The Magic Journey

--- Learning journal of PGDP Program

The days in Huatai Co. Nanjing is rich and memorable. Thanks to the PGDP program and all the people I met this summer, I regain the direction of my later life. Its a magic journey Harrison

Name: XU Shuhun Student ID: 08801252D Location of Internship Company: Nanjing

Name: XU Shuhun Internship Company: Huatai Securities Limited Co. Duration: May 31, 2010Jul 10. 2010 Supervisors Name: JI Feng Company phone number: 86-25-52210556

Table of Contents

Introduction-----------------------------------------4

I. Tasks----------------------------------------------5 II. Challenge----------------------------------------5 III. Culture------------------------------------------6 IV. Tour Leader-------------------------------------7 V. Self Reflective----------------------------------7 VI. Coming Objective-----------------------------8

Appendix: photos---------------------------------9

Introduction

Huatai Securities Co., with the mission that to be the most responsible financial manager, is one of the ten major comprehensive licensed securities corporations in mainland China since lawfully registered in 1991. The market share of brokerage business of this company is ranked no.2 in industry. The subsidiaries include securities brokerage companies, fund houses, futures brokerage companies and bank. This is exactly the company which offered me an internship opportunity this summer. With the goal that investigating mainland securities industry and equipping myself with relative knowledge, I regard Huatai Securities Co. to be the window to my personal career. What brought to me most in the internship is the experience about mainland culture, especially the culture in the corporation, from the dress code, amenities to the attitudes and even the communication styles. Meanwhile, this provides me the opportunity to thoroughly think about my own occupational planning, and some outdated stereotypes in my mind were rejected and rebuilt. I appreciate the days that I spent in Huatai(Nanjing), and they will be one of the most valuable periods in my life time.

I. Tasks

Several tasks are assigned to me during the one and half months in Huatai Co., which mainly include two parts: customer consultation and financial manager assistant. More specifically, I need to understand the business flow and operation. At the same time, the professional knowledge is necessary for daily customer enquiries. Basically, I worked in two departments during the internship period, the counter and the financial management team. The former requires me to help handle enquires from customers, and it is also the start point for me to understand the basic job flows, such as opening share accounts, fundamental knowledge, securities market status and so on. Starting from the third week, I was allocated to financial management department. I worked to provide support to sales person and to formulate investment plan to customers. Also, I helped to maintain the customer relationship management system (CRM) in the branch that I worked for, including data input and market (target customer) segmentation. Besides, part of telemarketing job was assigned to me, which highly practiced my communication skill and let me realize the difficulties to negotiate with customers.

II. Challenges
As stated above, the most challenging work was telemarketing. When the list with hundreds of names was presented to me, I admitted that I treated it as an easy task. However, when the first number was dialed, my confidence collapsed. It was a rejection, coming when I did not even fully complete my first sentence. I felt hesitated to believe the probability of successfully finishing a call. This is the problem of communication, and I realized that my poor and improper communication skill constitutes a sharp barrier between customers and me. I started to think about the words, and how to convey the message more effectively. For example, I tried writing down what Im going to say before I dialed the number, and I would check customers information as the preparation work. During the conversation, being able to accurately interpret customers emotions and being sensitive to their feelings are essential. Certainly, the task of telemarketing became more and more smooth afterwards.

III. Culture

Huatai is one of the 19 innovative financial institutions in mainland China, which is strongly supported by the China regulatory bodies. The company is fully supported on its development of innovative financial business. Within the six months internship, corporate culture is the most impressive part in my mind. Usually, the fitment or the working environment is the best way to exhibit a companys primary impression. The office in Huatai is bright with open scheme design. Staffs have strict dressing code, namely write shirt or blouse and black trousers. Staff identity card should be hung on the neck. All the manners are strictly settled so that everyone should obey. There will be a small meeting every morning from 8:30 to 9:00. In the meeting, manager will arrange some daily task and review past achievement. The rank will be emphasized every day and seems to be extremely important in business. Meeting room is the place where I learn most, including the marketing methods, company logos and the flow of business. The dining table is definitely most important part for Chinese business. No matter the business talk with clients or the inner company entertainment, mainland Chinese people used to solve all the problems in the dinner time. And at the same time, Guanxi is established; this sort of social relationship will be the lubricant and even the catalyst for business. In the table, toast is a very interesting and complicated manner in mainland China. The sequence of toast is decided. You cannot toast until your bosses or managers have finished. Besides, the toast is a two-way communication, which means you should propose a toast and then be toast again. General speaking, the culture in Huatai is full of youth and vitality, since everyone in the company is striving for the best and learning new skills. I know a person who is aged 25 and already be the vice general manager in a branch, and it reflects the company has the spirit of valuing talented people. Meanwhile, from the well-regulated working environment, Ive seen a healthy company with strict control.

IV. Tour Leader

A special experience is that I am the tour leader of Nanjing internship trip. To coordinate 31 students life and the daily affairs is not an easy task. During the six weeks, fortunately, all the students are safe and healthy. Despite this, I learnt a lot of things and got myself fulfilled during the process. Through dealing with the daily affairs between Southeast University and PolyU students, my coordination skill has been improved. We organized several trips during weekends and the vacation, such as the 3-day Yellow Mountain trip, the Expo in Shanghai and so on. Being sensitive to students feelings is very important. This requires me good communication skills also. Moreover, my interpersonal skills have been improved also, because I not only got a lot of friends in both Nanjing and Hong Kong, but also learnt how to build my own interpersonal relationship network. When I applied this into my daily work, I felt more and more relaxed and confident to make friends with my collages.

V. Self Reflective

Before internship, four types of learning objectives were introduced to me during the workshop conducted by SAO. Now, recollecting these objectives again, I feel the opportunity in Huatai gives more than I have expected. (I) Career-oriented objectives Id like to say that this internship helps me a lot to establish my own career goal and career path. The mainland securities industry is presented to me during that six weeks, and I became more and more familiar about this position, no matter the personal development opportunity or the salary and welfare. The securities company is a very good job choice after graduation. I plan to acquire relevant certificate in next two years, which will help me strengthen my competitive ability and professional knowledge. (II) Skills acquisition objectives Although my major is Accounting &Finance, I seldom know some investment or securities knowledge. During the internship period, I attempted to make up the loss in the investment field. At the same time, I got a major task which was to maintain the customer relationship management system, and this is exactly the staff that I learnt last semester in the subject Information Technology for Business. Its a pleasure to

apply what I have learnt to daily job, since I feel the self-value during the job. Besides, some soft skills are acquired during the job such as how to resolve conflict, how to work with a diverse group, how to show off in front of the leaders, and even how to talk. I believe these skills make me more mature than before.

(III) Skills application/development objectives As stated above, the old knowledge is applied to this job to some extent, and the new skills are acquired, including both soft skills and professional know-how. Particularly when I did the telemarketing tasks, I felt joyful when the probability of success calls was going up. No matter the interpersonal skill, communication skill, the CRM knowledge, the experience of the mainland corporate culture, and my personal career design, they can all be described concretely. (IV) Human relations objectives From the internship in Huatai, I realized that networking for a person is of huge importance. The very essential part for me becoming outstanding is to learn to make myself visible. I started to collect business cards and learnt to introduce myself to other people. One success is that I could always make my colleagues remember my name in a short time. Apart from the establishment of networking, I also get myself improved in working with supervisors, fellow workers and customers. I found listening is an important skill. Only when I know how to listen to others opinion or accept a new view can I improve my communication skill.

VI. Coming Objective

Overall speaking, Im glad and lucky to have this internship opportunity. In the past several weeks, I have thought a lot about my own career goal and my vision in the later life. I plan to use the rest of my university life to do the preparation work. On one hand I will continue to find other internship, especially in other industry, to equip myself with more experience; on the other hand, I will prepare for a higher degree also. A recent scheming is to finish the GMAT in September and obtain securities working qualification in October. My ideal career path is to be a financial planner after graduation, and then to apply for a MBA degree when I accumulate enough knowledge. Thanks to this internship, I know I shall further develop my own professional knowledge and working experiences through joining the real job market.

Appendix:

Photos

The first day to work, on the road, in HR managers car. Were laughing

The last day in Huatai, taking photo to record the memorable period.

At beginning, I worked in the counter to assistant in solving customers problem.

Then, I was arranged to financial management team.

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These are our working environment.

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My colleagues

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Snooker room in Huatai.

Gym room in Huatai

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Closing ceremony, with Huatai team.

Closing ceremony, with group leaders of Nanjing trip.

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The whole Nanjing trip The most beautiful time this summer.

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