My first week on the job has been a relatively enjoyable experience.  My supervisor, co-workers and fellow interns have welcomed me with open arms, and helped me assimilate into the companies culture.  Meetingsbooker.com (the company where I am interning), is a small tech startup located in the heart of Dun Laoghaire, Ireland.  Through my experiences thus far, they are extremely laid back in the office, and enjoy chattering and joking around during lunch hours and near the end of the workday.  The dress code is casual, as we do not work with our clients in person – rather we conduct most of our business over online chats and phone calls.  This casual attire continues into the organizational work culture.  My supervisor (the COO of the company), while very professional and stern when necessary, enjoys taking a laid back approach to his work.  Don’t let this fool you however, as the informal atmosphere does not hinder Meetingsbooker.com from producing exceptional work and yielding profitable results throughout a standard workday.  I suppose one could say that this company lives up to the motto: “work hard play hard”.  Below is a picture of the office.

My role in the company seems to be monitoring the online customer service lines, as well as standard data entry and answers phone calls (standard intern duties, I suppose).  This work can become slightly tedious as the day goes on; however, I have found that a 9-5 workday flies by much faster than expected.  Since I am so busy, the hours go by much faster than I am used to back at Pitt.  Last Tuesday/Wednesday – my first days on the job – I spent a lot of time learning the online platform that Meetingsbooker.com uses to conduct business, but as Thursday and Friday came around I started to become self-sufficent and was able to complete a lot of work independently.  This was very satisfying, as I felt like I was finally contributing to something greater than myself.  This upcoming week I am going to start working on some marketing projects, and I hope that this experience will transition into applicable knowledge for future careers.

On a more personal note, I have yet to feel any form of culture shock or homesickness.  As I said in my last post, the people here are so nice, and the city isn’t overwhelming, so I credit these aspects of Dublin as the reasoning for my comfortableness with this transition into a new country.