No task is easy, and every day serves as a challenge

Overseas internship is currently on the rise, although you will be leaving your family and friends, forking out your own living expenses and the cultural barriers and shocks you will face. But nothing else compares with the experience you are about to face.

Let me share with you my experience. I stayed in Vietnam for about six months as a student from Ngee Ann Polytechnic in Singapore. I truly appreciate the opportunity given to students by my school in the aim to nurture and expose student interns to regional and international startup ecosystems.

When I was given Vietnam as my destination, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but surely I was excited. So I was thrown in a foreign land, and I dived right in the center of the startup scene at Vietnam Innovative Startup Accelerator (VIISA), a joint venture between Dragon Capital, FPT Ventures and Hanwha Investment.

There wasn’t any “get to know each other” session; I started right away, meeting up with startup teams that were under our Acceleration Program. I was helping seven startups with their pitch deck before VIISA’s first Investment Day (Demo Day) on April 11th.
On the first six weeks, I’ve realized one thing: Why work for one startup when you can work with multiple startups in an accelerator?

One of the best jobs

In an accelerator, no two days are the same. One day, I’m helping startups on their pitch. Another day, I’ll be meeting with mentors about their comments on the startups. Different news and milestones from the companies kept things interesting. The intern now has an opportunity to play a significant role in how the startup develops. He/she also has the opportunity to grow not just one but multiple companies.

Think of it as another way: Would you rather help one person, or the entire group, if you have to ability to help a large group of people?

Also read: Students, here are 3 reasons why you should never intern at a startup

Then there are terms that I hear every now and then, like “traction”, “valuation”, “term sheet”,“user acquisition”, just to name a few. Every day is different, and I get to learn so much more about the ins and outs of starting a startup. Learning directly from the people who have experienced it, why not?

Learning opportunities

In the first month, VIISA’s Program Director Adrian Tan, an ex-JFDIer, provided me with numerous learning opportunities directly from founders, startup entrepreneurs and even angel investors such as Michael Blakey from Cocoon Capital. I sat in meetings about starting lean, valuations and pitching, which gave me a great deal of valuable insights about running a startup.

No task is easy, and every day serves as a challenge. You got to have something to work on the next day and kept on improving. Day in, day out, I’ve worked closely with the first batch of startups, listening to the founders having met their milestones, made me feel a sense of achievement like a kid who just won a prize at the fun fair carnival.

Not only was I involved with the startups under the accelerator program itself, but also involved in startup tourism with visitors from Innovation Norway, representing banks, incubators, government from the Western side of Norway, sharing with them the excitement in Ho Chi Minh City. From this, I’ve learnt not just how the startup scene is like in Norway but also the cultural aspect of it from them as well. With sharing like this, I felt that I’ve just opened the door just like in Narnia where there are so much more things to discover.

From this internship, I’m bound to learn all things about startups, knowing that running a startup is not an easy task and there are many different aspects to be taken care of. However, in an internship like this, I’m learning way more than that, it teaches me on human management, the importance of communication, time management based on the importance of tasks and more.

—-

Editor’s note: e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

Featured Image Credit

The post Some important things I learned interning at a startup accelerator in Vietnam appeared first on e27.