Sadly, a large portion of the group who had eaten street food the previous night had all found that it had had a slight disagreement with them, and sadly some of the group were stuck clinging to the porcelain for the morning. Oops.
Everyone else headed off nice and early to Hewlett Packard, where they received a very warm welcome, and met Gabriel Leung (Managing Director of Hewlett Packard Enterprises).
Gabriel talked about his time at UoB (where he did a degree in Electronic & Electrical Engineering in 1982), his career path since graduation, the obstacles he has faced (and how he over came them), and he talked about his role at HP & current projects that they're working on. We toured the HP Demo Centre, and then discussed careers and opportunities at HP.
After this, we met Billy Yeung, who is the co-owner and CEO of HKBN Enterprise Solutions Ltd, a world class telecoms company. Billy talked to us about effective leaders vs effective managers. It was a very insightful talk, and linked in well with what we had learned during the GLP.
For lunch, we were lucky to have more fantastic alumni giving up their time to talk to us. We spoke to:
Robert Southgate (Legal Director, Intel) gained a degree in Law at UoB in 2001, James Hacking (Senior Vice President and Strategic Planning Director, Bluecurrent Group) who gained a degree in International Studies with Spanish at UoB in 2002; William Brocklehurst (Corporate Affairs Director, BUPA) who gained a degree in International Studies with French at UoB in 2004; Jo Hayes (CEO, Habitat for Humanity) who gained a degree in Modern Languages at UoB in 1997; and Mary Ho (Managing Partner, Silver Spring Capital Management) who gained her MBA at UoB in 2011.
They all gave us a fantastic insight into working overseas, and told us about how they came to be doing so themselves following their time studying at UoB. It was really insightful and made a lot of us think not only about where we are now and during our time at university, but how we may incorporate global mobility into our future career plans.
Sadly, after an all too brief lunch with the fantastic alumni, we headed off.
Happily, we were heading to Linklaters, a law firm in Hong Kong, to meet more UoB alumni.
At Linklaters we met Hwang Hwa Sim, a partner in the firm, who studied law at UoB and graduated in 1994. He too talked to us about his time at UoB, and how and what he has learned from the challenges presented to him as a leader.
After a very brief Q&A session, we discussed graduate careers available at Linklaters, and the law students in the group definitely started considering whether a career with Linklaters could be in their future!
We then had a very insightful workshop into CV writing and interview techniques. As everyone from UoB who participated in the GLP are all in their first year, this was particularly beneficial, especially as we start striving for summer placements, second year placements, and relevant work experience.
Sadly, at 5pm it was time to say a goodbye and head back to St John's College to collect our luggage, check out and board the coach to HK Airport.
It was a very sad time as we drove through Hong Kong one last time. Everyone was looking forward to going home, but we were also going to really miss Hong Kong.
We arrived at the airport just as exam results were released, which caused a few impromptu celebrations on the coach and concourse, before we headed off to check in.
After checking in, we said a farewell to Claire and Jack, who sadly would not be flying home with us as they were staying behind to look after a student who had become ill and ended up in hospital (and I'll be badgering them to contribute to the blog with their experiences in the near future!).
We headed off through security and went to grab food. After a week of Hong Kong dishes, some students opted for a farewell meal of HK food, and others enjoyed a much needed Pizza Express!
There was plenty of time for food, drinks, and some last minute retail therapy at the airport, before we all headed to board our plane. This time, we had a British Airways Boeing 777. We all boarded ready for the long flight home, and just before midnight we were in the air, waving goodbye to the beautiful lights of the city below.
As the city lights faded into the sparse lights of trawler boats, food was served. Unfortunately, it was at this point that we discovered that there was no vegetarian dinner option on the return flight so, if you're heading out on the GLP 2020, please make sure you book your meal in advance if you require a vegetarian or halal dish!
Dinner was meat (chicken or beef) with veggies, mash and gravy, and a delicious cake for dessert. Sadly, there was no tea and coffee service after dinner as we hit some pretty rough turbulence and had to buckle up and hold down anything that wasn't glued down! After about an hour or so, the turbulence eased off, so we had some drinks and then either settled in for a nap or took advantage of the on board entertainment.
It didn't seem that long until breakfast came around, not long before landing. We enjoyed the option of either a full English or a Spanish omelette, and then just after the trays were cleared, we prepared to land.
It was such a warming sight, flying towards Heathrow, the London landmarks below us. We were home! (well, almost).
After a stroll through security, a brief wait at baggage claim and then another brief wait for our coach, we were on the final leg home.
Despite it being the early hours of Saturday morning when we arrived home (our plane landing at around 5:30am) everyone was in good spirits and reminiscing happily about the trip, whilst excitedly counting down the minutes until they were back in their beds or with their families.
There was much excitement as we saw Old Joe rising in the distance as we approached, and we arrived back to be welcomed by family and friends.
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Overall, this has been an incredible experience for all of us, and we cannot thank everyone enough for the opportunity to visit Hong Kong and take part in the Common Purpose Program.
So to all the staff at UoB, UoN and HKU who worked tirelessly to make this happen, to Louise, Ivy and Shradha at Common Purpose, to the Alumni and guest speakers who gave us their time and expertise, and to Santander, the alumni and the generous donors who funded this incredible opportunity, we say THANK YOU. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, we will never forget this experience, and for many of us I would wager it has been a life changing one.
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