Last Friday was my first interview ever in Shanghai and surprisingly, it went very well, despite my predicament in getting there and zero preparation.
To keep from being late, I left the apartment at 11am which would give me three hours to get to the meeting place, and I was told by an old intern that it was just a 45 minute commute to get there. I figured this would be more than enough time even for a directionally incompetent person like me. And I was right, but just by 30 minutes. It turned out that the place where I thought the Starbucks was, was actually nowhere near where I should have been. As I stood in front of the massage parlor that should have been the office of the company I was interviewing for, it became increasingly apparent that I was in the wrong place.
Pacing back and forth in the street on my cell phone trying to explain where I was to my contact person in the company in the face of my nearing interview time and dying cell phone battery, I must have been a curious sight to the woman watching me behind her store door. When the person on the phone told me to go ask a local to explain to her where I was, I noticed the woman watching me in the store. Smilingly, I approached her and tried my best with English and hand gestures to get her to take my phone. However, she kept refusing and repeatedly told me that she did not speak English and that it was not her phone. Exasperated, I asked the woman on the phone how to ask for help in Putonghua and repeated it to the store woman. The store woman relented and took the phone, things were finally starting to go right. Once the phone was in the hands of the local, my location problem was solved. I was instructed to take a cab to the Starbucks, because I was just too far away. When I hailed a cab, the store woman noticed I was having trouble with the taxi driver and came out of her store to help without me asking. For the third time in a week, I was being saved by a complete stranger.
The interview itself went very well, I do not think I have ever sounded so qualified for a job that I had applied for. Ironically, I had not prepared at all for the interview because I did not think it was an interview at all. From the email, I had just thought this was a casual meet up so I did not prepare anything at all. Luckily, previously in Los Angeles, I had sketched out some marketing plans for the company while stuck in traffic, just to pass the time, so when the owner of the company asked me what ideas I had for the company I not only had something, but very detailed plans as well. What was even more extraordinary was that many of the ideas I had suggested, the company had just started implementing just two weeks ago. More amazingly, the detail in which my plans matched with what they were doing came down to things as small as using specifically Yelp to do market research. Yes, what I had thought about in my car months ago was actually coming to fruition half a world away three months later. Needless to say, I was very impressed with myself.
The owner of the company must have been impressed with me too, because she was very enthusiastic about me joining the company. She told me not to worry about hours because she was very flexible and that I could work at home but that she preferred me to be at the office. Then she took me the office and introduced me to everybody on the team, even going so far as to show me detailed reports about their social media marketing efforts and then asking me for suggestions based off the information. I think I burst her bubble, when I told her that I was not sure whether I was going to take the internship and that I would make up my mind by Friday.
Currently, I am still on the fence about it, but leaning towards not taking internship. Part of the reason is because the internship will have me doing the same social media work that I have been doing for the past year, and will teach me nothing about the Chinese market. The focus on the American market makes this internship comparable to something I could get in the states. Another and bigger reason for me not taking the internship is because I am simply having too much fun! Shanghai is the first time I have been able to enjoy my time off. The people and places that I have been encountering have made the last week one of the most memorable of my life, and I feel that working might get in the way of experiencing China to the fullest.
Of course, there are reasons to take the internship, such as the fact that it will still be a learning experience. The Christmas shopping season is coming up, meaning that there will be a lot of activity at the company. The founders of the company are still young and seem to be pretty connected which makes this internship an above average networking opportunity. Also, the company itself is just four years old and it has been growing a lot each year, to be part of this continuing growth would look good on my resume.
If only they offered to pay me, then this decision would not be so difficult.
-muffinman
