Report On Human Resources Internship In FLC Corporation
Overview of FLC Corporation
I have had the honor to work as an intern in the Tokyo Representative Office of FLC Group for a whole month. FLC Group has earned great reputation as one of the leading real estate enterprise established since 2001 in Vietnam. The company has a diversified business profile in many sectors including real estate administration; hotel and resort construction; advertising and consulting services; vocational education; labor export; tourism across many regions of the country. In November 2017, the company opened Tokyo representative office as the first overseas branch in order to implement real estate projects. Via the Japanese office, FLC hopes to establish and cement the network with local businesses in many industries and push forward investment flow in Vietnam.
The reason I choose Human Resources internship in FLCI was accepted to the Human Resources position in the office. Human Resources position plays an instrumental part in deciding if a business is successful, no matter if the scale is big or small. Strikingly, as the Tokyo Office is relatively new, FLC strongly emphasizes its recruitment policy and staff training to attract competent workers. I know money, time and effort are required when it comes to training and preparing for a proficient human resource department, and I find myself very fortunate to be able to work for the Japan office when it is still in the infant part of developing – I may be able to observe the recruiting process as a whole. Learning the basics of Human Resources allows me to make use of transferable skills and develop a career in other fields as well. I think undertaking an internship in one field can make me understand more about the ins-and-outs of this industry and realize that maybe it is the one for me or not, so it plays a critical part in gearing me towards the suitable career before I commit to my 2-year Master Program. Then I can utilize skills learnt in Human Resources internship such as customer services and project management to apply in, for example, sales and marketing sector. Also, as I am currently a student in school of International Social Sciences, I believe a Human Resource department is a perfect place that suits my major and enables me to apply what I have learnt in Tsukuba University in practice.
My internship goal
One of my internship goals was to become confident in using different online platform and application to fulfill office task on the computer. The reason for this was because I did not practice such skills on the computer regularly and may come up against a lot of troubles during the process of working. For example, making a report on Word and Excel documents may be considered “common sense” for everyone; however, how to optimize our work to be more efficient and effective with basic mobile and desktop software is not an easy task. Also, as a Social Science student, I am aware that I am not specialized in programming or website-creating – a very important skill required by many businesses; thus, I have given heavy concentration to this matter when I did the internship.
A second goal for this internship is to create professional network with those I met in FLC Group. I believe in trying to become helpful and most importantly “think out of the box” – to push my performance above normal expectation. I still remember receiving the “thank you” note from my supervisor for staying late one day to help her finish all the work, as the office pamphlet submission was due date the following day. I am very happy to see my effort being appreciated; and I hope I have created a positive image with those I work with.
And finally, this opportunity helps me to develop inter-personal skills. In the 4 weeks of working as a Human Resources intern, I have seen a significant improvement in my computer and communication skills, thanks to dealing with tasks such as creating new hire folders and orientation paperwork; composing and replying to e-mails, and exchanging ideas with those who I work with on a regular basis.
Experience in FLC Corporation
As an intern and an international student in Japan, one of my core tasks was to study the Japanese market and how the office can work as a bridge that connects FLC and Japanese companies and promote mutual business ventures. Exploring the Japanese mind, such as the business etiquette of giving gifts during special occasions is an important key for FLC to understand about the local and enter the market. My daily assignments were to conducting market research, data collection, and studying organizational culture.
Also, as this office in Tokyo functions to support the mother company in Vietnam, I dealt with some paperworks regarding accounting and payment that involved a lot of statistics. Once in a while, I took charge of monitoring and analyzing accounting data and producing financial reports or statements that included the transportation fee of staff, the purchasing of stationery and necessary stuffs for the office. . . and so on.
And my favorite job, was to work with prospective clients alongside my supervisor that were interested in purchasing air ticket and real estate from the company. Within 1 month of internship, I had the chance to work privately with two pamphlet revising and PR companies. It was quite complicated to choose which company to cooperate with FLC because each firm had its strengths and weaknesses; and the explanation and negotiation were something that I was not familiar with. This is why I feel that I need to work on those skills to become more professional in the future.
What was significant experience for me
As I work for a branch of huge enterprise, I also notice myself being more careful and paying attention to every subtle detail to make sure everything perfect from top to down. For example, I was assigned to cooperate with the pamphlet designer to get the best result of the office pamphlet. It was a process that required a great deal of time and effort: choosing the printing firms that are both suited to the requirement and budget of the company; making appointment with the revising companies and comparing the price and the quality of each company to get the best one; deciding what kind of ink and paper that would be printed in the pamphlet. I remember having spent 3 days translating all the documents from Japanese to Vietnamese, checking every corner of 30 pages to make sure there was no grammatical and typing error and then exchanging it to the designer and the revising company until the last product was flawless to the point nothing can be further corrected. The whole process took us more than 2 weeks and not until 1 hour before the deadline did we manage to submit the pamphlet. Being situated in a real work place gets me to become more serious with the job I am doing as it affects not only individually but other people as well.
What was difficult for me
As I knew computer is not my strong point, I have tried to put questions to everyone when I started working to help myself get adapted to the assignment. One of the tasks was to transfer the content from Japanese to English version in the website of FLC Group through a platform known as Content Management System (CMS). It was a little bit struggling for me to manage the platform at first; as it entailed multiple steps and once something came up wrong, it took a great deal of time to erase and correct. However, by receiving the guidance and paying close attention to my supervisor, I was quickly capable of finishing the English website before the deadline.
What I have learnt from the internship
Overall, I am very satisfied with what I attained after the internship. I have come to learn how how companies differentiate from each other; the significance of data accuracy and especially the importance of networking. At the same time, it occurs to me that human resource is an extremely diverse field that consists of various specializations and topics. It is probably a difficult task for a professor at school to cover all of the themes of Human Resources available, as the priorities vary from one company to another; therefore, I am glad I have chosen FLC as they have offered a very practical internship that combines application of theories in the real world examples. With all of the assignments, individual and group projects, I feel that I learn and learn every day and FLC has well prepared me for my future career through its well-rounded education. Besides, I did feel like I was a valued member of the group during the internship, as the supervisor and other staffs did their best to help me to fit in and finish the task in timely manner. This internship also shows me what is it like to be professional; and the role I took charge of is a human resource generalist intern, however I don’t think I will work as a generalist in the future but will choose to specialize in one main sector. A very important point that I learn is that we do not always need to choose a huge and well-known company; working for a new and small-scale office with few staffs may offer more jobs, challenges and opportunities for me to experience. Building on the list of contact is also what I will try to focus on. Before the internship I was relatively shy and not really open to meeting new people, but now I am trying to get involved in every circumstance. Even if I am going for a coffee with someone, it is crucial to know as much as possible about that person. I come to learn that the more we push ourselves forward, the more we are likely to score impression from other people, especially from the superiors.
Future plan
A confusing issue that I faced for the internship was to decide what aspect of Human Resources that I can major in after graduation. This is because there is a wide diversity of fields to be chosen from, say, employee relation, payroll, accounting, recruiting or HRIS. I credit the FLC internship for helping me realize what I want to pursue for my professional career: customer service. This may include sales and meeting with clients who want to buy/work with the company. By embarking on this sector, I can have chance of direct interaction and expand my circle of network much conveniently.
In the summer of 2019, I intend to apply for another Human Resources internship, but this time I want to be specialized in sales and customer service. I motivate myself to keep gaining experience and learning from the professionals with the hope that I can join their team one day. This internship, alongside the classes taken in Tsukuba University such as Human Resources Management or International Economics, have put foundation and gradually directed me to a specific career path. For the next step, I am looking forward to many opportunities and relationships so that I can continue to develop myself professionally.
