back and not having any activities. In short, I’m so dying of boredom that I desperately need something to do!! Couple of days later, I emailed one company which my bestfriend had done an internship there and she said it was recommended. So I went for it.

Basically, the internship offers you the opportunity to work at their research division in Jakarta office for couple of weeks and at least a month in Kuala Lumpur office, the Headquarter. They promptly responsed by phone, and then we scheduled for an interview in Yogyakarta. Everything went pretty well. Some points worth to be noted in the interview such as:

·      All the internships are actually conducted at their main office in KL. In other words, all interns will be sent to the Headquarter after their visa has been issued.

·      The reason why interns started their work in Jakarta is to get familiar with the work of the company and its working environment as well. Besides, they have to wait for the working visa.

·      Internship duration is a month in its head office. However, it can be extended upon mutual agreements.

Right in the afternoon at the same day, his secretary, Mrs. SS, called to ask about my availability date. If I remembered it correctly, my commencement date was just a week after the interview.

After completing all the required documents for graduation ceremony, I proceed to Jakarta at November 6. The next day, I went to the office and my internship was officially begun. It turned out that the contract was for 3 months internship which can be changed upon agreement from both parties. The consulting firm was actually quite new in Indonesia, probably around 7 years. They have less than 10 employees here in Jakarta and maintain the number of interns at 2 or 3. Their business is more into economics (involving heavy politics in it) and public relation.

When I started, there was one intern (Ms.IV) who had been waiting for a month before going to the head office. I was rather wondering why would she wait that long. Meanwhile, they assured me earlier that Jakarta office was only a ‘transit’ and it won’t take long. Also based on my friend’s experience, she only needed to wait for a week. So I just hoped that my luck would be better.

OK, now let’s talk about the work. As I was belong to Research Division, I mainly helped with media monitoring, translation, and due dilligence. They assigned several mass media and topics need to be monitored. Hence, I spent most of my time in front of laptop, read news the whole time, and yes, my work depended so much on internet connection.  I enjoyed staying alert on the latest news and browsing for some relevant informations because this type of activity was exactly the thing that I wanna do back in college. Yet I wasn’t have enough time or maybe I was too lazy back then? Ahahah. Seriously, I enjoyed spending time using internet for hours and browsing. Umm.. due dilligence was also packed with so much usefull informations which allowing me to gain more knowledge on how businessmen usually do business and get to know some influential businessmen in Indonesia. I learned how economics has so much to do with politics and I continued to encounter what I called “Welcome to The Real World Phenomenon”. LOL.

One..two..three..four weeks past by, but I  stayed in Jakarta office, still. I didn’t see any efforts to send me to KL as promised. On my early internship days, Mrs. SS asked for a reference letter from UGM which stated that they permit me to attend the internship program in KL saying it was required from the Embassy of Malaysia. “Why would I need that? I had already graduated and I don’t think UGM will give me one because it has nothing to do with them anymore. I don’t need any permit from UGM. I will try to ask, though”, I responsed. It turned out right, UGM won’t give me one, but she insisted that we needed it. I then decided to shorten my internship to only 2 months, so that I could do intern in KL for the next month with no working visa required. FYI, we don’t need visa to travel to ASEAN regions maximum for a month. I was hoping that they would send me right away since I didn’t need to wait for the working visa anymore as their excuse to keep me in Jakarta (plus I had already spent my whole month in Jakarta). I wanted to feel the different office atmoshphere, working pace, and culture, anything new. I longed for another adventure. I told this matter (to shorten the period) to Mrs. SS who was the person in charge regarding this matter and after approval from head office, she said OK. BOTH parties agree, right?

Wonderfully, on the next week, she told me that they had to keep me at Jakarta office because my internship duration was only 2 months!!! You gotta be kidding me! In order to move to HQ, I needed to do it for 3 months. WOW. I had never heard this information before and it just came out of nowhere. I definitely knew (I even confirmed to the source person) that there was no such rule. My besties and my friend (who was also working there as research staff) did it less than 3 months!! Even Ms.IV (another intern) was also offered to KL eventhough she only doing it for 2 months. I protested and explained my reasons. However, Mrs. SS stood still arguing that it was the new rule. It still didn’t make any sense to me. Had it was a new rule, shouldn’t anyone telling me about it? Even when I said I wanted to shorten my duration, nobody told me what I had to lose!!?? And wasn’t it supposed to be enforced after me since the rule had just been made after I joined them (since nobody told me anything earlier, I presumed the rule was fresh from the oven!). No matter what my arguments were, she denied it. It dawned at me that they were just simply not going to send me there with no reasonable excuses. I couldn’t accept it. I felt that they (I’m not sure whether it was the company policy or this particular person’s idea, whichever) had breached the contract. Thus, there was no poin for me to stay. I then asked to again shorten my internship. “I’m sorry but I disappointed with this decision. At first, right from the interview, Mr. CEO told me that I would be doing my internship in KL. And I’m here to adjust myself with the work and stuff. But he never mentioned that I needed to do 3-month internship in order to be sent to KL. Well, I supposed there was a huge misunderstanding right from the start. Thus, I truly apologize, but I cannot work here more than a week from now. I hope you will give us clear informations beforehand therefore there will be no incident like this in the future. Thank you very much for everything.. I learned so much. And I’m sorry that it has to end this way”, I said to her. She was sorry too. Yeah, we sorry!

In my personal view, this internship is recommended for those who intend to spend 3 months and not in a hurry to go to KL since you never know when they will send you out. There is no clear system. Oh and also, for those who love “kepo aka due dilligence”, I think this place is good for you. You’ll learn many things. They said, you’ll learn more in KL (rumour has it! I never had a chance to find out though :P) the working atmosphere in Jakarta is also friendly, slow-pace, warm, and welcome.

Critique for this company: please be clearer on your rules and system. Please be fair to interns. I’m sorry but I felt that I had been treated unfairly. At least, you could say what the real reason was. It will be more appreciated. Your reason was really weak. Sorry!

Uh, one more thing..you didn’t treat me fairly in terms of the right to reimburse the transportation ticket too!! How come a friend of mine who was coming from Jogja (so do I) got reimburse on her fair yet you didn’t give me one, just because my parents live in Jakarta. Just so you know, I wouldn’t be back to Jakarta if it wasn’t for the internship. Please be wise and design better Human Resource Policy and we’ll appreciate you MORE! J

I THANK YOU for the opportunity, hospitality, and everything though.. Still, I learned many from the good and the bad..