I have been in Hong Kong for almost three weeks now and have already completed my first two weeks of work. Most of you are probably wondering what it’s like to work in an Asian country.
The work is not much different from Switzerland. We start at 09:00 am and usually finish at 6:00 pm. Sometimes we stay a little longer in the office because there’s something that needs to be finished or we have a client meeting followed by dinner. Then, of course, we stay longer, but otherwise, everyone arrives and leaves on time.
During my first week of work, I was introduced to the various departments and activities in the branch. Then I had various meetings with my direct supervisor, who was visiting from Shanghai. The next day, our Managing Director from Dubai also arrived, and I had some very constructive conversations with him.
In Hong Kong, compared to Switzerland, I won’t be working in an operational role anymore. Instead, I will mainly focus on sales and key account management, which is a completely new area for me. I am both excited and nervous about the challenge and what is expected of me.
On the fourth day of my first week, I had my first customer visit with our managing director and a colleague. We visited our customer’s office and discussed current business and whether we could expand our business relationship. After the visit, we drove from one side of the island to the other because we had another customer visit there. This visit was more casual as we met in the hotel bar to discuss business. So, in one day, I saw two completely different ways of how customer visits are conducted in Hong Kong.
In my second week of work, I had a full schedule of customer visits and dinners again.
My conclusion after two weeks of work in Hong Kong: I am still trying to adjust to the big change and am trying to learn as much as possible from my superiors and colleagues every day. There are days when you are on the road a lot, but then there are also days when you sit in the office and write reports or look for new customers. All in all, I really like it here.
After almost three weeks in a hotel, I can finally move into my own apartment. Finding a suitable place to live in Hong Kong is more difficult than expected. I had to go through a real estate agent and visited more than 25 apartments over two days. Such a scenario probably only exists in Asia.😀
