Four Seasons Resort Bali

Placement organization

Name of organization: Four Seasons Resort Bali
Town/city: Bali
Country: Indonesië
Website: http://www.fourseasons.com/bali

Student

Name of student: Nelly Pashova

Specialist area: ITMC
Placement period: 2011-2012

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Accommodation
Organization’s activities: Offering Luxurious accomodation
Target group of the organization: Luxurious, high-end market
Company culture: The communication between employees is pretty informal. The staff is like one big family. It is most likely that you will be the only western trainee, but that, as I have experienced it, is an advantage since people are interested to get to know you and everyone is extremely friendly.
Number of employees: 600+
Dress code: uniform
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Yes

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working? There are 2 resorts in Bali at Jimbaran Bay and at Sayan. Each property has their own Spa, Rooms,F&B, HR devisions, while Sales&Marketing and Accounting devisions are located at Jimbaran Bay and are in charge for both properties.
I worked in Public Relations
Brief description of your daily activities: Taking care of Twitter and Facebook posts, contacting media via phone and email, attending photo shoots and different events at the resorts, monitoring media coverage of the resorts, etc.
Brief description of your company assignment: My company assignment was a competitor analysis of the use of social media of the resort’s competitors, and giving recommendations on which points can be improved.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: I was supervised by the Director of PR and the PR Manager, however there is a learning manager that is responsible for the training of all regular employees and interns at the resort. The supervision is very flexible, meaning that people from all departments would help or teach you .

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? To work in Bali one has to be mostly very patient, social and adaptive to different culture, as in this case, Balinese. To work in Four Seasons, one needs to be a good team player, flexible, and of course social and patient again. In general the work atmosphere is very favourable and it doesn’t get too much effort to get used to the local and company standards.
Additional company requirements for this placement? Word, Excel, Power Point, Photoshop can be usefull, Delfy also but you can also learn how to use it here
English: Advanced
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Bahasa Indonesia. Can be useful to learn some words and phrases. It’s a very easy language and the colleagues can help with that.

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? By myself. Through the Facebook page ‘Bali rooms for rent’ can be very useful. Another option is to book a hotel for the first few nights and find a room with the help of the people from the resort.
How did you go to work every day? By motorbike(with another intern from the resort that lived close to where I lived), sometimes by taxi.

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? Yes
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: I had just a month to arrange my visa and accommodation. Before you can apply for visa you will receive an invitation letter from Four Seasons. This might take a while since the documents arrive from Indonesia, but in my case it was all very fast. The visa took me a week. In any case make sure you don’t leave everything for the last minute since you never know what may go wrong.
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents?
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
How long in advance? I used the vaccinations we took for our field trip in the 2nd year- Hepatitis A&B, TDP, etc. It’s good if you get a Rabies vaccination in addition to the rest.

Language course

Did you take a language course before you started your placement? No
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? n/a

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € I had a one way ticket from Amsterdam to Bali – around € 460, my ticket back is about the same price.
Accommodation (monthly): € About € 100/per month – depends on your own preferences, it can be up to € 300/per month (or more)
Local transport (monthly): € I did not rent a motorbike, but the rental prices vary from 40 to 60 euros per month and a full tank of petrol is about 1 euro. It’s the cheapest and fastest way to get around.
General costs of living (monthly): € About € 200 ,-/per month , it really depends on your own way of spending and preferences. It can be more or less.
Costs of visa: € € 45 – at the Indonesian embassy in Holland, IDR 1,000,000 (~ € 80) to the visa agent at the resort, this visa is for the 1st two months, then it will be extended 4 x IDR 550,000 (~ € 50) each month. Note that when you’re applying for visa you will need to have a ticket out of the country.
Costs of work permit: €
What did the company pay for/to you? € 15 ,- per month
breakfast / lunch / diner- you get one meal per day during working hours (usualy lunch) at the canteen for employees where they serve mainly Indonesian food.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
Fieldwork Asia
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? The local culture definitely influenced and changed me in a way.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: nelly_pashova@yahoo.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Do respect the local culture. Just be yourself and enjoy your time in Bali. The people are friendly, but if you are not they may turn otherwise. Drive safely as motorbike accidents is a major problem on the island.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: Bali is so diverse. There is plenty to explore for the ones that are interested in culture. The island has beautiful nature – beaches, mountains, jungle, rice fields, you name it. Bali is very popular for surfing!- it’s a must try! Night life in Kuta and Seminyak is pretty active. It’s never boring in Bali.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link