This is my final report about my two-month internship. The company sells all sorts of vitamins, minerals and other nutritional supplements via wholesale and the Internet. Its customers are located all around the world with a focus on the Asian markets. All my four colleagues are from Asian origin (China, Taiwan, Japan) and their language skills are of course a major advantage if you want to sell vitamins in those countries.

On my first day I came as a surprise, my supervisor expected me to come three weeks later probably due to a communication mistake. But he adapted very quickly to the new situation.

As I had already learned during my telephone interview, the dress code was rather casual, shirt and jeans were sufficient and I did not have to wear a suit.
During my first week there also was an intern from Korea working here, but unfortunately our internships did not overlap for a longer time. We went together to the Internex summer party, which was great and a very good opportunity to make new friends. Due to heavy rain, it took place at the Rowing Club in Stanley Park. But this did not dampen the atmosphere at all!

The working atmosphere at the company was very nice, all my colleagues were always ready to help whenever I had a problem. Generally, the hierarchy is very flat, and when I had a question I could always directly contact to my general manager or chief, mostly via Skype as they worked next door. 

In the beginning, I found it a little bit difficult to understand the Asian accent of my two colleagues, who worked in the same room as I did, and they appeared to be a little bit reserved and not very talkative. But with time going on, we got to know each other better and we had longer and very interesting conversations.

Especially my supervisor was really kind: He gave me some very useful suggestions what to do in my spare time in Vancouver. Some of my favorite places – Locarno Beach, Deep Cove and the fantastic walk around False Creek I probably would not have discovered if it had not been for him. On top of that, he even invited me to have dinner with him and his wife twice. We spent a great evening at a Yaletown restaurant and I will have a farewell dinner tonight with him and his wife.  

My tasks were varied and in different fields: I learned how to work with Adobe Illustrator and created advertising material with it, some of which was posted on our web site. I did some research for a new product and was involved in the necessary registration process in Canada. Not to forget doing the inventory count for August and September.  

What I found especially interesting was to see a Canadian Balance Sheet and a Profit & Loss Statement. As I am planning to work in the field of finance/controlling in my future career, some of my favorite tasks were to calculate the company’s inventory turnover and to analyze the pricing of our label supplier. Actually, I found another label supplier with competitive prices, which we are going to test in the future.

Unfortunately my efforts to try and find some new German customers have failed. When things got to the crucial point and the companies were supposed to order something, they did not do it. But in a longer internship with more time for research and contacting further companies I would probably have been successful.

In the middle of my internship Anthony quit his job. It was a major impact for such a small company, but a replacement was found soon enough and the whole company had a fantastic farewell dinner! My new colleague Selina was also from Taiwan and really nice.

From time to time I had not enough to do but I took initiative and always asked for new tasks and projects. Thus I was given more insights into the customer service and I was able to help my two colleagues Naomi and Selina with requests to suppliers, customer inquiries and the registration of the parcels sends to its customers at Canada Post and in the US. There is quite a lot of bureaucracy involved! Phoning with customer service representatives from our suppliers provided me with some valuable practice for my English. Besides picking up the phone and being responsible for the reception, which belonged to my daily tasks, actually requesting information from other companies proved to be very interesting. 

What skills did I develop during my internship? I of course improved my English and learned quite a lot of business terms and how to communicate in the Canadian business world. Apart from that, my cultural knowledge has considerably improved. I especially learned quite a lot about Taiwan, China and Japan. Learning some Chinese words from Selina and comparing daily life and the education systems in Germany, Canada and those countries was particularly interesting.

Inevitably, during these two months I also gained considerable knowledge about vitamins, minerals and all kinds of nutritional supplements. Next time I enter a German pharmacy I will definitely look for the German equivalent products!

Vancouver itself really exceeded all my expectations: The scenery and the many nice and beautiful places all over the city are really fantastic. A quite striking difference with Germany is the amount of space here: German cities are much more densely built and populated.
Multiculturalism was another unexpected but very enriching experience. As I already learned from Patrick in the preparation seminar, the typical Canadian is not necessarily white. Actually, I was surprised how many Asian people live and work in Vancouver.

Working together with some of them, better getting to know their cultures and their lives and gaining new knowledge from them was an essential part of my internship experience.

As you would probably expect now, my host family was also from Asian origin, i. e. the Philippines. They were really nice and I truly enjoyed their hospitality. With up to five students from Brazil, China, France, Vancouver and Columbia staying there, it was always quite busy and never boring. The family’s six-year-old son Bradley was particularly nice and it was always fun playing with him.  

All in all, my internship was a great experience. I think that I have gained quite a lot of new and valuable knowledge and experience in the course of my internship, and I will definitely always remember the great time I had in Vancouver!
I would like to thank the INTERNeX team, especially Houtan and Patrick, for their helpfulness, service and organizing efforts to make this experience possible!