I made me focus on my career interests

"Time flies. My graduation from the MLB program 2010 is approaching. During this year, I met interesting people and had a lot of unforgettable experience. The year of living and studying in Germany is a wonderful journey in my life."

My most important company of the whole year is of course the MLB class 2010. We are a small group, but have very rich cultural, educational and professional backgrounds. We help and complement each other and there are always strong support and mutual appreciation among us. From my classmates, I also gain new insights into a lot of things, for example a specific professional area, the life on the other side of the world, or just a different attitude or opinion towards the things that I am used to.

I still remember an informative presentation by a classmate from Africa about her work experience at an NGO which helps prevent HIV/AIDS in her country. I knew that HIV/AIDS is a serious problem in Africa but I never had a clear idea about what it really means. When I heard the facts that the infection rate in her country is as high as 25% and the life expectancy is only 45 year old, I was really astonished. It is just hard to realize, when I think about my life in the long future as a very normal life stage, there are people who don’t even have the chance to become old. She explained us the situation of her country, the mindset of the people and shared her own thoughts with us. I really appreciated that she presented us such a topic and made us to think.

While inside the classroom we are serious and hard working, outside the classroom we are energetic and enthusiastic. We spend our spare time enjoying the beautiful city of Hamburg, go ice skating in the winter and grilling in the summer. We organize company visits and fund raising for charity. We learn German, play soccer and we party!

One advantage of living in Hamburg is that one has a lot of chances to enjoy Hamburg’s huge show-business. My most exciting experience is going to the musicals in Hamburg. I went to “König der Löwen”, “Tarzan” with family and friends and it was just a great enjoy to see the cartoons of my childhood on the stage. The theater visit at Fliegende Bauten together with the staff of Joachim Herz Stiftung is another different experience. There are also female impersonators in Chinese art for example in Peking Opera, but it is my first time to see that a whole play and almost all the roles are performed by female impersonators. It is really amazing to see such a performance.

Of course there are not always so much time for joy and fun in such an intensive and double major program. Each our semester is six weeks long, within which we have to take at least six courses, both law and business. It is a challenge for me as a student with business background to become familiar with three laws in such a short period to the extent that I can analyze a case well and give good legal advice or opinions. I do spend a lot of time on the law courses to get familiar with statutes, to read cases and to work on skills of legal reasoning. Sometimes I encounter such a question as: “to go out having fun or to study at home?” and most of the time I choose the latter. It is another kind of “fun” when I get great sense of achievement when I can actively participate in the courses discussion and enrich my knowledge.

The two-month internship between the third and fourth semester is another highlight of my year. I was happy about being able to work with the big mail-order company Otto Group. I had the opportunity of rotating among different departments and saw how a big corporation works. My colleagues are diligent, open minded and supportive and I felt accepted as a member of the team from day one. Once we had to work long extra hours together to prepare for an important meeting, and there was no complains. Everyone was so cheered up and the team was cohesive and productive. Through this internship, I learned about an interesting company, understood my own career interest and opportunities better and have clear focus in the remaining time of my study.

I decide to stay and work in Hamburg or Germany after my graduation. I appreciate the German way of doing business, precise, direct, result oriented. With my language skills and inter-cultural capabilities, I see my chances of working as a connecting person for the business between China and Germany. Hamburg is for example a good place to start such a career since it has huge shipping and trade industry which have close connection with China and expertise related to China is always in demand. Therefore I believe my graduation from the MLB program is not an end, but just a beginning of my adventure in Germany.