A taste of working life
Two weeks into her summer vacation, Chen Meng returns home, totally exhausted. Her feet ache from standing for 10 hours in her high-heeled shoes. The junior from the Capital University of Economics and Business has been working as an intern for Wall Street English, an English training center in Beijing. She mans the doorway of a shopping mall, distributing questionnaires to passers-by in an attempt to understand customer needs.
Describing herself as timid, Chen says the first day was the toughest. She hid behind the desk at first, but soon realized no one had bothered to look in her direction.
She eventually overcame her shyness and stepped forward. At about 4 pm, Chen could hardly stand as she had skipped lunch. But she decided to soldier on. On her first day as an intern, she had 23 of the 40 questionnaires completed by 7:30 pm. "I chose to do this job, so I can't really complain," says Chen.
