Atlas Copco Internship blog 2013

A blog from our interns

[ac-internship-blog]

Did the internship meet my expectations?

Currently, I’m back in Sweden, sitting in my student apartment where I, for not so long time ago, wrote my application for this internship. Time flies. My summer holiday is soon to be over and my last year at university will soon start. To be honest I can’t think of any better way to have spent my very last summer vacation than as an intern at Dynapac in China. Of course there were moments of loneliness and issues regarding the project and the communication to be solved, but these eight weeks have given me so much. I’ve gathered experience of how it is to work as an engineer, how it is to work at an international company, I’ve learned about asphalts machines, about mechanical design, about how it is to be part in an design team, how to interact with colleagues from a totally different culture with a different language, what a spider taste like and a lot more. As I wrote in my very first blog post, my expectations were high, especially within my personal scope. I believe these expectations to be met, I did my best and delivered a result which my supervisor was satisfied with. Furthermore the R&D manager and all the engineers seemed to be very thankful for my ‘English lessons’, which actually very much was a pleasure for me as well and a nice break from the project work.

In the past, I’ve been both travelling and working abroad and I must say working is the best way of getting to know the culture of a country as well as the people. The daily life in China was perhaps more different from my Swedish life than I pictured it to be. On the other hand the work situation was quite similar to what I believe is normal in Sweden. I’ve discussed this a lot with my colleagues and we concluded that the reason is that Dynapac belongs to Atlas Copco. Other domestic owned companies were operated in a very different way, often with longer working hours, a different organisation and even more pressure. The environment at Dynapac reminded me surprisingly much about the head office in Stockholm. The interior were decorated in ‘Atlas Copco blue colors’ as well as prints, flags, furnitures and of course Atlas Copco’s own dinosaur.

It was surprisingly how much cooperation the plant in Wuqing had with other Dynapac plants around Europe and the US, especially with the one in Karlskrona. The world felt very small when my colleagues shared me their stories about different things from their visits in Karlskrona and Stockholm and weakly I had to help different colleagues to translate documents from Swedish into English. I expected the Chinese language to be a great challenge, and in one way it was. For a daily chat or conversation my colleagues’ English was actually better than expected but when to handle specific, technical questions and discussions I sometimes felt the language was prolonging the project work, which I did expect and had planned for.

These eight weeks, alone in China have given me a perspective and the time and chance to analyse my own situation and future which I very much appreciate. I’m also very happy for the new friends and business contacts I’ve made during this summer as well as the opportunity to stay for ten days extra to travel and see even more of China. Through this trip me and Hannah climbed the Great Wall, and with that said I believe all my expectations of this internship to be fulfilled!

All the best!

/Julia

[ac-internship-blog]

Flight HU890 somewhere between Beijing and Berlin

I am currently sitting on the airplane on my way back home to Sweden, a country that after staying in China for 9 weeks I picture as extremely clean, calm, quite and with crystal-clear air. I am very satisfied with my experiences these past two months. What has been most valuable for me personally is that I now have a clearer image of where I picture myself in the future. I have had time to reflect on what’s important to me when choosing a career path, where I want to be and under what circumstances. During my stay in Shanghai I have met many people who have left their homeland to work abroad, something that I have been wanting to do for long, and it has been very interesting to talk to them about their experiences and also the sacrifices that they have made.

The goal of my project was to implement test-planning procedures, roll out a measurement tool for operational efficiency and make improvements in order to increase the efficiency in the R&D test lab. When it comes to increasing the efficiency, I have to say this was harder than I imagined. My expectation was to be able to implement many improvements within the limited time for the project, but in reality most of the implementations will be made this fall. However, changes don’t happen over night and I hope that my project in Bolaite has created a good foundation for future improvements, raised the issue of efficiency in the test lab and that the future improvements will actually increase the efficiency.

In my first blog post I mentioned that besides the project itself, I thought the biggest challenges during this internship would be the language, the heat and finding decent vegetarian food in China. Here is a quick follow-up:

The language. For me this was the biggest challenge. Even though it is always possible to communicate and make yourself understood without words, I found it quite boring not being able to communicate with people on the street and that communication with some of my colleagues stayed on a very basic level. I also noticed two problems in communication with Chinese people; they don’t use much body language which makes it hard to understand what they are trying to tell you and if they don't speak English, they often make their own conclusions about what you are going to say before letting you start speaking. I still can't say one complete sentence in Chinese, but I picked up some useful words that I have been using frequently (but probably not always correctly).

The heat. This summer beat all temperature records in Shanghai since they started keeping records. I have to say it was bearable though and sometimes even nice. It was not very humid and I am glad I had AC both at work and home and also that there were some outdoor pools in Shanghai.

The food. Looking back I can hardly understand what I was worried about. The food was delicious and it was easy for me as a vegetarian to find food. In every restaurant they had an infinite variety of Chinese food, including hundred kinds of vegetables, mushrooms and tofu. I will miss the Chinese food, especially the dumplings!

What I will remember the most is probably all the friendly and curious people that I’ve met. I have learnt a lot about China, Chinese everyday-life and myself during these two months and I am very thankful for this experience.

Hannah

[ac-internship-blog]

Back In Sweden

I am back in Sweden after a long trip home. It feels great to be back home and I am very pleased about this summer. In this last post, I will look back on what I wrote as my expectations and goals while traveling to India.

Was the summer as expected? Yes and no. For those of you who followed me, you might remember that my only expectation about the summer was that it was going to be different. This of course turned out to be true but as news becomes routines, you see the similarities. Work, meet friends over some food, workout, have too long meetings, party, get stressed over commuting, prepare power points the nights before presentations, have 3 pm fika, enjoy technical discussions…

Did I reach my goals for this summer? Yes. (The below is from the previous post with additional answers.)

My goals for the summer can be summarized in three points:

1. Completing my project in such a way that everybody involved feels happily about the results. - Yes. I am satisfied and from the feedback I have received, so is everybody involved.

2. Going back to Sweden in August being able to say I have made new friends here. - Yes. You all know you who you are.

3. Learning about India work- and social culture as well as telling my colleagues about the Swedish culture. - Yes. I have learned several lessons on Indian culture. The Indian “yes”, the Indian smile, the Indian changing of plans, the Indian hospitality, … Most of all however, I have learned how complex India is and how little I actually know. I also feel that I have taught my colleagues about Sweden and Swedish culture from discussions and from showing pictures on Google.

In 1968, John, Paul, George and Ringo travelled to India to learn about transcendental meditation. I always fantasized about my time in India being comparable to the experiences of The Beatles in the 60’s but that’s probably not the case. Hopefully thought, I can do what they did and take back what I have learned in order to make something spectacular. Perhaps my masterpiece will be my master thesis, which I have been offered to do with Atlas Copco next spring.

Thank you all for reading my blog and I wish you all the best. If you are a future Intern reading this while preparing for your summer, you are more than welcome to contact me with any questions. Sigrid has my email address.

Best regards,

Max

[ac-internship-blog]

QuickQuote

A lot of my blog posts have been about my life here in India, but what have I actually achieve for the company? As you might recall, my task was to develop a quotation system for offline use that is user friendly and generates professional quotations. The application, named QuickQuote, is HTML, CSS and JavaScript based. It looks like a normal web page and generates a quotation in PDF format. So how did the road to the product look?

Additions and deletions over time. In total about 55 000 addition to the application. Started out with a lot of additions, then you can see my time off in the middle and deletion of unnecessary code in the end.

This chart show when the commits (code change uploads) were made. Apparently Tuesdays have been full off activity while Saturdays have been time for rest.

A screen shot of a part of the product selection view

Developing this software proved to be a big challenge for me as I had limited experience for doing something similar. As most engineers at Atlas Copco Nashik are mechanical engineers with very limited knowledge about programming, I had to work a lot on my own and make crucial design decision based on my own research. I have certainly gained a lot of knowledge from this project and I have high hopes that it will create value for the company. The main improvements from todays solution includes that it:

 Saves time; now you only have to use one interface to create a 10 page quotation with cover letter, pricing summary, T&C and product description attachment.

Gives a professional look; the users don’t have to make any design adjustment themselves, it is generated automatically  

 Minimizes mistakes; the system only allows the users to choose product parts that are compatible with each other.  

Now it is time to enjoy the favorable company discount at the SPA here at the Hyatt, Mumbai, where I am waiting for my flight to Delhi, London and eventually Stockholm.

[ac-internship-blog]

LAST WEEK IN THE US...

It has been a week since I did my final presentation in Atlas Copco Drilling Solutions, here in Garland TX. A week during which, I got the chance to add some final touches on the Feasibility Study report and gather more technical information that further improved it and will hopefully aid in the future development of the Pit Viper driveline design.

Apart from work, I also got the chance to relax and spend some quality time with my friends.

My free time, mostly involved chilling in my neighborhood’s swimming pool, that it’s open every day until late night. What I mostly like about this place is that for the majority of the times we have been there with the guys from work, there are no other people in the pool area… Therefore we got the whole place by ourselves and it almost feels like it is our private space.

 - The swimming pool in my neighborhood...

Yesterday, the engineering team, which I have been working with throughout my internship in Garland, decided to organize a Farewell Dinner just to have some nice time all together before my departure. The food was great and we all had some good time! In addition to organizing this lovely dinner, the guys form work had also considered giving me a very ‘Texan’ present…. a Cowboy style buckle belt and a CD with original country music!

(I can now almost imagine myself driving my Swedish-made car and wearing my cowboy gear in the snowy winding roads of Stockholm’s countryside, listening to country music…)

Today is officially my last day at work (Good excuse to bring a box of freshly made Donuts for everyone). Overall, the time in the office today will be quite relaxing.  Not much to work on, since everything project-wise has already been settled.

The only thing remaining for me to do is to say a BIG “THANK YOU” to every person that has helped me and made me feel part of the Atlas Copco team. Then, I’ll drive back home to pack and get prepared for tomorrow’s Looong flight back to Sweden.

Oh!... and maybe go for a quick dive in the swimming pool too! 

  I feel kind of sad that this internship and my time in the US is over. But at the same time, I am excited to see what’s coming up next!

Dimitrios

[ac-internship-blog]

Goodbye Santiago!

This will be my final post as my internship at Atlas Copco is coming to its end. My two months here in Santiago working for Atlas Copco have been truly amazing and a real world class experience, as well as a challenge. I really feel that I have been challenged at work and looking back at these two months; I have grown and developed both professionally and personally. My results were approved in the beginning of the week by my tutor and during the week the report have been read by the Steering Committee, all whom seem pleased with the results delivered, which was one of my goals to deliver and exceed the expectations. As many of you already know my project has been to investigate how the FX trade processes looks like for the South American region and to suggest viable solutions for each subsidiary on how to improve the processes in order to receive better deals. Although the project has been very straightforward, I can tell you that it has not been an easy task suggesting improvements as the South American region has challenged me with different laws and regulations and the way things are done here differs from the Western world.

Goodbye after-work/dinner with Atlas Copco at Six Lounge Bar in Vitacura!

Before starting my journey in Santiago I shared with you some of the expectations I had and what I wanted to achieve. One of these was to really experience the life at Atlas Copco and its culture, something I really feel that I have had the chance to do! Atlas Copco is a very hardworking company and no one will give you a manual telling you exactly what to do, you yourself have to be entrepreneurial and find the ways to succeed with your tasks. Of course all the resources are provided to you, but the mentality is that you yourself need to push and be forward in order to succeed. This mentality is something I enjoy and after having spent two months with Atlas Copco I also see the great results this mentality brings! If one was brought a manual or guidelines for every task, no one would think outside the box and become paralyzed once things do not go the intended way.

I also wanted to understand what they mean with responsibility from day, something I for sure learned quickly as I practically from day one has worked independently, having had full responsibility of the project`s development and the results produced. Something that for me have been a great motivation, knowing that I am the one that are responsible for the results produced and the development of the project. My results produced will be the foundation of a global project that will soon start and co-workers will go back to my report and take advice and use the tools/information I have collected. As already mentioned, this is highly rewarding and really shows that the project I have been responsible for will really have an impact on Atlas Copco`s results and future development.

The lunch gang!

I am really going to miss my colleagues and friends I have made here, the sarcasm and the joy that the people have brought me. I will also miss the great dance classes at the Madonna gym as well as the amazing avocado here! I am positive that I will return to Santiago, though then definitely in their summer time!

Ciao!

//Marielle

[ac-internship-blog]

Farewell Dynapac

Me and my supervisor John Xia (Jinyang Xia) after the hand over

Now there is less than a hour left of my internship. I 've just had the hand over of my deliveries to my supervisor and he seems to be happy (see picture) and satisfied with my results. Earlier today I also held a presentation for the whole R&D department during one of the monthly R&D meetings. This presentation was more about my overall experience during my internship.

It's a strange feeling that this is perhaps the last time seeing my colleagues and I will not enjoy the farewell which will soon take place. When the working hours are over me, my buddy, my supervisor and the other two interns and their supervisors will have dinner together at a Japanese restuarant.

Last time seeing this in front of the gate to Dynapac

Tomorrow I'll wake up early, go to the local market for buying some fruit and new made pancakes, grab a taxi to the train station and then go by 400 km/h to Shanghai and Hannah. Then an other, ten days long journey will take place before heading back to Sweden. I believe we both deserve some holiday!

All the best

/Julia

[ac-internship-blog]

Last day in Bolaite

The final day of my project. However, I gave my final presentation yesterday. A follow up of my results and what I’ve learnt is to come, but not quite yet. After the presentation, that as usual turned out twice as long as planned, we went to a Teppanyaki restaurant, a Japanese kind of restaurant that is very popular in Shanghai, where they prepare the meal on a stove in front of you. The food was delicious and the dessert on fire!

  Tonight I will attend another farewell dinner, with the engineering team, but before that I will have a day filled with goodbyes and administrative work - hard work such as returning my laptop and start writing my report for the Bolaite newspaper.

It is a bittersweet goodbye. On one hand, the feeling of closing a chapter is very satisfying, especially with all the memories and new lessons I will bring from these two months, but on the other hand I am a bit emotional about leaving Shanghai and Bolaite. I am in a way sucked up in both the company and the city and it feels weird to leave them behind knowing that things will proceed in the same frantic pace. I would like to see the outcomes of the lean project, follow the implementation of the CAT system in Bolaite and see the final pieces of Shanghai Tower being put in place. I am glad that Julia was eager to start our 10-day vacation in Shanghai as I don’t feel ready to leave the city quite yet. Tomorrow I will pick her up at the train station and thereafter we will spend a day or two in Shanghai before heading off to Huangshan and Beijing. I am really excited!

Hannah

[ac-internship-blog]

Close to the final presentation

In 15 minutes I will give the final presentation of my project, so at the moment I am a bit nervous but most of all excited to show the management team my results.

Since all the other interns have already posted a photo of their regular lunch in the office I would like to show you what I had in the Bolaite canteen today to gain energy for the last hours of my project.

Normally the lunch box consists of two parts with vegetables and two with meat or seafood. Today we had fish head but once a week one of the meat dishes takes shape of a pig feet. Nothing for a vegetarian like me..

Wish me luck!

Hannah

[ac-internship-blog]

'Girl lunch'

Today my buddy Vicky had arranged a ‘girl lunch’ for all the women at the R&D department for a last gathering. The company driver picked us up one hour earlier than the normal lunch time and drove us to a traditional Chinese restaurant in Wuqing. The food was delicious, among other dishes we had pig stomach and some squared pieces made of the blood from the duck. It was a happy gathering, because we saved the farewell until tomorrow.

The six women at the R&D department, "Ganbei" (cheers)

Two different cameras, a bit blurry, but an evidence for me being there ;)

/Julia

[ac-internship-blog]

Last weekend

As Max wrote in his post, he and Alexandre came to visit Nashik and we had a good time. After the factory tour on Friday we visited the old town in Nashik, Panchawati (meaning five banyan trees). The monsoon this year is much more wet than last year and the water level was really high so the vegetable market was flooded and had to close down.

"Vegetable market" in Panchawati

In the afternoon we went for some Indian wine tasting at Sula Vineyard with Prem, Tom and Darla. The white wines were a little acidy and the winner was the red wine, “Dindori”.  After enjoying some wine and cheese we got some nice crab and fish platter at Yahoo.

Wine and Cheese at Sula

Saturday we went to Ellora cave and Sunday we spent our afternoon at the Taj hotel in Nashik, playing water polo and relaxing in the Jacuzzi recovering from the weekends activities. All in all it was a great weekend with a lot of fun. Thank you Max and Alex for coming here and thanks to Prem, Hrishikesh, Tom and Darla for taking good care of us. Oh, and Mr. Driver too!

A monkey spotting a banana inside our car

This morning I had breakfast together with Darla on my way to work. It was really tasty and cheap as well; we paid 100 rupees (11 SEK) for both of us.

Cheese Dosa, Indian style pancake

Butter Paw Bhaji

Having our breakfast by the road we saw a guy cutting off a branch from a tree. The problem was that the branch was hanging over a telephone line, taking it with it when falling down. The best part was that the guy taking it down actually looked surprise by it, as if the branch wouldn’t fall straight down. No wonder there are black outs all the time here…

Oops...

[ac-internship-blog]

Last Week in India and a Visit to Nashik

As many of you might suspect, this is my last week in India and it consists of polishing my report (well, you know how it is) and preparing slides. As I have written earlier, I have already held several presentations of my research and for your enjoyment, I have counted the number of slides I have prepared, it is 166. I realized I haven’t taken that many photos of my workplace so I attached a picture of where I spend the major part of my workday, my desk. 

As Erik previously wrote, he had two visitors last week, namely Alex, our intern colleague from Belgium and me. Erik organized a great tour of the Atlas Copco campus in Nashik for us. It is truly a campus where several divisions are represented. Below you find us posing by the production of Dynapac pavement rollers. We also played table tennis in the leisure room and I lost every time. 

Last Saturday, we travelled to the city of Aurangabad to see the Ellora Caves, which is a world heritage site. It was very impressive and, believe it or not, the sun was shining! Finally, I want to take the opportunity to thank Tom and Darla for their hospitality, I had a great time!

Regards from India, Max

My desk in Hyderabad.

Alex, Erik and me standing in line by the Assembly line (!).

I wish I took a better picture, but this is part of the Ellora caves. What you see is all excavated from the mountain.

[ac-internship-blog]

Last weekend in Tianjin

Tianjin Radio & TV tower

My last weekend in Tianjin I did two things that was on my to-do-list. Visit the Tianjin TV & Radio tower and take a night tour at the appealing Haihe River. Tianjin TV tower is the fourth highest in the world after Toronto TV tower in Canada, Moscow Tower in Russia and Oriental Pearl TV tower in Shanghai, China. At a height of more than 400m I had a bird’s eye view of Tianjin and I could clearly discern the amusement park and the zoo that I and one of my colleagues and her daughter visited last weekend. I choose the right day, when the air was quite clear after a big rain the night before. I’ve heard that if you choose the wrong day the smog can prevent you from seeing anything, and the 50 Yuan entrance fee would be for nothing. At the way back from the TV tower I made an impulsive visit at a small shop selling art and suddenly I fell in love in a painting with a growling tiger. When I realized that you could roll it together I bought it. But finally at home it didn’t fit into my suitcase, I hope they will be lenient at the airport…

In the afternoon I met my buddy Vicky and we made some shopping ate some delicious food from street stalls and waited for the nightfall. Perhaps Tianjin is not the most pretty city, and during the day time it’s hot and dusty, but when the sun set and the day turns into night the whole down town transforms into a beautiful night scene where the buildings are decorated with lights in different colors and effects. The Eye of Tianjin is perhaps the most beautiful, see picture below. We entered one of the many boats for a 50min long tour along the Haihe River which takes you from the Eye of Tianjin through the down town, an amazing scenery. We met some nice guys from the south of China, and we had a good time.

Night view from the boat, The Eye of Tianjin in the background

Sunday I spent by sightseeing on my own, sometimes I really enjoy being alone, discovering new things. I also had some time to go to my favorite places to say good bye, for this time. Who knows what the future brings, perhaps I will visit them once again.

One of my favourite 'chill out places', a great 'water park'

/ Best regards from Julia

[ac-internship-blog]

Some observations/notes about Santiago

Now it is not much time left to spend in this beautiful city! I have really come to enjoy Santiago and mostly it is because the people here are so friendly and considerate. During my stay here I have of course discovered some cultural differences and some other things that I would like to share with you;

-         The men are true gentlemen that always hold the door for you, and always pay when going out (even if it is not a date, and sharing the tab is not very common). When I say that the men here are truly gentlemen, I really mean it! Sometimes it is quite ridiculous; if I hold the door for a man, he often refuses to walk before me! I have now really gotten used to having the door opened for me, which is noticeable when I meet with international people (where it is not always expected that the women should walk first and the men holding the door).

-         Piscola is a very popular drink here; which basically means mixing pisco (which is made of grapes) and coke. Pisco is very strong and when ordering in a bar, you get half the glas with pisco and then a can of coke on the side, so that you can mix the drink the way you want it. I must say that it is quite a funny view in the clubs, as many order this popular drink, it also means that you have the drink in one hand and the can of coke in the other when dancing. A quite amusing view, as it is quite hard to move when dancing!

-         The norm here is that you live at home with your parents until your 30 years old, and first then take the final step to move out and live on your own! This was quite a surprise to me,  if someone in Sweden told me that they were living with their parents at the age of 30, one would think that it must be a good reason for wanting this. As it is very common here that the middle and upper class have a maid that cleans, cooks, and basically does everything for you, it also means that when moving out at the age of 30, you have never even made your bed! Talk about luxury! Also, at the age of 30, when you have finished higher educational studies (which your parents often paid for) and have had a good job for a couple of years, moving at the age of 30, you are quite wealthy since you have not had that much expenses in your life (free accommodation and food). When discussing this, they admit that it is quite frightening to move and live on your own since you for 30 years have gotten used to living with your parents.

-         There are not as many places where you can cross the street, i.e. where they have traffic lights or crossings, so people just walk and cross wherever (which can sometimes be difficult with the large roads). It works best when there are traffic jams, as the traffic then basically stands still.

-         The avocado here is truly amazing, it is so delicious! I must say that I have not been so fond of avocado, until now! Now I eat several a week, and it goes with everything!

-         A lot of things in the grocery store are sold on refill, meaning that a lot of things are in sort of plastic bags, i.e. such as yoghurt, crème fraiche and creme. Really smart when you can just buy these bags and refill the normal plastic jar (which you can buy for yoghurt) but not as smart when they don`t sell a “normal” jar of one particular product, making it impossible to store the plastic bag with crème fraiche in the fridge, meaning all need to be used. Perhaps this has just been an issue for me that is a foreigner.

[ac-internship-blog]

Daily life and habits

One of the routines I’ve established this summer is my morning routine. Now, after seven weeks the time schedule and timing is close to perfection. I only need 16 minutes in the morning to get washed, dressed and ready to go. I save some time by not wearing make up (no one else does, and the hot weather makes you look like a panda in the end of the day anyway).

By leaving the apartment at five to seven instead of seven you avoid the red light at the first huge cross over, something that saves you around five minutes. There is a bus close to my apartment which could take me to the company shuttle bus, but I’ve never tried it. Partly because you never know when it shows up, but mainly because I enjoy a walk in the morning as well as in the afternoon since the rest of the day is mostly spent in front of the computer. The walk takes 35 min in a quite slow walking speed to avoid getting too sweaty. I’ve developed a survival kit for not arriving too sweaty. It contains a sun hat, umbrella, tissues, water and a deo.

Along the roads there are several mobile breakfast stalls where you can find all kind of different breakfasts. Most people take a ‘breakfast-to-go’ instead of having it at home and the most popular breakfast in Tianjin is perhaps the soya bean-milk, steamed stuffed buns or different kinds of pancakes. From an advice from my buddy I found the best pancake stall in the area, providing a pancake without any beans (which I’m allergic to). The way around that stall takes 15 min extra, but it’s worth it!  The pancake is like a big, very thin pancake made of black rise, glazed with two eggs and spicy sauces and filled with a fried pancake and some special, shopped vegetables, wrapped together. Perhaps it doesn’t sound so delicious, but I love it! Every morning I easily jump out of bed knowing that the pancake is 40 min away, and now it’s only four more pancakes (mornings), I will miss it.

My favourite breakfast. Wrapped pancake

I will also miss the different characters along my walking road, who I ‘got to know’ this summer. They are some special locals with the same morning routine as I, and we almost meet at the same spot every morning or evening. Like that woman and dog who always seems to match each other in mood, appearance and color of clothes and dog-lead, the man in his perfectly fitted suit and every morning I wonder how he survive the heat in that suit, the old man who is sitting in front of the biggest cross over with his two mini-dogs and always smiles at me, the men who plays that Chinese chess at a table on the street who turns around and says “hello” at the same time and then keep playing, and all the cute kids in their school uniforms and Hello Kitty-bags.

There are many breakfast stalls to choose between 

The shuttle bus to Wuqing takes one hour so then everyone take the chance to have their breakfast and then a nap.

During the first week I was almost afraid of the traffic. Grown up as a hillbilly at the countryside I believed the morning traffic in Tianjin being nothing else but insane, with too many cars, bikes, mopeds etc and too few rules, but now I must confess that I’m one of all the people crossing the street against red light, crossing between the cars. Being polite didn’t work, you have to follow the flow. This is not the only Chinese habit I gained this summer. Now a day I never walk without my umbrella for the sun, I enjoy the bed without a mattress(‘too soft beds are bad for your back’) and I prefer shopping food at the local markets instead of the supermarkets. Although there are some habits that I still consider strange. I can’t see the point of drinking hot water instead of cool in these summer days, I don’t cover every piece of my skin to stay pale and I’ve not learned how to fall asleep instantly after lunch, with your forehead against the office desk for waking up 10 minutes later. Perhaps it would take another two months to get used to these habits too.

 I'll soon tell you about my last weekend here in Tanjin, but I will now sleep and gain energy for the last four days as an intern at Dynapac. I'll at least try, there is hell of a thunderstorm outside my window. 

/Julia

[ac-internship-blog]

A retrospective: The road from Stockholm to Shanghai

My journey to Shanghai started where another journey had just ended. In January, I came home from an exchange semester in Buenos Aires and realized that the majority (maybe not, but that was my perception of it) of my friends and classmates had already been offered internships for the summer. This stressed me out and my first two weeks in Sweden I spent writing cover letters and applying for summer internships, one of them Atlas Copco’s international summer internship. I assessed the probability of being called to an interview to be very low since there had been a huge interest for this internship, a lot of advertising and competition was probably high.

Nevertheless, one morning in April I received a phone call from a woman named Sigrid who asked if I would like to come to an assessment day at Atlas Copco’s headquarter in Stockholm. I honestly thought she called about some other internship that I couldn’t recall having applied for. I just couldn’t believe I had been selected to come to an interview for the international internship.

A couple of days later I met up with five other students in the headquarter. We learned that we were the first six out of a total of 18 people to be interviewed. First we were given a presentation about Atlas Copco group and the different internships they offered this yea. and then we were divided into groups of three with the assignment to discuss and rank about 15 different criteria for a good employee and then present our conclusions. I was in the same group as Max and Dimitris and as you already we all were offered the internship, so I guess we did a good job :)

After the group session we all had individual interviews and by the end of the day we were given 30 minutes to write about Atlas Copco’s core values and explain them from a sustainable perspective. The day ended with a smoothie, something I later found is the most popular drink in the headquarter. If you ever have the chance to go there, buy yourself a smoothie in the cafeteria!

About a week later Sigrid called and told me I had proceeded in the process and the next step was a Skype interview with Wouter Schoofs in Shanghai. We made an appointment for the interview at 4 pm CET next Tuesday. Just to be sure I wasn’t confusing the time zones, I googled time in Sweden CET and found that CET was one hour behind Swedish time, so the interview was supposed to start at 5 pm Swedish time. I will never rely on only the first hit on google ever again… Apparently that website did not take daylight-saving time into account so once I signed in to my Skype account well before 5 pm I found an email from Wouter asking why I hadn’t been online at 5 pm as agreed. Shit! My already pounding heart sank. I can't recall one single time I've been late for work and now I was late for an interview. For an internship at Atlas Copco. In Shanghai. Luckily Wouter agreed on rescheduling the interview to the following day and I spent that entire evening assessing, with support from my friends, how much this had decreased my chances of getting the internship. Figures differed between 3 and 30 % but we ended up with the conclusion that I still had a quite good chance.

After a few days of anxious waiting, Sigrid finally called me Monday the following week to give me the good news! I can vaguely recall her talking about visas and flight tickets, but when we hung up I couldn’t remember any important information she might have been giving me, besides from the fact that I was offered the internship!

A couple of weeks later five of us (Marielle could unfortunately not participate) met up in the headquarter again. The first time we met there was also another man there, Ronnie Leten, the CEO of Atlas Copco. We were given the amazing opportunity to talk to him for an hour, listen to him talking about his career and challenges and ask him whatever we wanted to know. The day proceeded in a frantic pace with information, presentations, a visit to the mine which is located directly under the headquarter, meetings with employees and the interns from last year and of course – Swedish fika with smoothies.

In the beginning of June I returned with the other interns to the headquarter. The week before leaving Sweden we had an introduction week packed with project planning training, information, interesting presentations, meetings with Atlas Copco employees and managers, photo shoots, a visit to the factory in Märsta, smoothies and dinners.

Sitting here by a poolside in Shanghai, desperate to get a tan before going home, what happened just a few months ago feels very distant. A lot have happened since then and I am not only satisfied with the fact that I managed to get the internship, but also with this amazing experience!

Me and the other interns. I love this photo! If you live in Sweden you have probably seen a Dressman commercial or two.. ;)

Atlas Copco's headquarter in Sickla, Stockholm

One of the assignments we were given during the introduction week was to prepare a dinner for Sigrid

晚上好！

Hannah

[ac-internship-blog]

Dinner with the Managing Director

Yesterday night I was taken out to dinner by the Managing Director, José, here in Chile. The night started though with a bit of drama. I was supposed to be picked up at my apartment by a cab at 7.30pm that was ordered for me and which was going to take me to the restaurant, however, after ten minutes I was worried that the cab driver had forgotten me as no cab had shown up. Here it is actually quite common that even though you have booked a cab, they might not show up. I called a co-worker who could call the cab company for me and check if the cab was on its way, as my language skills with the cab company`s do not match very well. While waiting for my co-worker to get back to me, another cab dropped off an older lady in front of me, and I noticed that she had a trouble getting out of the car but her cab driver helped her. While looking at a different direction, I was thrown off guard when the old lady practically fell on me and to the ground, making a quite nasty fall. The old lady was very sick and both I and her cab driver had to help her up to her feet again. At this moment my co-worker also called informing me that my cab was on its way. As the cab driver needed to assist the old lady into the apartment building, he managed to communicate to me that he wanted me to watch his cab while he was gone. Here car thefts are very common and is a huge problem, it is not safe to leave your car out on the street or in a parking lot that is not surveillanced by staff. Just minutes after my co-worker had called me, my cab driver finally came to pick me up, however, as I had taken on the task to watch the other cab driver`s car, I couldn`t leave until he came back. It took me some time before I managed to communicate this dilemma to my cab driver, and for a while I thought that my cab driver was going to leave me as he thought I had found another ride. Here in Santiago it is not advisable to take a cab just in the street, one should always book beforehand and use a company you can trust. When the old lady`s cab driver finally came back (which I must say took a while), I could finally leave with my cab driver to the restaurant. However, with a lot of traffic and with the drama before leaving, I arrived late and did not really get to represent the Swedish punctuality we are famous for, but rather apologize for being late. Though I had an amusing story to tell José, once finally arriving.

The restaurant he took me to is called La Mar and is well known for its Peruvian food. José was very considerate and wanted to make sure that I would enjoy the food and get the opportunity to try their special cuisines. The food served was fantastic and I really enjoyed the evening with José. If planning to visit Santiago, I can highly recommend this restaurant!

The entrance

Tika chips made of Patagonian exotic vegetables and canchas (the homemade Andean version of corn nuts) with three delicious dip sauces. Also, the famous drink pisco sour, now the Peruvian version.

Ceviche; fresh raw white fish marinated with citrus juices spiced with chili peppers

Lomo Saltado, a Peruvian dish with sliced beef, hot spices and French fries. We also shared a fish dish (hake) with mashed Peruvian potatoes and warm vegetables, served with a sauce made of tamarind, which was magical!

Chocolate Soufflé for dessert with banana ice cream!

//Marielle