Internship Seminar

Internship seminar course is a course that we – international students – can earn 2 credits and experience for job hunting in Japan by joining an educational internship program hold by a Japanese company – Aeon Financial Services Co, Ltd., a company under Aeon Group.

The internship lasts from 2 weeks, including two different half: Domestic Internship and Oversea Internship, which allows us to experience the working cultures in two branches of Aeon Financial Services Company, the headquarter and Thailand branches, through which we can learn their services, a normal day of a salary man in two countries and especially, a chance for us to compare domestic and oversea working style, to find if Japan can be a great choice for long-term working place before deciding to do job hunting.

Domestic Internship

Headquarter in the most energetic city Tokyo – A great opportunity to learn how Japanese work and communicate at workplaces!

Before joining the domestic internship, there were three personal goals that I set: 1. To understand how a big corporation operates its business in Financial Industry, 2. To understand my own strengths and weaknesses in working in Japanese company, 3. To understand my own suitability to work in Japan after graduate, from the perspective of a foreigner – and fortunately, I achieved all of them!

From the first day, we had an ice-breaking activities with our own team which consisted of 4 people from different universities. Following that is the lectures introducing all departments inside the company and how they achieved their goals as interdependent parts. After that, we had one day of field trip to Aeon Bank and research their payment method strategies to support convenient life of customers. Later, a workplace-experience (職場体験) was hold that each of us was assigned to different department. It was the first time I understood how hard to express my idea in Japanese, and the important of communicating with bosses and exchanging ideas with colleagues, so a successful project can be delivered to the hand of customers. It was such a precious experience for me to have more encouragement to learn Japanese and did interviews with my applying companies.

Final project of presenting a new service that AFS can provide to approach a new segment of customer was not easy for us! Many of our ideas were rejected since it was not feasible or original, which caused us depressed and understanding the difficulty of suggesting a new business idea. However, with the support of experienced supervisor, we overcame and successfully proposed a plan to the company. We also won the Best Presentation Award – the first recognition of our efforts.

Oversea Internship

Aeon Thana Sinsap welcomed us with heart-warming delicious cuisine and the staff`s hospitality. Same process as Domestic Internship, we were assigned in different team and got several lectures about each department of the company. The interesting point was the mix of Japanese and Thai people, but their style is aligned with others and the atmosphere was so warm.

Besides the indoor lecture, our team joined the outdoor activities such as Finding Aeon Bank inside Malls, Meeting staffs there and exploring its famous tourist spots and delicious street food in the break.

In last day, we presented our proposed service to the company and got much useful feedback, which I still utilize for my job-hunting process.

Finally, in the last day in Thailand, we had a chance to visit all famous spots such as Imperial Palace, trying Thai traditional Clothes and a great meal with other students. All became precious memories for me during my student life!

Conclusion: I recommend the Internship Seminar course to students who are interested in doing job hunting in Japan. All the learning and advice you have in this course will support you during your process of job hunting. In addition, friends and networking connecting you with other participants can support you in many aspects in life.

So many Japanese companies open the recruitment process for their internship participants! You can get to the company easier if you join their intern! Take your chance and shine.