Nexstep Insights

Robert Charlton has very good insights.  When you listen to him speak, you can tell that he thinks a lot.  He told me that the study tour he did with Next Step Connections, “…inspired me a lot.”  I could tell from our conversation that he meant it. He discussed in detail the relevant differences between a startup live Hive Up and a multinational corporation he visited.  He pointed out that the startups seemed more open with information while MNCs seemed more protective.  Another core difference was that startups seemed more likely to experiment and fill market gaps, while large corporations were prone to take less risk and focus on extending existing businesses. One significant similarity he saw was that regardless of company size…all of the people to whom he spoke were super motivated and “all in” for their job responsibilities.  From that he was truly inspired.

For the 30 minutes or so that I was talking to Nabila Khokhar, I kept forgetting that she was still a student.  Her maturity and self-confidence belied her age and she continuously surprised me with her well considered answers to my questions. Math is a passion of hers, which is always refreshing for me to hear.  She also impressed me with her desire to get a diploma in Financial Planning that is separate from her degree.  Instead of taking the easy way, she wanted to accomplish more.  That was cool… Her insights on the Next Step Connections’ Tech Innovation Discovery in Singapore program were very interesting. She was a bit nervous prior to going on the program, but it was well worth it and gave her a new perspective on the differences between large companies and smaller startups. One of my favorite things that Nabila said was in reference to the Google office that the group visited, “The innovation…begins at the reception.”

Audio Player “My roommate’s cat broke them…” was the answer I got to the first question I asked Paola Jimenez, so I knew this was going to be a great conversation….Paola did not disappoint. Paola was encouraged to do an internship by her university, but had not considered going abroad to do it until she spoke to one of her friends and then the bug hit.  She was inspired to enhance her personal and professional life by participating in Next Step Connection‘s program  Bangkok, Thailand for her summer internship in 2017. A university student’s life can sometimes get more complicated than expected.  There are school pressures, social pressures and family pressures…and managing them all requires a lot of focus and energy.  Something as seemingly innocuous as telling one’s parents where your internship is going to be can get stressful. One of the things to learn is that no individual day is fatal and that you can stress about things that in the end are not a big deal.  Overcoming those fears and persisting can be very important things to learn, indeed.

Benjamin Max Gottlieb is an Emmy-award winning reporter, producer and host based in Los Angeles, California. He is also a 2011 participant in a Next Step Connections internship program in Hong Kong, while he was a graduate student in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Southern California.  Benjamin was paired with a Chinese student during the program, living in a small apartment in Mong Kok on the Kowloon Side of Hong Kong and working at CNN International. Although Benjamin was an experienced traveler prior to going on the program, this was his first exposure to Asia.  It turns out that Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated territories in the world, which provides first time visitors with a powerful introduction to some of the cultural idiosyncrasies of an Asian city. Undaunted, Benjamin thrived in the newness, the differences and the intensity and continues to share those experiences with students that are considering joining internship abroad programs.

Fadi Madanat is a student at Western Sydney University and is also an intern at its School of Business International Programs.  He is also very interested in technology and the role it plays in our everyday lives. While he has traveled to Jordan to visit family and friends (Jordan…I really want to go!), he had not been to Southeast Asia, until he participated in Next Step Connection’s ‘Tech Innovation Discovery‘ program in Singapore. Meeting startups, visiting Google’s office, going to National University of Singapore…all of these experiences continue to help shape and influence how Fadi thinks about building ecosystems around technology.  It inspired him to start the ‘Entrepreneurship Society’ at Western Sydney University and consider how he could take more of his learnings and apply them to his own endeavors, including his stealth startup.

Jessica Joseph was born in Chicago, though her family hails from India.  Traveling overseas was not a new experience for her.  She had been back to India to visit her extended family in the past…but she had never traveled that far away from home on her own.  Her family was initially concerned about her safety while she was abroad, but that soon dissipated as she settled into her experience in Thailand. Jessica Joseph was bound to do a study abroad program.  It was not about if…it was about when and where.  She decided on a program in Bangkok, Thailand and she quickly adapted to her new surroundings. Jessica learned a lot while she was in Bangkok…using her time alone to think about her future, the need to adapt to new situations and whether or not she was still committed to her career in Health Care.

Wenet Wu was very insightful.  Early in our conversation she used the word ‘strategic’ when introducing the idea of her internship to me.  After listening to her speak, she does seem like someone that has a strategy. She had graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering from Texas A & M, yet was interested in fashion.  Searching on the net, she found Next Step Connections’ internship program and they organized an experience for her in Hong Kong with Tory Burch.  Even with family history in Hong Kong (Her parents had immigrated to Dallas, Texas with her grandparents from Hong Kong.) and two prior visits, working there and being a ‘tourist’ were two completely different things. It was here that Wenet learned about the supply chain, what it is like to work in a different culture and the joys of commuting by train.  Hong Kong was definitely different than Texas, but Wenet embraced these differences and had a great experience.

Jason Grant was attending the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, when he decided to participate in the Next Step Connections internship program in Shanghai.  Living in Shanghai had been a dream of Jason’s and he was able to live his dream while also gain some valuable work experience in the dynamic market of Shanghai real estate. That was back in 2014…and now almost four years later, I spoke to Jason about the impact that experience had on his life, how it helped shape his post graduation experience and how it still carries with him today.

Sara Gonzalez was in-between her junior and senior years at the University of Texas at Austin when she decided to join the Next Step Connections internship program and head to Bangkok during the summer of 2017.  Her family thought she was completely insane…she had traveled extensively prior to this, but not so far away and not to a place as different as Thailand. Excitement led to trepidation, even on the plane in Houston, Sara noticed that most of the other passengers were Japanese…and she started to feel out of place and wonder…”Did I do the right thing?” But…by the end of her experience in Bangkok, she realized that she had grown so much, had learned so much and was feeling like if she were offered a job in Bangkok post-graduation, she would seriously consider going back.  This would have been inconceivable to her just a few weeks earlier.

Louis Grayson is the owner of the Ramen Lab Eatery, which is in Boca Raton, Florida.  His family is also in the restaurant business, but this one was his idea and his execution. Louis also was a participant in an internship program provided by Next Step Connections in Shanghai.  It was kind of a last minute thing for Louis…one of his friends was going and he said, “I will go with you!”, applied to the program and off he was to China. This ‘Sparked the Fire’ in him to build off of the Shanghai experience and continue to do things that others his age would not even attempt.

Alex Hum was born in Vancouver, Canada…but moved to Hong Kong when he was still a baby.  Alex and I had an open and honest conversation about what it really means to be a citizen of the world and a third culture child. We covered a lot of ground in our conversation.  Alex has had a very interesting set of experiences.  To his peers in Hong Kong, Alex seemed different than they were…maybe a bit too Western.  Yet to his friends in Canada, he was clearly Chinese…and they were probably both correct. That is the quintessential feeling that results from being multi-cultural.  Where am I from?  Everybody asks, yet I have no good answer.  Where is my home?  Can I even go home? Alex’s insights were deep and expressed eloquently, yet, in the end, Alex decided NOT to go home…but to pursue his career in London, one of the world’s most international and diverse cities.

Yong Wang was born and raised in Shanghai.  While he was an undergraduate student at Donghua University, Yong interned at Next Step Connections in Shanghai and helped the firm with all manner of responsibilities. It was great exposure for him to foreign students and the types of issues they encountered living and working in a foreign country.  It was also a useful introduction to a non-Chinese work environment…all of this came in handy when Yong decided to get his Master of Science at Southampton University in the UK. As the first person in his family to travel abroad, the lens through which he experienced his life in Southampton was fascinating.  Even more interesting were his insights on what it meant to be Chinese abroad…how his expectations differed from real-life experiences and the issues one faces upon coming home.