First Week in Dundee

I’ve finally got round to writing my first blog article since I left the island last Monday. I’ve been busy settling in to Dundee, completing assignments for the course I’m on and meeting new people and so I have not had time to write about what has been happening until now.

My journey to Dundee last week was surprisingly stress-free. The only difficulty was negotiating my way with a very large suitcase on the London Underground from Waterloo to King’s Cross. Other than that it was just a case of sitting down for over nine hours on the train.

 I got into the accommodation in Dundee at about 8pm and was introduced to the other people on the programme and the co-ordinator from India who works for Sannam S4. There are nine of us on the placement scheme who will be working in a number of different areas, from engineering and architecture to the non-profit charity sector. I will not describe the others on the scheme any more than that because I have no doubt that at some point many of them will end up reading this blog, but we all seem to get on quite well. At the moment the group is split into two student flats, but as they are both on the same floor it feels like it is just one big flat.

During the week I have had to go to careers sessions for the course related to the programme. Most of the advice given is just common sense, but it has enabled me to learn about techniques that will be useful when applying for jobs when I return from India. As well as the people on the India programme I am sharing the classes with a larger group of students on a Scottish internship programme which has been quite useful because they know the area much better than we do. In one of the classes I had to complete a questionnaire on what roles I would fulfil as part of a team. From my answers I was given a written profile which described me as a bit of a ‘loose cannon’ which came as a bit of a surprise.  So I am not entirely sure how that particular exercise will be useful for future job applications.

At the weekend we visited a couple of museums in Dundee. The city is famous for its history of jute spinning and so we visited a museum in one of the old mills. That was particularly interesting because jute products are now produced mainly in India and so the museum had a section on how they are manufactured today in Calcutta. We also visited the Discovery ship museum which tells the story of how the Discovery was made for Captain Scott’s voyage to Antarctica. It had been snowing all day and so by the time we got to the ship it was cold, wet and very slippery. In a way that improved the experience because it meant that being on the ship was more like it would be for the scientists travelling to Antarctica in the early 20^th century.

It is the first year that the University of Dundee have run the work placement scheme in India. This means that there are significant teething problems that we have to put up with. This explains why I found out about being accepted onto the course so late. Indeed, some of our group have not received an offer letter from their employers in India yet. The original plan was to fly out this Sunday, but because the visas have taken so long to process we are now expecting to fly on Wednesday 30^th January. As it is the first year the course fees have been waivered so to a certain extent we just need to put up with the delays and be flexible. I do now know that the placement will be 6 months and so I will be due back in July.

I expect that the next blog article will be from Delhi so it will probably be a lot more exciting than this one. Between now and then I have three assignments to complete so I should probably get on with those instead of spending time writing this blog. Until then enjoy the cold weather and think of how much of a shock it is going to be for me when I arrive in Delhi from Scotland

Leaving at Short Notice

On Wednesday I got the phone call to say that I had been accepted on the work placement scheme in India. This came as a bit of a surprise because I had been expecting a phone call from another job that I’d had an interview for the day before and as the application process for the placement in India had dragged on a bit I did not expect to be accepted on to it. So on Wednesday I found out that I would be leaving home the following Monday and would not be returning for six months.

The work placement scheme is run by the University of Dundee in co-ordination with UKIERI, who I went to India with in 2011 on the Study Abroad programme, and their partners in India, Sannam S4. Initially I had an interview over Skype with Control Risks, but, having not got the job with them, was offered an interview with Sannam S4. As well as setting up work placements Sannam S4’s main role is as a consultancy company for organisations from the UK and the US trying to expand into India. My role will be as a research intern which, from the job description, is mainly to do with researching the Indian market that businesses from the UK are going to enter to find out how they need to alter their business model to succeed in India. Although I’ve done some research as part of my university course and have some experience in marketing a political party, this is an area that I do not know that much about. So I think I will learn a lot about market research, but it will allow me to gain experience working for a corporate business which is not something that I’ve done before. Even if that is not a line of work that I choose to go into when I get back into the UK I am confident that it will allow me to gain experience which will be transferable to many other jobs.

As the programme is run by the University of Dundee I have to go to Dundee for a two week course before flying to India from Scotland at the end of January. This does provide the challenge of packing for spending two weeks in Dundee, which is currently at about 2 degrees, and for spending potentially six months in Delhi which is clearly a lot warmer. Equally it also means that I am going to have to carry all my stuff up on a 9 hour train journey to Dundee. I’ve downloaded as many free e-books as I can find for my Kindle and I hope that will keep me entertained for the journey.

I am now in the middle of a hectic few days of getting everything ready, packing and saying goodbye to everyone. When I told my grandmother that I was going she asked me why I wanted to go to that horrible place. It is always nice to get a positive reaction. I went to the doctors to see if I needed vaccinations before I went. The nurse was horrified at the idea of sorting out all the vaccinations by Monday. Fortunately, having been to India 18 months ago, I was already covered and so did not need any injections.

I am hoping that it will not be all work while I am in India. When I visited in 2011 I was only there for three weeks and so felt that I have only scraped the surface of things to see. So I am hoping that I will be able to use the weekends to see as much of India as possible. I should also be in India during the Indian Premier League so I am looking forward to the possibility of seeing cricket in a completely different atmosphere to test matches at home. I am writing this blog so as to keep everyone at home updated as to what I am doing, but also because I thought it would be good for me to have a written record of what I have done to look back on when I’m older. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, my brother’s blog on his 6 months in Malawi attracted 1,921 hits and so that is the target for me to beat. I have every confidence that my loyal readers can help me reach that target.