The 2024 Winter Shanghai Career Trek

As the fall 2023 semester ended, 20 HNC students made their way to Shanghai for a career trek. They met with various employers to discuss careers and possible internship and career opportunities. Students were also able to meet with alumni and employers at an alumni mixer. In this post, first-year MAIS student Savannah Glaves dives into the Shanghai career trek experience.

The 2024 Winter Shanghai Career Trek was one for the books. It brought many insights to not just me, but all the other students involved. For myself, this was my first experience outside of the HNC to connect with alumni and employers I could potentially work for in the future, and I was able to learn about many different career prospects for myself in the private sector.

Specifically, this year’s career trek lasted for three days with a focus on consulting firms. We were able to meet with various employers, including Intralink, Lantau Group, APCO Worldwide, Control Risks, and the American Chamber of Commerce. They all provided us with different ideas on how to apply our degrees in future careers, even with our various program concentrations (energy, economics, etc). For example, the Lantau Group focuses on energy consulting, while APCO Worldwide focuses on consulting in government relations and strategic communications.

To start off the trek, we were required to write a pre-trek report detailing one of the five companies. My group was assigned APCO Worldwide, which was the company I was most interested in, along with Intralink. I had previously read that APCO Worldwide dealt with relations between companies and governments, and considering I want to work in some area related to the government, whether it be in the public or private sector, I was excited to be able to do more research on the company. Each team provided a short summary of the company, recent news related to them, questions, recruitment details, and recent job openings at the company. 

After submitting the reports, we had about a week before we finished classes and then made our way to Shanghai. On the first day of the career trek, we met with Intralink and Lantau Group. Intralink discussed how they worked in consulting companies in various industries and held a Q&A session with us. The Lantau Group, with a focus on energy consulting, provided a thorough introduction of the company and possible internship opportunities.

The format was similar the next day with us visiting APCO Worldwide and Control Risks. While we essentially listened to similar presentations about the companies’ different focuses in consulting, the companies did also provide unique ways of presenting themselves. At APCO Worldwide, we participated in two case studies, where we discussed in smaller groups how we would react and consult companies in certain situations.

In the evening, we all made our way to a sports bar for the alumni mixer. Here we met with alumni to chat about their careers and made connections for our future career discovery. Other students who may not have participated in the trek, but were in the area, also had the benefit of attending the mixer. It was a fun and relaxing evening.

On the last day, we stopped at the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), where we listened to professionals from Google and Sino Talent Solutions talk about what their companies were looking for in employees and how to apply. This was a bit different from what we had experienced the two days prior because AmCham had the two companies talk first and then had a panel-like discussion afterward where we asked the companies specific questions about themselves. Regardless, it was insightful, giving us perspectives from both large-scale and small-scale companies and what they’re looking for.

After the AmCham visit, I made my way to the airport to fly back to Kansas City, home for winter break. As of writing this post, we are still in the midst of writing post-trek reports, in which we summarize what we learned at the meetings with these companies.

Altogether, this career trek allowed me to experience interactions in the business world for the first time, as well as come to better understand what exactly consultancies do. While I may not work in this specific industry in the future, I have found opportunities for internships before going into different sectors, as well as come to understand what to look out for when choosing a company. I hope other students can gain similar experiences from participating in future career treks!

Written by Savannah Glaves, MAIS '25; edited by Sam Trizza, Cert+MAIR '25