Can Remote Internships Solve the Talent Vacuum? W/ Fredrik van Huynh

Can international internships be the answer to the talent gap? In today’s episode, I’m joined by Fredrik van Huynh, founder and CEO of Absolute Internship, to talk about hiring talent, remote internships, and its possible impact on talent scarcity and the talent pool, in general, in the business world.

Absolute Internship is an organization that helps university graduates enter the working world through high-quality internships. As a student, Fredrik van Huynh got the opportunity to be an exchange student in China and Japan. This is where he spotted an opportunity to connect students to internships worldwide.

Post-COVID, a lot of companies, especially those in bigger cities like London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo, etc., have started to realize how large their talent pool can be if they look at hiring talent all over the world. With the new Gen Z workforce coming in who thrive in flexibility, are used to working online, and are comfortable with a remote set-up, talent scarcity might very well be a thing of the past.

International internships or remote internships may just be the best gateway for students to get introduced into the working world. They can gain the experience they need (and may even possibly be eyed for employment) without having to spend on the high cost of living in cities. It also presents limitless opportunities when it comes to the range of job experiences and networks they can have with different industries and companies all over the world.

For companies, hiring talent outside the usual network that we look at may just be the innovation we need to fill in the gap, and avoid experiencing talent scarcity. Offering international internships or even just remote internships within our country presents a great first step to widening our talent pool, and hiring the best talent possible, beyond geographical limits.

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ABOUT PETER BOOLKAH
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Peter Boolkah (AKA The Transition Guy) is the World’s #1 Business Transition Coach whose main passion in life is to work with talented and high performing business owners who are in the process of creating exciting, high growth busines

CONNECT WITH PETER BOOLKAH:
--------------------

http://www.Boolkah.com
https://www.facebook.com/Boolkah
https://www.instagram.com/pboolkah/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/boolkah
https://twitter.com/boolkah

--------------------
ABOUT PETER BOOLKAH
--------------------

Peter Boolkah (AKA The Transition Guy) is the World’s #1 Business Transition Coach whose main passion in life is to work with talented and high performing business owners who are in the process of creating exciting, high growth businesses. 

Peter helps you to navigate and transition through the crucial growth pains that all growing businesses experience making it as painless and exciting as possible.

It is important to remember that businesses do not just grow and develop on their own, it is up to us and our teams to make this happen by making every day purposeful. 

As businesses grow some parts of the journey will be easier than others and most owners do not have all the answers. Starting a business is one of the most exciting things we get to do and we all have aspirations of achieving great things. In fact Peter is yet to meet someone who started a business with the intention of failing.

Peter’s ultimate life goal is to inspire and empower over 100,000 Entrepreneurs to create long term thriving businesses resulting in the creation of 1,000,000 jobs.

So if you are scaling up your business, you’re in a bu...

Transcript

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(rousing music)- Hi, Peter Boolkah here, and welcome to today's edition of"The Transition Guy". Now joining me today in the studio, is Frederick Van Huynh, who is the Co-Founder of Absolute Internship. Freddy, welcome to today's episode.- Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here, Peter.- Yeah, it's great to have you. And really one of the things that drew me to you as a guest, was the whole thing about Absolute Internship. How did that start?- Absolute Internship. Well, let's go back to when I was a student. I had an opp, I had an opportunity to be an exchange student in Shanghai, China, and in Japan back in 2007, 2008. And when I was in China, my roommate, he was an intern, and internships in Sweden, where I'm from, I don't look very Swedish. My parents are from Cambodia. I was born and raised in Sweden. I was asking this guy,"What's an internship?" Because internships were not a big deal in Sweden. And he was telling me that well an internship is, it's like a job. You work full time, but you have a mentor and you're learning the ropes, but you're not getting paid, but it looks good on your CV. And I'm like, "That's great."I should be doing one of those." And I think that's something that more people should be doing. That's sort of like a smart way to get in to a big, and good company. Fast forward to the next semester when I was in Japan. Now I had this huge network of interns, friends that I got to know in China. Now I was living in Japan, and I had three classmates. They were looking for summer internships. And I was like"Well, I know a lot of people back in China." And Peter, this was before Facebook. No, actually we had Facebook. This was before Airbnb, before Booking.com. So it was not like you could go online and book a place to stay, find an internship in China. So I was like, "You know what guys,"I'm gonna hook you guys up with these internships,"but you will have to sort out your accommodation"and all of that once you are in China." So fast forward, I think it was a half year or so. I was checking in with these guys. So like, "How was your time in China?" And they were telling that the internships were great. They had a great time, but it was such a hassle to find accommodations, such a hassle to get their visa sorted, and it was such a hassle to find friends during the short time, because not so many people spoke English, or speaks English in Shanghai. And that made me think back on my own time in China,'cause I had such a great time both in China and Japan, and it was because of the community and the people that I got to know. Now I graduated Peter. So I was living in Bangkok, Thailand. I've always wanted to go abroad. I was not making a lot of money, but I'm a big football fan. So my big, my favorite team is Juventus. Since I was eight, Roberto Baggio, Del Piero, my biggest heroes.- They were great players.- They were, yes. Amazing. But back in... so in Thailand I couldn't got a job. So what I did was I went to these factories, that were producing the football jerseys, and I bought jerseys on wholesale, and I sold them on eBay. I was making I think four to 450 British pounds. So about 500 US dollars per month. So not a lot, but they paid the bills, and I could eat. And I had a great time. But I remember it was this Friday evening. I was watching Sopranos with my partner, and I was like, "What about these internships?" So that night I was literally googling summer internships. And what was popped up was this company in the US that was selling internship programs in New York City, and they had 400 students more or less each year. And they were all from the US, and they were paying $12,000, which is, I think, I don't know, 11,000 pounds if my math is correct more or less. And I was like, I was making a match on my phone. And I was like, "That's a real business." I know how to connect people with internships. And I mean, it shouldn't be too hard to find accommodation for these people. And I love people. So I was thinking Peter, they are doing it New York City, I could be doing this in Shanghai. So that's how Absolute Internship was founded.- Awesome. Awesome. Do you know what's interesting, was when I was, when I was young, and that's now going back for a few decades, but when I was young, internships were really hot. I mean, that was probably, if you were lucky to get an internship, you were, you hit the gold mine. Because as you said, it was a great way to get in. Yes, you didn't get paid, but it paid you back, because you more or less, if you had a good internship, you got the job.- Exactly.- So that was awesome. But then I felt that internships over the years have kind of died a slow death. So less companies were offering them, but there was a whole generation of people that really were not interested anymore, where they said at the end of the day, they weren't prepared to perhaps dedicate a period of their life without getting paid. And I think they missed the point of the internship. And then came COVID, and the whole world lockdown. And the fact that so much of the working sort of population have been beamed into outer space and just totally disappeared. We're now left with this total talent crunch.- Yes.- And I'm starting to think really, will internships, or should internships play a bigger role in filling that talent gap going forward for businesses? And secondly, now that we've got used to remote working, I just wonder what remote working in terms of an internship could possibly look like.- Yeah. I would love to answer that question, Peter, but let me, let me bring some perspective on what you were saying. I think you were saying that was this generation that were neglecting internships as a gateway. And I would say that it really depends on where in the world you were based, or where you are currently based, and depending on the culture that you were exposed to at the university. So for example, in the UK, you have these graduate schemes that is sort of like something that universities, that's a religion for them. They're just bombarding students that you need to be going to these graduate schemes. But the fact is, UK has one of the best education systems in the world, and it draws millions of students, which means that all these millions of students are not gonna be able to get a graduate scheme at KPMG, or PWC, or BP, wherever you wanna be doing these graduate schemes. And that created an opportunity for, it was a problem. It's still a problem, but it created an opportunity for other smaller, medium sized company or smaller firms, not only in the UK, but around the world to create ad hoc internship programs for students. And I think that's one of the reasons why Absolute Internship has been so successful since the day we commenced business. We've been growing every year for 12 years now, Peter.- Really?- And I remember this, yes. And I'm not saying that to brag. I'm just saying that it's actually, it's a fact that a lot of universities and companies, they're not aware of. I remember a few years ago, I was at the University of Lester. I was at an, I was having an info session, and I was speaking to this first year Indian student who was an international student. And he came to me after the info session and said,"Frederick, I would love to do this program."I would love to go to Shanghai."Can you guarantee me an internship at one of the big four?" And I said, "No. I cannot." And I don't think you should be so obsessed about getting into the big four. Listen, you are just one out of millions of international students here in the UK. What makes you unique? And you're a first year student. There are millions of students out there. I said, "You go, and you take any internship"that you can get, and what you should be going for"is the skills, the transfer skills"that you're gonna be exposed to, and the mentorship." Because to be honest, you coming from University of Lester, it's not one of the best schools in the world. It's not, just to be fair.- That's true.- So what you need, yeah, you need something that is different. How many Indian students are there, there in the UK? Get this internship in China. That's gonna make your CV really stand out already, because how many first year students gonna have like a China internship on their CV? Fast forward three years, Peter. This guy got a job at Kodak in the UK, which is, it's very, very difficult for international students. I'm sure you know, to land a full-time job upon graduation in the UK, it's extremely hard. And partly one of the biggest reasons was because of this experience in China. So I wanted to bring that perspective before I go to answer your question, which is right now post COVID, I think a lot of companies, especially bigger cities like London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo, and et cetera, I think what they realized, is they can get talent from all around the world, and the newer generation that is coming up now, Gen Z, they are very well adapted for it, because working remotely, the number one skill you need to have is flexibility working across time zones. You're not gonna be working from nine to six, your local time zone. You might be working from three to 10,

or from four to 11: 10:43

00 PM. I think it has brought a lot of opportunities as well, Peter. I remember this FinTech company in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has one of the most expensive office rents in the world.- Yeah.- And Hong Kong has had a tough time the last four or five years with the political situation and all of that. And then COVID hit. So this FinTech company, they had to downsize, and then they were like,"Okay, well, we can't fit people in our office,"so we need to be recruiting remotely." And they've been able to recruit people, not only full-time, like full-time employees, but remote interns from different type of cultures. So that people from the US, from Europe, from Asia, making sure that they were able to cover different types of time stones as well. So I think it has brought a lot of opportunities, remote work, and I'm a big believer, Peter, that remote work, we're just touching the the top of the iceberg. I think it's gonna explode. I think the way I see the world in three to five years, is that remote work is gonna just be the standard. You might be living in the outskirts of London, but you might actually be working for a company in Edinburgh or a company in Paris, or a company in Asia. And that's great, because now, if you're, let's say you're living in Edinburgh, you are not, you are not stuck to the companies that are based in Edinburgh. Now you have the world as your oyster. You can apply to any job in the world. And at the same time, that's great professionally, but now you can actually spend more time with your children and your family.- Yeah, and I was gonna say, that's the big thing though, isn't it? That you're no longer having to perhaps live in cities where the cost of living is extortionate. So you talked about Hong Kong, London is one of the most expensive places to live in the world. The cost of living is up. You're just basically working to live, working to survive. Whereas now with remote, that pressure's no longer on you. And the one thing that I've, and one thing I've noticed as well, is very often, is like I said at the beginning, you get a good intern in, that company is not going to want to let that intern go. So they'll do what they can to then keep hold of that intern and offer them a good job. So although you may not be getting paid at the beginning, it's probably a "Buy now, get paid later" scheme, where if you add value, you will get rewarded.- I agree. I agree. And I think, you know what? When you're young, Peter, you don't have a lot of money, but you have a lot of time.- Yeah.- When you're a little bit older, like 25 plus, 30 plus, you might have a little bit more money, but you have less time. So I would say to young people there are 18 to 22, when you are in uni, or even when you're in high school, eight levels in the UK, utilize that time, because, and you can get these internships. And it's a great gateway, like you were saying. You're learning the ropes. And you're learning the ropes, you might not get paid in money, but you might be get paid in like connections, or mentorship, or introductions to future opportunities so to speak, because every door that you open is gonna lead you to another door.- You've demonstrated that Freddy, through your internship experience where you built up, and the word that you use, which I absolutely love, is a network. You built up a network. And I think that networks today are crucial. And what we have today, I call them a lot of false networks where people have people on Facebook, and they think that's my network. Well, no, it's not.- Yeah. I agree. It's just a bunch of people you're connected with. Or LinkedIn. Yeah, well I'm connected to these people. Well, not really. You're not physically. Well you're connected to them via app, but you're not connected connected with them. That doesn't open a door. And I just think those relationships are so critical, because they're not the best positions out there, and all the best jobs, are the ones that are never advertised.- I agree with you. That was one point I wanted to bring up too. You were saying earlier Peter, that a lot of companies don't don't advertise internship programs, but you know what, I would say, there's a lot of companies out there that have internal internship programs, but they don't advertise them. They have this partnership with the university, or they have their own source of internships, like absolute internship, where they get a steady stream of talent. And then that's a cheap way, very effective way to actually try to recruit new talent. Full time people.- Now let's go back decades, and decades, and decades. I know the internships then typically, were for a academic year.- Yes.- I take it things have changed now.- And it's not necessarily,- Yes, they have.- and time spans are different. So what would you, so would it be fair to say that internships really are as appropriate to someone finishing school, to someone in university, and perhaps it's starting to look at how you utilize your time more effectively. Like you've got a summer vacation, how do you spend your summer vacation? Now you can spend it doing stuff with your friends, absolutely. Or you can spend it investing in yourself.- Yes. That's a great question too, Peter. I think, yes. Internships, they started off as four months, six months, nine months. Look at the sandwich years in the UK. They haven't been, as far, I'm not too old, I'm 36, but they haven't changed since I was 20. They're still the same, but the world has changed completely.- Yeah.- So students today, during their semesters, their terms, you can secure an internship, you can land an internship for 10 hours per week. And you can do that for three months or two months, because most internships that are short like that, that are project based. So you're given a project where there's a clear outcome, there's a clear objective. There's a clear mission that you're gonna work towards. And that's gonna be your contribution to the company, because with remote work, being effective becomes even more important. And measuring that, is something that companies are getting better at. Summer vacations and winter vacations, you're making another brilliant point, is you can definitely, you can spend that summer working at H&M. You can do a labor job at Tesco or any supermarket. Or you can yes, invest in yourself. Because when you're young, you have a lot of time, like I said earlier. And hopefully, for many of the students they have a roof above their head, they're living with their parents. So you can get an internship remotely working for a company in Hong Kong, or Tokyo, or in London, and you still get that experience on your CV, and you will be able to level up your skills, while at the same time, investing in yourself. And you don't have to spend that much money.- The one realization I've had speaking with you, has been the fact that internships, number one, you can, the opportunities are damn endless first and foremost, and secondly, they don't have to be cost prohibitive because you're absolutely right. If you're living at home with your parents, and you've got time on your hands, you could really create the killer CV, that could propel you into a really strong career. And it isn't just about academics. People want to be able to see you, and apply what you've learned. Internships, like projects, they've become fantastic talking points during an interview. In fact,- Exactly.- they're great for your covering letter when you're actually applying.- Yeah.- So look-- I mean,- Go ahead say.- Yeah. Peter, I just wanted to add on that. I think, I love what you said that internships are endless, especially remote ones. I think remote internships have, and post COVID, the post COVID world that we're living in right now opened the doors to three different audiences that have been neglected before in the before COVID world. The number one is international students. If you think about it, international students coming to the UK, or the US or Canada for that matter, or Australia is even worse. They have visa restrictions. And so for companies, when they have a Chinese student, an Indian student, whatever country they're from, and then they have a local student, they're like, "Okay, how much headache do I wanna get"to get this international student?"Do I really wanna do that?" Or should I just go for the easy option, and recruit the local student? Right now, the playing field has leveled on that. International students, they can get a remote internship in the UK or anywhere, and they don't have, and for companies it's easy. Now, I don't know if they discriminate international students. So I think that has been great for international students. And then it's students that are handicapped, that haven't been able to move. Imagine taking the tube to go to your internship, in a wheelchair. Now you can work from home from anywhere, and be very, very comfortable.- And you know what the nice thing is? Half the time, if someone's got a physical disability, a movement disability, no one's ever gonna know, because they're working from behind a computer, they're working from a camera. No one's gonna know. You're dealing with persons' talent,- not their physical state.- Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Another audience, like the third one, Peter, that I'm thinking about, is office. Offices in general, they're social spaces. There's a culture, and a lot of people are introverted. A lot of people, they don't work well in social settings. So I think remote work and remote internships, have removed that barrier. So if you're not comfortable going to the office, and hanging out with your colleagues, you can actually just get your stuff done, do your projects, and be effective behind your computer. And you don't have to spend time with your colleagues so to speak. So I think introverted people have been getting this advantage as well with this post COVID world.- And I think what you'll find though, is that the extroverted people have learned to build relationships with the introverted people, through applications like Zoom. And if you look at what's come out, there doesn't, this, there are so many add on apps that starts with bringing teams together online, building those relationships. So I think though, although sort of being physically together has been a hardwired skill for perhaps thousands of years, I think that as we start to unlearn our previous sort of 30, 40 odd years, and start to relearn, there will be new norms. And this is an exciting time.- Yes.- And I love the fact that you talk about there's visa restrictions when you travel. All of this stuff now, you've just taken out, you've equalized the world, providing you've got the ability to get internet, and have a computer, really talk about being disadvantaged. I think people are now leveled up.- They have. I'm so excited today, Peter. Well in general, because of this. We're in touch with schools in Vietnam, schools in Africa, schools in Columbia. And they have students that they would love to work for like a company in the UK. They would love to intern for a company in Spain, but they don't have the financial means to fly there and get an apartment, or be part of like, to cover the living expenses in these foreign countries, but they can cover a fee to get matched with a remote internship. So now these opportunities to actually work for a foreign company, but be based in Hechimon City, or in Medine, or Bogota, or whatever in the world, it's there now. It has really closed that, has really opened that door. And I just love how limitless this remote work, and the remote internship world has created.- And I would say, that for the majority of companies out there, and we're not talking about the big corporates now. We're talking about the backbone of every economy, the privately owned, small to medium size enterprise, internships are open to you now.- Yes.- So people are gonna be really fascinated. I know they will be, because this is a great opportunity to really start taking the collective intelligence around the globe, adding value to the people that want internships, and then allowing them to add value to businesses that so desperately need it right now, because their growth is being hampered by the lack of talent. If they're interested in internships, how do they get in touch with you to get the ball rolling?- Feel free to send me an email@frederickatabsolutetrip.com, or they can connect with me on LinkedIn. I'm very active there. So feel free to connect with me. And I'm happy to put you in touch with one of my colleagues who will take care of you, so.- Oh, well listen, Freddy, it's been an absolutely amazing conversation today, and very topical considering how the whole world is currently being restricted by labor talent, and probably the poor distribution of labor.- It's true.- It's been great. Now if anything that we've talked about today, resonates with you, you wanna start looking at, Okay, how perhaps some of this stuff could be working in your business, what you need to change in order to be making better use of worldwide talent, not just local talent, head over to boolkah.com, and get in touch. Always remember, failing to learn is learning to fail. So please stay safe. Freddy, thank you so much.- Thank you very much, Peter.