Learning IT on the job

Using mobile phones to pay at a store is still a novelty to the average Hongkonger.迷你倉 And few students would see themselves getting involved in this kind of cutting-edge technology while still at university. But Wu Ying-kit, a computer science student at the University of Hong Kong, was fortunate enough to have that opportunity. He was an intern at China UnionPay in Shanghai in the summer as part of the Hong Kong-Shanghai Information and Communication Technology Internship Program. The program was organized by Cyberport with technology companies such as Microsoft, IBM, EMC Corporation and Concept Art House. "I researched virtual money and digital wallet systems and worked on software documentation, including system diagrams," Wu says. "After this essential first step is complete, the documentation is passed to programmers who can then write the software." Information technology research and development jobs, involving work such as software documentation, are scarce in Hong Kong's IT industry, where sales and office positions are more common, says Winnie Wong Pik- ngor, head of marketing at Cyberport. Since the program's inception in 2011, university students have completed internships in Shanghai for six to 12 weeks every summer. Now in its third year, the program received more than 200 applications for 29 internship openings in 10 companies. Students are selected through interviews with a human resources manager either in person in Hong Kong, or by telephone or Skype. While the companies taking part give interns cash allowances, mentorship and performance evaluations, Cyberport funds major expenses such as flight and accommodation costs. Wong says Cyberport also organizes enrichment activities such as sightseeing to help students immerse themselves further in the local culture, which is one of the program's aims. "Hong Kong's market is very different from that of the mainland. By interning in the mainland, students can learn what the culture is like through the language and the way their colleagues work, especially in team environments," Wong says. Kingsley Tam King-hei, another in the program this year, is a double- degree business administration and engineering student at HKU. He worked at Cisco Systems' Shanghai office for about six weeks where he managed corporate social responsibility project Cisco Networking Academy, helping organize national student competitions. Tam also translatmini storaged internal English-language resources into simplified Chinese. "I think I can deal with the cultural difference between the mainland and Hong Kong just fine," he says. "The mainland may be easier to adjust to than a non-Chinese country, where the cultural differences would be even bigger." But he stresses that as a multinational company, Cisco's work culture is more internationalized compared with local Chinese companies. Apart from his supervisor, the rest of his team was scattered between Hong Kong, Chengdu, Australia and the Middle East. "As a Hong Kong student, I see things differently but it doesn't mean that I am different from the other Cisco employees because they come from around the world," Tam says. "For example, my colleague's supervisor is Spanish, and some of the other employees are from the United States or have studied abroad in Canada before moving to Shanghai. I was learning from people with diverse backgrounds." And Wu says China UnionPay's high-tech gadgets left a deep impression. "My internship taught me that the mainland is actually very developed in terms of electronics," he says. "For example, their mobile phones can be used as Octopus cards or credit cards. These things, which I came into contact with through the company, changed my mind about the mainland." Wong says past students have been hired to work full-time for Facebook in the Irish capital Dublin and Microsoft in the United States, or have opened their own businesses with fellow program participants. While the prevailing trend is to develop mobile applications, Wu has big dreams for the future, hoping to develop software documentation for Google Glass applications. "Every company needs documentation from a software engineer in order to develop a product," he says. "Similarly, as an apps programmer, you also need to research and develop documentation in order to create an app. So what I did in this internship will be very useful for my future career." In contrast, Tam wants to get a less technical job in an IT consultancy or a business firm where coding is not required. In the future, Wong hopes to place students in Guangzhou with one of their partners, Guangzhou Software Industry Association, and in regional centers and laboratories in the Beijing technology park Zhongguancun. She also hopes to send student interns to Silicon Valley companies in the United States in 2015. apple.lam@singtaonewscorp.com 儲存