Second interview in Shanghai

Right after visiting M50, Jeanni and I decided to go to Ikea, which resided across the city. In exchange for my company, we detoured to check out the site of my second interview, which was to be at what I thought was either the company office or one of the brick and mortar company supermarkets. The address that was given to me led me straight into a food mall and after asking a waiter at one of the restaurants, we were directed to a corner on the first floor. That is where I found the pitiful restaurant that bore the name of the company I was interviewing for. Puzzled, shocked and feeling duped, I stared at the tiny restaurant in disbelief. That is when the staff of the restaurant noticed Jeanni and I just staring and approached us. In broken English, one of the staff explained to us that the food was healthy and very good. I thought perhaps the restaurant was a chain, but the staff was puzzled by that question and replied that this was the only restaurant.

I left the food mall extremely confused with what exactly I had gotten myself into. Jeanni wondered aloud why such a small restaurant would need such an educated intern. She seemed to be angry over the discovery, and strongly suggested that I not go to the interview because she thought it would be nothing but a waste of time. However, I was too intrigued about what I had seen to not go. After all, what could such a small restaurant want with a foreign college intern? I was missing a piece of the puzzle and I was most definitely going to the interview to find it.

The interview turned out to be not much of an interview at all, but more of a “you are in and this is what we do” info session. I was surprised to run into Kelly, another UC student upon my arrival at the restaurant. Good thing she was there too, because some serious translating was necessary due to the fact that the interviewer’s English was insufficient to adequately explain what the company did. Halfway through the interview, I grew impatient with the interviewer because I was the one asking all the questions and it seemed that our roles were switched. So I asked the interviewer if he had any questions for me about my resume. To which he replied “no” and stated that my resume was quite impressive. He even said that he thought it was fated that we met. A little taken aback, I laughingly told him that he might be right because I had previously turned down an internship offer to be at the interview.

So what exactly does this company do? It turns out that the restaurant we were conducting the interview in had only been open for two months and was only a small part of their business. The company’s main business was catering for large companies and offices. The restaurant I was sitting in was meant to be a testing site for the food, but they were planning to open fifteen more restaurants over the next two years in Shanghai. Currently, the company has eight contracts with various offices, including a bank. The interviewer spoke repeatedly about wanting to standardize Chinese food and told me about how the company had a factory just outside of Shanghai that they ship the food from. Their competitive advantage, the interviewer claimed, was that their food was healthy, as in low in sodium and with no MSG. The reason the company wanted foreign interns was because it wanted to target multinational corporations and foreign companies. To lend legitimacy to all of this, the interview told Kelly and me how this was his second start up and that his first company, which was also a restaurant chain, was going to IPO in Shenzhen in two months.

This internship has got me extremely excited for the next couple of months. I was getting tired of not doing anything productive the past month in Shanghai. In short, I actually miss work. The chance to work in a Chinese start up is simply too exciting. However improbable, I have visions of sealing catering deals over business dinners with representatives from foreign companies more than twice my age. The interviewer heavily stressed that because the company was so young, Kelly and I would be able to do actual and significant work, so my vision could come true.

I am still awaiting my marching orders, but I was told two weeks ago that I would be starting soon after national week. Cannot wait.

-muffinman