Week 1: Sydney

The first weeks in Australia left me with an impression of friendly people, amazing food, and beautiful weather & nature. I got some food recommendations from professors and stumbled upon others through my travels. Some of my favorite spots to eat include a Taiwanese restaurant, a bread shop, and a Korean fried chicken restaurant. After class, I like to go grab some quick food before heading back to Oaks Goldberg.

This has been a great start to my 8 week’s stay in one of the most beautiful countries in the world.

Week 2: Walkabout Park, and Sydney Opera House

Week 2, Saturday was an early wake-up. We were heading to Walkabout Park, which was an hour’s bus ride away. Our stay was about 8 hours long. I was amazed by the wildlife, and history that was shown throughout the trip. First, we got to interact closely with the kangaroos, and emus while they were eating. I was surprised by the Kangaroos. They were a lot smaller than what I expected. Later we went hiking through the trails at the park. The tour guide showed us many plants, aboriginal handprints on caves, and carvings on the ground that recorded the wildlife in the surrounding area. Lastly, I had my first chance to throw a boomerang.

On Tuesday, 1-24-2022 we went on a quick tour of the Sydney Opera House. Learning about the history of Sydney’s landmark.

Week 3: End of our First Semester

Week 3 marks the end of my Australia Life & Cultuer and Global Management courses. Both were very interesting, especially the course work gets integrated into everyday life. Australian life and culture talk about the history and many systematic problems woven into current Australian society. This class took a deep dive into aboriginal history and colonialism. The Global Management course was also quite interesting, doing many case studies of MNCs. Analyzing how a business would adapt to different local environments.

Week 4: Amazing Food

I was surprised by the diversity of Asian cuisine available in Sydney. I saw amazing restaurants including different regions of Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese. The two notable dishes that I tried this week are Baozaifan and Roujiamo. I got a rib and sausage Baozaifan, which is clay pot rice with pork and sausage. The crispy bits at the bottom of the pot, and the sweet soy sauce created an amazing dish. The Roujiamo was originally from Xi’an, a city in China. It is like a burger, with meat inside a piece of bread. These are two Chinese food items that are not commonly found in the States. So they have been on the list of foods I want to try.

Week 5: Blue Mountains

Last weekend we planned a group trip to the Blue Mountains. This called for an early start to the day, I got up at 6 pm to get ready. We caught a train, and it took about 2.5 hours to get to the Blue Mountains. The views made our 2.5-hour trip worth it. It was nature as far as the eye could see, with many trees, mountains, and clifts. I tried to capture the moment with my phone, however, the picture is just not the same. I saw so many different plants, and landscapes as we continued through the trip.

Week 6: Interviews

Week 6 has been a busy week for me. This week I focused a lot of my coursework, and interviewing for internships in Singapore, and back in the States. I had 3 total internship interviews this week at companies including BSI, BDO, and RSM, which are professional service companies. The interview for RSM is for a 2024 summer internship, and BSI/BDO were both for internships in Singapore.

Week 7: Last Week of Sydney, Acceptance Letter for Internship

This is the last week in Sydney. Time flies by so fast in a different environment. I found out the results of the internship placements. I got offers from both BDO and BSI Singapore. I decided to take the offer from BDO and join their Risk Advisory practice.
Aside from the internship placement the last week also implies the end of my two classes. Global Marketing, and Business Law. Global Marketing taught me a lot about different factors that impact market entry into a new country. Business Law taught me the importance of legal literacy in a business setting.

Week 8: Spring Break

Week 8 is our spring break in Cairns, we had daily plans for 4 days including trips to an island, rainforest, Great Barrier Reef, and a crocodile farm. on the island, we went snorkeling and had a good lunch. The rainforest trip included stops at different sights, including ponds forests, and waterfalls. On the crocodile farm, we saw a few shows, and I tried crocodiles for the first time. Lastly, we went out to the Great Barrier Reef to go snorkeling and diving. There were 3 separate stops around the Great Barrier Reef. I got to snorkel and scuba dive, where I saw a shark, sea turtle, sea cucumber, clownfish, and other marine life.

Week 9: Singapore Internship

We landed in Singapore from a 12+ hour trip. On the way back to our hotel, I noticed the incredible amount of greenery in Singapore. There are so many plants on the side of the road/highway.

Monday the 13th marks the first day of my 2 monthly internships with BDO’s Risk Advisory Team. I will be in the office on a full-time schedule. My main responsibility is to assist in internal audits, data analytics, SR (sustainability reports), and any other tasks. I will also get the opportunity to go to many clients, to get exposure to the internal audit procedures. I had the opportunity to meet many of my colleagues. Some of them were on the client sight, so I met about half the team. They were all really friendly, and really easy to get along with.

Week 10: First Client Project

Week 10 is my first opportunity to go and work at one of our client’s offices. This client is a publically listed multinational company that provides security equipment and services to private and public clients. Our process at the client sight includes a kickoff meeting, interviews, testing, and a wrap-up meeting. In the kickoff meeting, many of the company’s C-suite executives, and our Risk Advisory Partner showed up. Then we would interview different departments depending on the scope of the tests that we need to conduct. I got my first chance to do IA (internal audit) work. This is where I helped pull samples and raise any underlying issues in our client’s procedures.

Week 11

Week 11 is the second week of working with my first client. A colleague and I had to make our way to our client’s Tuas office. Tuas is in western Singapore, an industrial part of Singapore. This area is filled with companies and factories, so there were no shops and houses.
This changed my impression of Singapore. I thought all of Singapore was high-rise office buildings, shopping malls, and apartments. This opportunity gave me an insight into a new side of Singapore that I would not have known otherwise.

We went over for 2-3 days in order to do IA on their HR function. We went through many samples and checked for the proper process and documentation of employees. This gave me an insight into the company’s HR scope and documentation process.

Last we had a wrap-up meeting at the end of the week.

Week 12: Second Client Engagement

Week 12 marks the start of my second client. This client is in the hospitality business. Monday morning started off very poorly. When my colleagues and I arrived at the client’s hotel, we found out their staff were working from home due to covid-19. They requested that we go back to BDO’s office, and continue the project virtually for our two-week period.

This week I did not do IA due to the special situation. Most of my work was centered around being assigned in evaluating our client’s SR (sustainability report). Tasks included helping go through the SGX (Singapore Stock Exchange) requirements for a publically listed company’s SR report, checking if SR meets GRI requirements, and using Excel to help visualize and analyze data used in our client’s SR.

Week 13

I got called into the partner’s office first thing in the morning on Wednesday. He told me that he needed me to go through our client’s 2021 (past) and 2022 (present) SR report and mark the contributions that our team has been able to make. He was going to present the results to our client’s board meeting two days later. This task was urgent, so he needed the results by the next morning.

Week 14: Third client Engagement

My third client project is with a large nonprofit in Singapore. I had some exposure to IA in the first project, so I thought everything would go very smoothly and according to plan. This was not the case. Our kickoff meeting and interviews were normal. However, we had trouble getting the required documents/data that we need for our IA testing.

I noticed additional difficulties in client-facing projects. We had to wait a long time to get the information we need in order to start our work.

Week 15

In week 15 we finally got all of the data that is needed for our procurement IA test. The sample was very large, and I needed to work through many documents. The manager taught me how to do the task, and I ended up completing the tests in 3 days. I learned about our client’s procurement procedures, which help them monitor their spending.

Week 16: End of Program

Week 16 is the last week of my semester abroad. I can’t believe the program is over already. I learned so much from my amazing colleagues during this internship. I learned a lot about different industries. After the completion of the internship, have a better idea of the type of work I may do in the future. This will help me in my future internship selection.

I am planning to stay in Asia for another month before returning to the US. I will on spending this time visiting family in China and taking a short trip to Hong Kong and South Korea.