Internship Experience with BGA

My keen interest in charting a career in the domain of political risk/government affairs consulting motivated me to join the Master in International Affairs (MIA) programme at LKYSPP. Over the summer, I had the opportunity to dip my toes in this field through an interesting internship opportunity at BowerGroupAsia (BGA) Singapore.

At BGA, I worked as the Business Development Intern within the Business Development Team for half a year. My primary project at BGA was focused on tracking the evolving Artificial Intelligence (AI) developments across the Asia Pacific region and identifying political risks for clients arising because of them. I was grateful for the trust that was placed in me by my managers to deliver such a resource for BGA and its clients. Not only was this project intellectually stimulating, but I also had the chance to be exposed to and learn in depth about political issues within the technology sector such as anti-trust regulation, semiconductor manufacturing, AI, data centres, data privacy and digital legislations across the region.

Additionally, I was given the opportunity to contribute to BGA’s business development by assisting in policy analysis, stakeholder mapping, and profiling existing and potential clients. I had the chance to work with BGA consultants from diverse sectors such as healthcare, technology, financial services, and energy. Being exposed to and working on such a range of issues was the best part of this internship. Particularly interesting was the ability to understand different business models and learn from BGA consultants advising/working with several Fortune 500 companies in various APAC markets.

All in all, I found my work to be quite interesting and challenging where I got to learn something new almost every day while gaining several key skills for a future career in consulting. Working within a regional team also allowed me to apply the learnings from my MIA programme when looking at macro-trends impacting clients’ businesses in the Asia-Pacific region. More so than ever, businesses find their operations impacted by political developments across the world.

I am confident that the opportunity at BGA and the skills that I gained there will help me push forward in my career!