The value of internships

Tergel Bat-Uzlii, B.H.M.S. graduate and recently appointed Director of Marketing at one of the biggest production companies in Mongolia, shares how his internships at B.H.M.S. gave him a leg up in the business world.

It’s kind of a funny story - I was studying as a construction engineer in Mongolia but discovered that I was not really an “engineer” type of guy. It was becoming clear that I had other passions and wanted another lifestyle than a career in engineering would offer me. I started to look for other options, but all I was certain of was that I wanted to study abroad… Because I’d been to Switzerland before in 2009 as part of an exchange program and justadored it, it quickly became my first choice.

Switzerland had a few schools that combined hospitality with business, and I thought that would be useful in Mongolia because we don’t have many hospitality experts here. So studying Hospitality and Global Business Management seemed like a great option. I saw that at B.H.M.S. you can study and do internships – paid internships – and that was a huge incentive to choose that particular school.

B.H.M.S. does a good job at pointing out where students might be disadvantaged going into their work placements and shows them how to bridge those gaps so that they have access to the best possible internships. The school certainly helped me to improve where I needed to, and I would say that my internships were some of the best moments of my life.

They also do a good job of communicating to students what Swiss businesses expect of their interns, which is a lot. But because the standard is so high, if a prospective employer sees that someone studied and interned in Switzerland, they know this person is serious. During the internships, you are essentially working a full-time job, and if you can get a good reference from where you interned – particularly if they’re a local company – you’re at a huge advantage in terms of employability.

In the end, internships reveal who you are. They reveal what you are capable of and what you lack. By shedding light on your strengths and weaknesses, you can work to become the best version of yourself you can be.

You also finish your internships with an accurate idea of what the real world expects of you, and what it has to offer when those expectations are met; that’s the best part, seeing your hard work pay off.

Not to say there weren’t challenges, but even those, you learn to face them. For me, it was a great experience. To this day, I make sure to point out the experience I gained at B.H.M.S. to my employers, and point to my internships as playing an integral role in making me who I am.They formed my work ethic, making me a hard, effective worker, and those kinds of ethics will earn the respect of anyone, especially company owners.

Right now, I’m working as a Director of Marketing at “Vitafit Group”, one of the biggest local beverage production companies in Mongolia. I’m in charge of decision-making for all 24 of the company’s brands - every non-alcoholic beverage you can imagine, from juices to milk!  The best part is getting to be one of the first people to taste all of the new beverages.