Since my last blog post, I have returned from my trip to Prague (pictured) and had a full week back at NWTN. Prague was a beautiful little city and staying in a hostel for the first time was a neat experience. However, after being away for my first two weekends, it gets better and better each time to come back to Berlin where I have some sense of familiarity with how things operate.

Upon getting back to Berlin, it was tough to adjust back to a full work week compared to my previous three-day work week. I continued to do work for their Kickstarter campaign and have been doing a lot of research on how we will eventually construct our goals and rewards for backers. The Co-founder of the company also gave me a project to research the market and get updated competitor information and the products they will be launching in the next year.  I was able to map out a diagram of different use-cases for most of the competitors’ hardware and apps.

Midway through the week, a new employee started, and he is to oversee e-commerce and to also assist with all things related to marketing.  I will be working closely with Andreas to help make sure that all of the timing of campaign related topics match up with the products that will be offered on the website.

I believe that I am fitting in decently well at my company, but I do wish that I spoke some German so I could contribute to the conversation if they are talking to each other.  As far as the company culture, I think I was expecting a totally different environment than how the company actually operates. Since it is a startup, they are more laid back in terms of dress code and communication with one another. My biggest difficulty that I need to manage is being able to leave work at the end of the day. There is no official leave time for everyone, so I find it awkward sometimes to leave after I’ve been there for over 8 hours if everybody else at the company stays much later.  However, I think that I just need to confidently stand up and make it known that I have completed my work for the day. My bosses are such friendly people, though, so if they would ever ask me to stay later I would for sure have to help them out.

Until next time!