GoBear!

The name of the company that I am interning with is GoBear. It is a startup financial technology company that is based in Singapore; Vietnam is just one of its seven branches. Their goal is to be an unbiased site where customers can come and compare rates of different financial institutions such as loans and credit cards. Last year, GoBear was rated as the number 1 comparison company in APAC by google. My goal when I first signed up for this program was to be an engineering intern but I ended up getting a marketing internship.  At first, I wasn’t excited about the placement because I only got research projects. For example, I had to research different Facebook pages and dig into their marketing strategies so that GoBear VN could see where they were going wrong with the page. Aside from that, I had to use keywords to search up different websites in order to come up with an idea for a blog post. After my first week of work, I find the work to be a lot more bearable and the people at my workplace are all very kind and friendly so the experience is really starting to get fascinating.   

When I first walked into the office I was really nervous because I did not know how the other workers would react to me or what type of work I would have to do. However, as the day went on I felt more and more relaxed. The people there were very welcoming and the workload was not too bad for the first day. In the evening, I was also taken to the German Embassy building because that is where we will be holding our annual event, Bear Talk. The next few days I felt that it got kind of awkward because I never knew what to do for lunch, but Thu, another member of the marketing team, helped me out and always invited me to eat with her. On Friday, half of the company even went out to eat Thai food and ice-cream together. Overall, I had a good experience during my first week.

Given that I researched the company beforehand, I thought that it would be bigger than it actually is since the brand is quite popular in Asia. However, I was in for a shock when I found out that there are only 13 people in the Vietnam branch. Since there are so few employees everyone is very close-knit; even the country director is very chill when it comes to making jokes around the office. Also, unlike in America, where the workspace layout is in cubicles, the workspace at GoBear is very open. About eight desks are pushed together to form two rows and everyone has their own area. The country director also sits in the same room but with his own desk and there is a smaller office for conference calls. Aside from the open layout, the company is also very open about the time that the employees show up to and leave work. Some show up at 10:00 A.M. and some leave at 3:00 or 4:00 A.M. When the employees are tired they are also allowed to take naps; some even bring sleeping bags. In general, the workplace for GoBear VN is very casual and easy to adapt to.