Singapore's a different world altogether - safe, clean and culturally diverse. Not many people might know this but 15% of Singapore's population is Muslim and Eid is actually a public holiday here. In a country where half the population is expatriates, you can see and meet people from all around the world living at the heart of Asia. The LC here has been really supportive in helping me settle in and finding a place and the intern community is quite strong. We have 10-15 interns from different places (mostly Asia) and we meet regularly for lunch etc - it's great to have people you can instantly connect with and rely on for help. Adeel Naeem (AIESEC Lahore) and Jawad Latif (AIESEC Islamabad) now work here in permanent roles and have been a great support. I also met some people I have met in other countries at conferences or know through friends - quite interesting how small and accessible the AIESEC world is :)
Other than that, Malaysia's nearby so there is a lot of scope for tourism to serene beaches and jungles and highlands - have just had one trip so far but plan to do many more in the coming year. Work's great - really enjoying it. The best part about working for UBS are the people you work with - smart, friendly and supportive - even though an AIESEC intern is seen as an intern, I have over time been given good learning opportunities and a fair amount of responsibility. Even my team's quite diverse: my boss is Australian and then we have Malaysian, Korean, English and Singaporean and well, Pakistani nationalities represented in a team of around 8 people.
The role's quite interesting too - Legal and Compliance - upcoming thing in the financial sector with all the regulators putting their foot down to better regulate the financial institutions - there's a lot happening and changing and it's all quite interesting to see things develop from UBS' perspective. And since Singapore's a hub of sorts, we also look at other countries in the region which makes things even more interesting....
Well, other than that, I'll say what I tell everyone, the stay in Singapore has almost been all about work, which is something I wanted and have enjoyed.
Hummayun Javed
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