Learning about expenses in Hong Kong
Sijie Ke, a Chinese A-level student at EF Academy Oxford, spent a week doing an internship at the EF Office in Hong Kong. She worked with the finance team – which she believed to be a highly friendly bunch, full of skills. Read on to find out what she thought of this special experience:
Before we decide on the major we want to study in university, which we will be applying for in September, it’s best for us to experience the careers related to what we will study and how it is in real life. An internship gives us a general idea into a potential subject we are interested in. Therefore, I do appreciate that I had the chance to intern with the excellent finance team.
It was almost raining all the time in Hong Kong, wet streets, full of people – it made me feel a bit stressed. But every time when I get into the office, I always felt comfortable. Tidy environment, suitable temperature and friendly people made for a good day in office. People there are always friendly and willing to offer help, they also treat you politely and with respect. I also met some people who work for EF Academy in different cities, like Shanghai and Bangkok – they are all enthusiastic people who care about the students’ life at school.
For my internship, my first task was to learn how to make an expense report. Firstly, I got lots of receipts for a quarter, then I needed to organize them in order with date and code them. Then the data was uploaded onto the computer to make a form showing all the expenses. It was a long process to complete all the steps. I have learned the skills to gather and analyze data more efficiently and systematically. Also I had to compare and match data for different documents, which has helped me become more careful and sensitive when dealing with numbers. Besides, the receipts were from different countries, such as Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, which meant various currencies were used. Therefore, I needed to transfer them into Hong Kong dollar to calculate properly. It was quite interesting, I felt like travelling from one country to another when doing that. It also gave me some knowledge and idea about the exchange rate among several currencies.
In conclusion, this experience makes me more determined on choosing my study program for university, I also found out that I enjoy doing finance and am excited to learn more. In my spare time, I went out to explore this lovely city, viewing magnificent scenes and eating lots of delicious food. I really enjoyed and treasured the internship a lot.