Learning Beyond the Classroom: From Doubt to Growth

I never thought I would be doing a STEM major in my first year while also taking on a part time internship that does not necessarily relate to my major. I started my internship as an impulsive decision, and I would be lying if I said I did not have doubts about accepting the offer. When I said yes, I knew the commitment I had to make, with less time to study and do work outside my usual field. So why did I decide to take it? Why did I end up choosing to do admin/HR at a law firm in Hong Kong while majoring in data science?

Author: Louise Sugiarto, Intern

Growing up in a competitive environment, it’s understandably hard to deal with expectations and comparisons from friends and family. I was raised to always try my best, and even when things don’t work out, I must find solutions to the problems. For the first couple of months. studying in Hong Kong wasn’t easy. I knew no one when I first arrived, I didn’t speak the same language most people I met did, and I felt lost repeating the same cycle every day. With the mindset that I must work out a solution to this myself, I found ways to start engaging in more activities beyond campus. As a student who comes from a high-achieving background, it feels very worthwhile to do an internship; despite the amount of pressure, it will ultimately be rewarding.

Managing my time through scheduling!

I had been too focused on keeping my life together, juggling everything from studying and working, to doing events and participating in competitions, that I never gave myself time to reflect on each of the experiences I had. Now that my internship has concluded, I finally have the time to look back on the past 3 months of my life.

Danger of Pure Certainty

The first impression I had when completing the tasks assigned to me on the first day was that I would be able to catch up and learn everything in just a few weeks. I couldn’t have been more wrong - even until my final week with the firm, I was still learning and figuring out the tasks I had. I thought doing administration and HR work wouldn’t be as hard as it turned out to be. I was hoping that working in management would be a simple getaway, allowing me to interact with candidates and new people, unlike the coding and math courses I have in university. Surprisingly, it turns out the work required more patience than I had anticipated.

I was doing more than just sending emails to candidates; I had to understand their problems and help ensure their issues were addressed properly. Every day before leaving the office, when I thought I had done my job, there were always things that my colleagues or supervisors told me that I could do better, such as adjusting my ambiguity in writing emails, addressing any undone work, or communicating more assertively with the Campus Ambassadors and candidates.

Since then, I’ve discovered that by constantly thinking I am doing well enough with my job, I am, in fact, holding myself back from asking questions. Rather than disturbing others, I preferred to figure things out on my own, which may sometimes lead to more problems than there should have been. I gradually learned that it is alright to ask even the simplest and smallest questions. Being uncertain about the things I’m doing is normal. As time went on, my mindset shifted from thinking “I know how to do this” to “I know less about how to do this,” not because I’m not doing things right, but because I’m improving the things I’m doing and applying the skills I’ve learnt along the way. Over time, I realised that the less I knew how to do the things I’ve done, the more improvements I’d make.

Failure is the Way Forward

I would be lying if I said the internship had gone smoothly without mistakes being made. I made plenty of them, from responding with the wrong information to candidates, to doing the wrong tasks from what was asked by my supervisors, to even missing meetings that were in my calendar because I wasn’t paying attention to the time. I have had a lot of hard realisations, questioning my own ability to get things right and done, even after many weeks of interning.

Learning from other interns

By understanding what I did wrong, I came to the realisation that I need to be more concise and precise with the tasks that were assigned to me. One of the things I like about interning here is that my supervisors let me know when I’m doing something wrong and that they always give me the chance to learn from it. By having other interns in the office, I can also learn how to do certain things from them and get tasks done without disturbing my supervisors every 5 minutes.

Importance of Saying No

After signing up for this internship, I realised how my priorities shifted from socialising to this working lifestyle. While I was previously able to hang out and have fun with friends, now it has changed to sending emails and calling candidates; my time spent helping at university events also shifted to spending hours in the office. Taking on an internship comes with bigger responsibilities, and there are times when I had to turn down the usual social life I had in university because I must work in the office. Having to readjust my priorities allows me the courage to say no easily because I now know where my priorities lie and how to concentrate on what matters the most.

Knowing my priorities

The toughest experiences yield the most valuable lessons!

I would like to say that taking on this internship has been the most tiring experience. But I see all of it as a part of living; if I had never stepped outside of my comfort zone and accepted this new challenge, I would never have known what it would feel like to have this experience. From the endless nights thinking about whether I had time to finish my assignments and projects, to the hardest meetups for group projects after a tiring day at work, to the pressure of handling both responsibilities as a student and as an intern, I have been able to ultimately achieve a steady work-life balance.

Although the internship doesn’t directly correlate with my future career, the learning experience has been valuable. I gained skills in handling large amounts of data (candidate files), making professional choices (selecting the right candidates for the role), and being more flexible, responsible, and proactive in my work. All of these will be useful skills that I can’t learn from the classroom but will benefit my future career.

For all the students who are doing both work and study at the same time, I would say that it has been a rewarding experience, and I highly recommend exploring this opportunity. Other than the new perspective I’ve gained from the humanities side, I learned the most by stepping out of this internship with more of a growth mindset.

If you’re interested in applying for an internship at Ravenscroft & Schmierer, you are welcome to apply through our website [click here]!

I made a video about my experience 'Learning beyond the classroom' as an intern at the firm, have a watch!

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Louise is a Year 1 HKU student studying Data science and Engineering. She completed her 3-month internship with Ravenscroft & Schmierer during spring of 2025.

  Louise Sugiarto

Intern

https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisedaniellesugiarto