7 great companies to intern at

Internships are a great opportunity for students to test drive their careers while gaining experience and understanding of workplace practices and ethics. With the myASEANinternship programme, this experience takes on a regional scale where students have the opportunity to work abroad with leading Malaysian employers. Here are some of leading organisations that students should definitely consider interning at:

A member of the pioneer group of myASEAN employers, Axiata Group is one of the leading telecommunications group in Asia with a regional footprint covering ten countries. This organisation whose regional offices are located in Cambodia, Indonesia and Singapore within ASEAN footprint, believes in nurturing and developing talents through leadership programmes and internships such as the myASEANinternship as well as its own University Leadership Development Programme & Young CEO Development Programme. Axiata's Group Chief Talent Officer Datin Sri Badrunnisa Mohd Yasin Khan shares that such internships help in "building the talent pipeline earlier" and equips students with "a better base to start off their career". 

CIMB Group is a leading universal bank with offices in 17 locations around the world, of which eight are in the ASEAN region, excluding its headquarters in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. With offices in Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia, CIMB’s Group Chief People Officer, Hamidah Naziadin believes that the myASEANinternship programme will help young people of today to not only learn and grow but understand the value of a cross-cultural experience. Students interning at CIMB will be able to gain valuable insights into how a regional banking institution thinks and operates.

One of the pioneer group of myASEAN employers, this telecommunications company offers students the opportunity to experience working at its offices via the myASEANinternship programme as well as Digi’s own internal programme called Digi CXO Apprentice. Under both internships, students may have the opportunity to intern at its parent company, Telenor Group which has offices in Thailand and Myanmar, and to also work with the company’s top leading personnel such as Albern Murty (CEO), Karl Erik Broten (Chief Financial Officer), Loh Keh Jiat (Chief Sales Officer) and many more.

A regional financial services leader, Maybank is among the top 5 banks in South East Asia with an international network of over 2,400 branches and offices in 20 countries. Focused on providing opportunities for talented undergraduates to gain hands-on working experience through on-the-job attachments and develop essential hard and soft skills, Group Chief Human Capital Officer, Nora Abd Manaf shares that “it is vital that we identify and groom today’s entry level talent into the regional business leaders of tomorrow”. Apart from offering internships to students under the myASEANinternship, students can also sign up to intern with the financial leader under the Maybank Internship Programme.

Mondelēz International, one of the world’s leading names in the confectionary and F&B business manages and distributes well-known brands such as Cadbury, Ritz, Twisties, Jacobs and Oreo. In 2016, the multinational company came onboard as a myASEAN employer, joining another 22 other companies. Mondelēz's Human Resources Director, Chua Chai Ping wants future interns to know that working with the confectionary is the real deal. “We concentrate on giving career experiences to students by involving them in real projects. They will have the opportunity to shadow senior level professionals in many different projects.”

Sime Darby is a Malaysian-based diversified multinational with business activities in plantation, industrial equipment, healthcare, motoring, property and energy & utilities in several ASEAN countries such as Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore and Thailand. Part of the 12 pioneer group of myASEAN employers, the organisation is on the lookout for individuals who are passionate and thrive on working in an environment that values diversity and high performance. “We have a strong presence in the ASEAN region and we hope to give students a flavor of experience working in different countries,” shares Nadiah Abdullah, Sime Darby’s Senior Vice President of Leadership and Talent, Group Human Resources.

An engineering-based infrastructure and services group which also has businesses in township & property development, UEM Group Berhad operates across different regions. Under the myASEANinternship programme, students have the opportunity to intern at the Group’s offices here in Malaysia or in Indonesia and “broaden their horizon as they will be working in an exciting and dynamic environment with a team of experienced professionals” as shared by its Group Chief Human Capital Officer, Norlida Azmi. She believes that while the company is providing young talents with new experiences, UEM also has the opportunity to learn from these graduates. From her perspective, myASEANinternship has been a chance for the company to learn how to develop talent and in turn, be rewarded by talent contribution from within ASEAN.