15.09.2016

I am glad to share my impressions from a two-month internship in Kusto Management Group, since it was a great experience and familiarity with absolutely new sphere and industry for me. I will not go that far telling you about the professional side of this practice, but will share my personal experience with you.

Walking along the corridor of my university in early May, I noticed sign on the bulletin board, that Erkin Tatishev announced selection for an internship in one of his companies. I decided to take part and in the end of the May participated in the contest. The competition was in the Foundation’s style – creative self-presentation. I took it really seriously and my presentation was treated as the most creative.

These two months of practice gave me a path from a simple worker to the office employee. Sometimes it was hard, I was tiring not only physically, but mentally too, since being on the field, where bad Internet and the same faces and atmosphere around you, during 30 days makes you feel exhausted. For me as Almaty citizen, local climate was kind of severe. Unbearable heat and infinite wind are not so comfortable for me. In spite of all these conditions, it was really useful to talk to local workers, to take a look at the life from their point of view. As one of workers said to me – “if you want to be an excellent manager, try to be an excellent worker first”.

Nonetheless, I took it all as a challenge to myself first of all. I knew that it should be so and will bring me big results later. As a result, it happened so, because everything that I faced on the field helped me in the office work, when it came to calculations.

Last two weeks of my internship, we were instructed to perform some task, something like a case, which aim was to decrease the rent price for binding. We had to prove that landlords overstate the rent price and long ago paid off. We had to prove it financially, because there is nothing that can beat numbers. We did all the calculations of their profit, expenses, including taxes for the next 10 years including amortization, knowingly making equipment prices analysis. Via calculating this, we showed that the price is really overstated and it really helped company in negotiations.

Generally, this internship was the best experience in my life, it gave me a lot and learned me to keep the pace and go on. I was madly glad, that I got a chance to become a part of this company, even if the term was only two months. Thanks to Kusto Management Group and Almaty Management University for such a tremendous opportunity!

Nurlybek Musatayev
The Scholar of Yerzhan Tatishev`s Foundation, year 2013
The 4th year student of Almaty Management University