Eight months in Beijing

Q: What preparations did you make before traveling, including previous plans, financial preparations and times?

A: To be honest, before the gap year, I hadn’t prepared a lot. In Beijing, I got to know a lot of friends and acquired some intern opportunities and activity information via NGO “Global China Connection” made by us. On finance, the internship salary supported daily expenses during the gap year, but of course there were some extra expenses like travel, I would unabashedly get support from my parents.

After I came to Beijing, the first thing was to find an internship. After having a part-time internship in a well known international management and consultantancy company, I caught my breath because this job would comfort my parents. Later, after a period of internship, I didn’t find much benefit since big companies don’t have any training for part-time interns or spend time telling them the reason for doing something. It’s easy to understand, because the company won’t spend much time on people who will be gone after several months.

Afterwards, I was basically in a state of developing with the freedom I had. Via GCC, I took part in all kinds of activities, meeting with activity-related organizations and schools. In half of the gap year we organized a two-week company visit activity with the MBA Student Union from Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. We visited many enterprises, including Lenovo, Baidu, Innovation Works，Tudou and so on. These were the hottest companies in our minds at that time and planted the seeds for our future decision to start our own business.

Q: What difficulties or problems did you met in your gap year? Did you achieve the original plans?

A: There are so many overwhelming and anxious moments in the gap year experience, especially when I was alone at home, not meeting anyone, not taking part in any activity, no internship. In those moments, I felt at a loss. The most important thing in the gap year is to arrange the time usefully and not waste any time, because it doesn’t have a curriculum and arranged activities like school life, so only when you arrange your time properly will you gain a lot.

Q: What did you gain the most when you look back over the gap year experience? What is your greatest regret? What is the biggest change made to your attitudes or habits?

A: I gained the most from self-knowledge and having to try and get away from school life. Although I began to live on campus when I was 15, I was never out of school life. Living on campus means you couldn’t plan your own schedule and need to obey others’ arrangements for you, including deciding on choosing the tutor who will teach you, classmates who will study with you, yet you could select courses, dormitory and roommate on your own. Therefore, living off campus truly means to experience the real life.

There is nothing to regret, but the only will was to intern at an entrepreneurial firm at that time. Since the Internet was not so hot like nowadays, the channels of media exposure and recruitment were also limited, I had no idea of interning in an Internet company but did want to intern in a well-known enterprise.

The biggest change after the gap year is that I feel more mature; it is difficult to describe, because most observations come from others’ opinions on me, not self-evaluation. Some people may think I am a good speaker, or have experienced a lot, others may think I’m good at disguising myself; however, I think it is a promotion of capacity in all respects.

Q: Give two pieces of advice to freshmen wanting to experience a gap year.

A: If you have a favorite direction after graduation but may not be able to advance in that direction, you could try a gap year, when you can develop.

Alternatively, if you have no direction or an idea about your likes or dislikes after graduation, you could try something fresh in the gap year to find out what is your interest.

Q: What impressed you mostly in the gap year?

A: I joined a Sina Weibo Night party, all of the big V (verified Weibo users who have more than 500,000 followers) were present, like Jack Ma，Kai-fu Lee，Yao Chen, Pan Shiyi, Ren Zhiqiang and Fang Wenshan. I was nobody, shocked by the occasion. The immediate interaction with audiences made me realize the arrival of China’s Internet Age. As a student majoring in economy it made my mind up to become an I-banker before, I realized that the Internet might break a new ground to make my dream come true.