昨年8月に行われた今年度の日本語弁論大会で、優秀な成績を収めたMaxさんが、豪州三井物産株式会社でのインターンシップレポートを送ってくださいました。
Through my participation in the 2023 Victorian Japanese Language Speech Contest, I had the opportunity to undertake an internship program at Mitsui & Co., Ltd Australia with the help of the JCCIM. My internship at Mitsui began in December 2023 and concluded in February 2024 where I worked in the Infrastructure and Energy division. I worked full-time in the office for the whole period.
As the division I was allocated to wasn’t related to my area of study (accounting) and I had little knowledge of Mitsui’s business activities in Australia, I had feelings of uncertainty as I didn’t know what to expect. Regardless, I went in with an open mind and willingness to learn anything.
The scope of Mitsui’s Infrastructure and Energy division is finding, assessing, and developing energy projects – particularly oil, gas, renewables, energy storage and most recently sustainable aviation fuel, hydrogen, and methanol – to make an investment in. As an intern, I was engaged in tasks such as market research, report writing, making presentations, and participating in meetings. This experience really opened my eyes to the huge market that is the Australian energy sector and its complexities whilst allowing me to refine my research, presentation and report writing skills in a corporate setting. Some projects that I was assigned, both individually and, in a team, included creating and presenting reports on the current situations and prospects of the global hydrogen market and the NSW/ VIC energy markets respectively. These topics combined with the investment side of business are unique to students, so I am very appreciative of this experience.
The culture at Mitsui is very welcoming and positive and I felt appreciated working there. My colleagues were all wonderful people who I learnt a lot from, and I will cherish the relationships I made with them. Through association with Mitsui, I also had opportunities to attend external networking events allowing me to further expand my network in the Japanese business community in Melbourne.
Mitsui is an impressive organisation and I hope I get the opportunity to work there again in the future whether in Australia or elsewhere.
Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to Mr. Sugahara（社長）, Sameer（部長）, my colleagues, JCCIM/JSM, Iwasaki先生 and Nambu先生.