After the first week of my internship, I thought I was going to hate working at a consulting firm. They had only given me boring, monotonous work to do all day long. However, since then my situation has improved. I have since gained more trust at work, and given more responsibility. I’ve learned many things in my internship over the past few weeks that I think I can carry over to a future job in the U.S., even if it isn’t tax related.

I started my internship at Kilbride Consulting at an interesting time for the company. There has been a lot of turnover recently, with one employee starting work in July and another employee who recently resigned, not to mention that both of my supervisors have taken lengthy holidays. All of this means that there is less people to share the workload, so everybody is very busy including me. It also means that I have to figure out a lot of things out on my own which has absolutely helped me grow more independent. Many times there is nobody giving me direct instructions on how to do something and I have to figure it out by trial and error. This is frustrating at time but I believe its a valuable experience to prepare me for a real job after graduation. In addition, I have been interacting with clients on an almost daily basis by drafting emails and taking phone calls. I think this has also improved my customer relations and communications skills greatly.

Working in Dublin has already been a much more beneficial experience for me than I imagined. With less than a month before I return to the states, I hope to continue learning at my internship while also getting to explore this beautiful country a little bit more.