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Q: Why did you want to go on a gap year? Did you get any support and understanding from your family or friends?
A: America saw a severe financial crisis in 2008 and many American university students worried about whether they could land a good job after graduation. Some who previously intended to get a job here even began to consider working in some developing countries. However, the Chinese economy was much better at that time, which gave lots of overseas students a ray of hope. I was sent to study abroad at the age of 10 and now many of my living habits had been westernized. I knew little about the Chinese society and social customs. Then the most confusing thing I have was where to work after graduation - New York, Beijing, Shanghai or Hong Kong. I would rather experience what each city was like than simply daydream in my dorm.
Different people have different opinions about graduation. I was in the circle of ABC when I was studying at Columbia University, so my surrounding friends all took it for granted that they should go to Wall Street after graduation, so did my family. They also think that staying in America is the best choice, while they also accept developed international financial centers like Hong Kong.
My friends totally repudiated my decision. In their opinion it was a great pity that we couldn’t go up to the stage to get our graduation certificates collectively after spending four years studying together. They didn’t understand why I wanted to delay one year to graduate. Actually, I cared a lot about this matter then, but now I recall it is a little silly. Graduation is overrated; it is just a moment, though it is worthwhile. However, the experience of a gap year could accompany me all my life. Moreover, I would surely come back China to seek opportunities; therefore relationships established at home are more worthwhile than those established at abroad. At that time, a lot of peers wanted to engage in finance in Wall Street, whether they liked or disliked the idea. I was aware of fierce competition in our generation and began to feel like others “just be interested in finance”. Then I wouldn’t stand out, even though I’d graduated from Columbia University。
In a word, actually, my pressure is pretty big during the gap year，because as for me, gap year is not meant to travel around the world to have fun, it means to have some personal achievements, even better than that I made during the university.
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.
