Interning with KPMG in Vietnam
Jarred Foster was one of two recent Asia:NZ KPMG business intern in Ho Chi Minh City. Here's what he had to say on his return to New Zealand.
It is hard to believe that my time in Vietnam is already over.
The opportunity to experience the inner workings of a professional services firm within a foreign land has really been priceless. From day one, the staff at KPMG were extremely welcoming to me. I really enjoyed the opportunity to experience their culture and way of life.
I was assigned to the audit team at KPMG’s Ho Chi Minh City office. I found this quite daunting at first as I had no previous experience in the area. Added to that was the fact that most clients did not speak a lot of English, which made the task seem quite difficult.
Fortunately for me, the KPMG staff were very happy to help me through the experience. They were always willing to assist and walk me through any challenge that I came across. For this I was very grateful. My attempts at Vietnamese seemed to fail miserably, much to the amusement of the local staff. There were always going to be a few communication issues as you would expect, but overall the people were very friendly and we always had a good laugh.
Audit is a great place to work in order to get an idea of the commercial environment of a new city. This is because it provides the opportunity to visit a new client every week, all from varying industries. In my time I was able to work at all sorts of businesses including banks, investment funds, hotels and ceramic factories. This meant I got to meet such a wide array of people making each new week an exciting prospect to look forward to.
The options for eating out in Ho Chi Minh are incredible, so many varieties for any budget. I thoroughly enjoyed being able to sample the wide range of cuisines and barely ever went back to the same place twice. The best meals, though, were always the ones with locals as they always knew the best and cheapest places to go.
I also ate some things I thought I would never have such as fertilised quail eggs and turtle meat. It seems as though there is not much that the Vietnamese people won’t eat!
For the second month of my trip, Charles Wilson, the other Asia:NZ intern, joined me in Ho Chi Minh. It was really enjoyable to share the experience with a fellow Kiwi.
We also got the privilege of attending a wedding of a co-worker’s sister in a nearby town. This was really an enjoyable trip and helped us gain a great insight in Vietnamese culture. We were both very grateful and felt very welcomed by his extended family.
Overall my time in Vietnam was incredibly enjoyable. I met a lot of great people and got the opportunity to see parts of Vietnamese life that I wouldn’t have been able to if I had visited as a tourist. My work at KPMG has made me very excited about my future working life. I very much hope that I will get the chance to return to Asia to work some time in the future.
