(你好) Néih hóu everyone! That means hello and is pronounced like "lay ho". The last two days have been quite exhausting but fun to say the least. So as I mentioned in my last post myself and the three other interns at Global Sage all showed up to work and found out we were not suppossed to start till the 14th of June! So yesterday was our first day, we got up just like Monday and met at breakfast except this time we left about 10 min later so say 10 after 8 am. Well let me tell you that was a mistake! The subway was wicked packed, soooo many people! Luckily the subways are very clean and have air conditioning otherwise it would have been miserable. On monday we made the commute and got there with 25 min to spare, yesterday we got to work at exactly 9 so we just made it. One funny thing about the subways during the week (and I will try to get a pic of this at some point) is that there are actually workers who are hired to simply push and move people along in the subways. They point traffic in the direction to walk and will actually even gently push people on the train; to squeeze as many on as possible.
Work was great though, we got there and were greeted by the office manager who toured us around the office, introduced us to everyone and also gave us our key cards and itinerary's for the week. The first day was quite a few meetings and introductory lessons about how things work and such. The office took us out for lunch to a traditional Chinese Dim sum meal. (I did not have my camera the first day so I didn't get any pics of dim sum but next time I go I will def take pics) What Dim sum for those that do not know is a bunch of foods in small portions that everyone at the table shares and it is served with teas. It was delicious let me tell you, I did not have anything I did not like except... for the bbq chicken foot. The chicken foot I did not really enjoy because there is more bone then meat, and the meat has like a fatty texture and if you know me then you know how I feel about fat. However everything else was delicious! After lunch we got right into working and it was sort of a wake up because in the morning we were just learning then all of sudden we were right in the mix!
After work we met up with a bunch of the other interns at this bar in the Festival Walk mall call Danny Ryan's and had a beer then we all went back changed out of our work clothes and got ready to go to our program. Yesterdays program was really neat, we went to the Temple Street Market and had a seafood dinner at one of the street restaurants. The way the street market restaurants work for those of you who do not watch the TRAVEL CHANNEL lol is the people cook the food in the small restaurant kitchen inside and you eat outside at little benches. It was really good we had clams, prawn, noodles with shredded chicken, spring rolls, fried rice, bbq chicken and of course beer! After dinner we went through the street market where you can find just about anything and bargain for almost all of it. They sell everything from rip off iphones, watches and handbags to paintings, kids toys, trinkets and tea sets. I bought a sweet Bruce Lee cut-off t-shirt that I will be wearing on thursday when we go see the Bruce Lee statue.
Today I woke up and was pretty damn tired, work is tiring...shit I need to go back to college so I can take naps again! I had my first team meeting with my team and my direct supervisor Andrew Miller. Andrew had me reading and learning all about Private Equity today because thats where I will be doing most of my work this summer. First I read about the industry and how it works as a refresher from school. Private Equity firms or PE firms invest in securities in non-publicly traded companies. They can do anything from act as venture capitalists and invest in very early stage ideas and companies they feel will work well and make them a lot of cash. They can also buy portions of new companies that need capital or old companies that they may restructure or merge with another company. They can also sometimes find a publicly traded company and for example if the companies stock is trading at $10 per share they may offer $12 to all shareholders and buy the company, take it off the market, restructure it, merge it, develop it and then put it back on the market with a $18 IPO (Initial Public Offering) and make a profit.
After I understand the market I need to learn who the key players are in the market as in PE firms and their personnel. What Global Sage does is essentially personnel placement or "Head Hunting". Except they do it on a strictly executive and management level. They are hired by firms to find the best personnel and get them to leave their job to go work for their client. So knowing the "key players" is essential. So today was a huuuuge reading and learning day and it seems tomorrow is going to be the same. I did have the pleasure today to talk to the President and owner of Global Sage John Wright who is a great guy, the dude is hilarious! He was making fun of Chris and I because we paid Dream Careers (the program we are hear with) to introduce us to Global Sage and then work for free. However he did say "lets see if we can't get you guys working on something real so you can have a real worthwhile experience." so thats exciting.
After work I went for a run with Melissa one of the other Global Sage interns (she plays Lacrosse at University of Arizona) Chris was supposed to run with us to but he backed out last second (which I will give him shit tomorrow for) to take a nap and drink. So Melissa and I just ran, I got to use my new Nike/Ipod workout tracker that Michael my little brother got me for my graduation. It worked great we ran for 30 minutes and 3.5 miles. However I got us really lost so we had to jog back which added another mile and a half to the run. The good thing is that I think we recruited some other people to run with us next time, my friend Ignacio said he wants in too and Alexia and Chris better make up next time!
Well thats it for this log! 拜拜 bāai baai (goodbye) my friends
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