End of internship

Well.

It's quite hard to believe 6 months, half a year have already passed by. And how my internship period at Mercedes has already come and gone. So what exactly have I been doing for that time?

As you may have read in my early posts, I was in the workshop area with Alvin and Steven as my mentors for the first to months.

In mid-July me and my other two intern friends were sent to the pre-inspection bay to work with the service consultants in checking the cars before sending them to the workshop for servicing. The mornings were adequately busy but the afternoons were always empty and downright boring. At least I got to watch how the consultants did their work in handling customers. I also had Uncle Mahyiddin to share his life stories on some days to pass the time. Most of them made for great listening... :)

At the end of my stint down here we worked with our German supervisor with a 3-day service clinic (you may remember I mentioned this clinic at the beginning of my internship but it got postponed to a few months later) to give free 30-point checks on customers' cars.

2 months later I was brought back upstairs where I had my own desk, office phone and computer

Actually I was filling in for the colleague here who suffered a major stroke and was paralysed on one side of his body. The last I heard he has been discharged from hospital but still cant move one of his arms, and is undergoing treatment. My job here is pretty much admin work; filing documents and recording them in the computer. When I'm free there's internet access, but sometimes I got flooded with paperwork and phone calls from within the service center (mainly consultants asking whether the cars they handled are ready to be delivered). I spent my last 3 weeks here. Some exposure to admin work is a bonus I guess.

So on the last day, we had our debriefing with our manager after work. It was a really really long one. The first part took about two hours.

He talked about all sorts of stuff. Talked about how we have to justify our paper qualification with possessing ample knowledge and skills, something he had highlighted with the other two interns.

Talked about how life isnt all about money. He used to have RM3 dinners shared with 2 friends but still be happy with it. He had helped problematic technicians change for the best and prove his superiors wrong, and how the satisfaction of helping others to succeed is just as good as yourself succeeding.

Talked about how we should do everything whole-heartedly and not give half-baked efforts. One of the things he stressed was using free time to research online further about understanding cars and parts and stuff if we are really into this line because of the interest.

After the other two had left I sat down for a one-on-one talk. I asked if there was any vacancy for me and if I would be fit to join them. Unexpectedly (but also not so surprisingly) the answer was inconclusive. My manager will have to discuss with the big bosses if they think its feasible to bring in another technician. However from his ownself he did say that if there was an opening he would have gladly taken me in. 

Not to be boasting (prolly still am), but he was most impressed with my performance compared with the other two; better knowledge, strong English, good discipline and attitude. In fact in his two years in charge at the workshop (before that he spent several years running another branch in Ipoh), he found me to be the best intern of all those from my college. I guess in the right aspects of the job I do stand out from the others.

After that we talked a bit more, mostly chit chat albeit meaningful ones. By the time we shook hands one last time it was 3pm. And I hadn't have lunch yet.

So there you have it. Now I'm a bum.