Summer in Singapore

This past summer I spent ten weeks interning at a large corporation in Singapore. Most of the graduate students in our program do some sort of internship, but prior to last fall I assumed I'd be a policy intern, or maybe with the State Department. As it turned out, one of our alumni who worked for the company visited UCSD last fall and encouraged us to apply, so I gave it a shot. During my first interview--what I call a robot interview--I responded to pre-recorded questions without anyone else on the other end of the call. After two more rounds with actual employees HR phoned me with an offer!

That call was back in November of 2017, so it was great to get the internship search out of the way. I had to go through some visa and internal HR hoops, but by the spring I was all set for Singapore. Our quarter system runs through mid June, so I left San Diego the week before finals; luckily I was able to finish classes early (and take one final remotely). I arrived in Singapore on Saturday, June 9th, just two days before the Trump-Kim summit there. Unfortunately, I don't have any insider details--you couldn't get within five blocks of the hotel Trump was staying at, and the entire island of Sentosa was off-limits for the summit.

At our division's summer outing on Sentosa a few weeks later

Over the following ten weeks I stayed in a hotel in the central business district right across the street from the office! The company paid so I jumped at the offer (although I later learned that the value of the stay was considered part of my wages for tax purposes, so that was a rude surprise). I worked Monday to Friday, officially from 9 am to 6 pm. I stayed later many days, sometimes only until around 7, while on other evenings I had calls that kept me in past 9 pm. If we needed to speak with someone on Eastern Standard Time back in the US, we were 12 hours ahead, so a 9 am call for them was 9 pm in Singapore.

Evening view from my hotel room in the central business district

Overall I found the experience rewarding and definitely helpful from a learning perspective. I won't go into too many details; I signed a non-disclosure agreement anyway. Going into the internship, I was unsure if it was the kind of work for me, and coming out I still had my doubts. 10 weeks was fine, but as I got to know my colleagues I realized many lacked a solid work-life balance, or if they were more senior, they lacked that balance earlier on in their careers as they progressed. Singapore is known for long hours, and although our division wasn't an extreme example, interns in other areas of the firm were consistently working twelve plus hours, six days a week.

If I was passionate about the work, the long hours could have been manageable. As it turned out, my outlook was usually just to get through the day. Again, it was fine for 10 weeks, and there were elements of the job I enjoyed, but it probably isn't something I want to do long term. I was also surprised at how low that pay was--apparently, starting analysts get about $40k a year. I might have gotten more with a masters degree and some experience, but that figure is far less than I assumed.

I didn't have to worry about whether or not to take an offer, because I haven't gotten one! Last I checked with the other five interns, no one else had either. Our department was small--with about 20 employees--so they may simply not have needed anyone at the time. Looking back, it was still definitely a valuable experience, and it will hopefully be a solid resume boost as I begin applying for permanent positions. I also got to spend 10 weeks in Singapore, so all in all, not a bad deal!

Concert hall in the Botanical Gardens; during the week I mostly
stayed downtown, but on weekends I explored the city

Along the Singapore River downtown

During those 10 weeks I spent most of the time in Singapore, although I did make two trips. One weekend I flew to Bangkok to visit a classmate who was interning there, and another I traveled all the way back to Ohio, for my sister's wedding. I took only three days off work and spent as much time traveling as I did actually in Columbus. The week I came back to Singapore I had a final presentation for my individual project. The timing could have been better, but it was still amazing to get back for my sister's wedding and say hi to family and friends.

In the next post I'll have a bunch of pictures from around Singapore during my time there this summer; after the internship I also did some traveling, so I'll do a separate post about that too.