Hi,

I should probably start my blog by introducing myself. My name is Douglas McLaren and I'm an Aeronautical Engineer from the University of Glasgow. I've managed to secure an internship with IBM in China as a Senior Manufacturing Engineer. This whole journey started off with an email from the University Careers Service informing me about the work of the Saltire Foundation and making me aware of an information session which was essentially phase one of the application process. I decided to go along to said information evening and met with personnel from Scottish Enterprise and two of the interns from the previous year. Gaining this insight strengthened my desire to apply and soon after I went onto the Saltire Foundation website to have a look through the vast selection of placements available. From an Aeronautical Engineering point of view I expected it to be very difficult to find a placement which was relevant to the degree course but that fact that the three other people in my class who applied all chose different placements from myself really reflects well on the wide selection available. I decided to chose IBM as I believed that working within one of the world's largest companies with such a high level of responsibility would be the best long term career move. As someone who has an interest in best manufacturing techniques and project management this also complemented my interests and seemed like the most applicable choice available. One of the key points enforced at the information session was that you shouldn't pick an internship because of it's location, but I have to confess.... I chose to ignore that point; not because I necessarily really wanted to visit China, but because there is probably no better place to learn about large scale manufacturing processes. Getting to go to China is also a pretty nice bonus to boot! So, to jump back to the application process story, I had to wait a few weeks after I submitted the application template to find out if I had reached the next stage. Once successful I was invited up to Scottish Enterprise's HQ in Glasgow for a speed interviewing session alongside all the other candidates. This session was pretty informal and only lasted around half an hour which seemed to put most folk at ease allowing everyone to be themselves and give their best under interview conditions. Once again I had to wait a few weeks to find out if I had been successful at this stage, which thankfully I had been, and then it came time for the telephone interview. Without going into much detail, a telephone interview to China wasn't the most straight forward of experiences! Turns out (I think at least) that I had actually been selected for the position prior to the phone interview without anyone letting me know so when I was told I would be receiving an eight week plan via email I had to question where I stood. After a few phone calls later I found out I had been successful, safe to say I was pretty chuffed! The other week all the successful interns got together in Glasgow to get a presentation about how the visa's are done and gave us the chance to meet each other for the first time. Seems a shame though that we only got a few hours to meet each other then we'll all be away pretty soon without getting the chance to see each other for a fair few months till the next alumni event. I decided to apply for a multiple entry visa from the Chinese consulate in Edinburgh to allow me to visit Hong Kong whilst I'm there as I'm based in a place called Shenzhen which is only just across the water. With only 5 days to go now it's maybe just starting to sink in that I'm going to be away from my friends and family for a fair wee while but I can't wait to get over there and make the most of this fantastic opportunity available to me.

I hope all the other interns have a great time abroad and I look forward to keeping in touch via the blogs!

Dougie