How to get a summer internship in China?

[mustakin]

Hello everyone,

As the title goes; how can an expat most easily find a summer internship in China?

Now I know that there may be some threads like this already but after some searching I gave up and decided to make a new one(hopefully more up-to-date).

I am a multilingual finance undergraduate from Sweden with Chinese speaking skills more or less equivalent to the HSK level 4. I have also studied International Business before and attended Universities such as Fudan and SKEMA Business school(French). I do not want this to be fully centered on myself but I hope we can get a discussion started from here at least.

I am willing to travel far and wide in China as long as the internship has anything to do with business/finance or trade, I might even stretch as far as marketing. I have been searching through everything I could get my hands on, at least when it comes to the Internet. I am posting this since I would like to elude the hordes and hordes of HR-agencies charging you so that YOU can get to work for free! Isn't that just wonderful?

So if anyone, have heard anything about summer internships in regards of the criteria I have mentioned please do not hesitate to post it here or send me a PM.

Regards,

M

[CRCCAsia]

Hi M

CRCC Asia are the UK's leading provider of internships in China - specifically in Beijing and Shanghai in a variety of sectors, including Finance. You can have a look at the website here: www.crccasia.com/internships/ to find out more about their China Internship Program.

[Saxondale]

quite a small company at the moment but have a look at www.internchina.com

[Lu]

Apply directly with companies. The most obvious would be Swedish companies that do business in China. If you were Dutch I'd suggest you contact the Benelux Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, they have a list of Dutch (and Belgian and Luxembourgian) companies doing business in China. Perhaps something similar exists for Sweden? You could also consider Chinese companies that do business in Sweden/Scandinavia/Europe.

Don't know about headhunters but I know the Hutong School in Shanghai and Beijing arranges internships. Or perhaps that is the same company as internchina.com?

One warning: it's probably still possible to find something for this summer, but you are a little late starting now and it might not be easy.

Good luck!

[Scoobyqueen]

Good luck

[mustakin]

It's great to see some response from you people, greatly appreciated!

The link you posted, thrice12, is probably the most "affordable" agency I have seen so far, too bad it doesn't offer positions in the bigger cities with the same price!

In regards of the other suggestions, there is actually a Swedish Chamber of Commerce and I do have checked up their companies I started this search all the way back in the beginning of march actually, scouring every English website that offers jobs and positions like this.

I will give it another try now applying directly for some companies I find interesting and if there is no catch I will have to go with the HR-agencies I suppose!

Scoobyqueen, you seem well enough experienced in this matter and I am grateful for your contribution to this topic. I was not completely serious when mocking the case when interns haves to pay companies nowadays to help find them a job and then work for free. But I do think its a bit comical though - since we, after all, are looking to find work to make a wage/life but now, in the fierce global competition, people has begun to be willing to pay to work for free!

Anyhow, I would like to thank you all once again and encourage you to please come with further advice if you do have any! I would also like to urge, once again, if there is anyone out there with the knowledge of a intern position (wherever in China) don't hesitate contacting me!

[zhouhaochen]

When I started working at LTL, the idea that someone pays an agency to find work sounded pretty strange to me. After a few years doing this though, I changed my mind though, as finding the right internship and organizing the whole thing yourself is truly not easy and paying someone to do it to make sure you actually get what you want can be well worth the money spent. Also having someone to help with accommodation, visas, and a social intern community in China is a value added service.

However, none of these things are magical and it is possible to organize all this yourself with the right information and connections.

Anyways, I work at LTL, so I guess I am biased If you are interested, have a look at our internships in Beijing and Shanghai

PS: one important thing I notice when reading checking our interns CV's and motivation letters, is that they tend to write long essays why they really want to come to China, which is not very useful at all. If you apply anywhere, write a short introduction what kind of work you want to and can do for the company. Otherwise they will think you want to use them as a travel agency to live your China dream, which most companies are not very interested in.