This week’s blog wraps up my two months in Toronto. It was an incredible learning experience both professionally and personally, and I was able to meet so many amazing people during my time here. I enjoyed discovering all the city had to offer and will make sure to stay in touch with my new friends. That being said, I made sure to make the most of my last week in Toronto. On Monday, I was able to attend a Proptech Shark Tank event after work at the Deloitte building downtown in which entrepreneurs pitched their new technologies within the real estate market to a board of “sharks.” It was amazing to see the new technologies being utilized in modern buildings and the food that was catered for the event was amazing. On Wednesday, myself and about 25 of the other students attended a Toronto Blue Jays game at the Rogers Centre. The stadium’s roof was retracted and allowed for cool views of the CN tower and the city’s skyline. Even though the game was boring the the Blue Jays lost 4-0, I still enjoyed hanging out with everyone. After the game, the whole group went out after the game. It was a super fun night and great to be able to hang out with students from Italy, Australia, China, and other American Universities. Finally on Friday for my last day, my boss took myself and the other interns out to lunch to say goodbye after two months of work. Friday night, I met up with about 30 of the other students again to enjoy a night out and say our goodbyes. On Saturday morning, I headed home, which brings me to this point, writing this blog from my own room in Orchard Park, New York. Now to the final prompt before I write my final wrap up in a couple weeks.
During my internship, communication and problem-solving are two of the most important skills required. However, there is always a great deal of uncertainty when working with clients and often directions are not the most clear. It’s important to have the ability to use context clues in order to solve problems when the answer is almost never given to you. Myself and the other interns often look past the task that is given to us and try to understand the end result in order to help us complete our current tasks. Additionally, we often work with entrepreneurs who don’t have backgrounds in business. This means we have to listen to their vision, and turn their idea into a functional business that is ready to grow and start generating revenue. It’s not the easiest thing to do, but with context clues, we can accomplish all the tasks at hand.
Feedback was been provided for me on a pretty consistent basis throughout my internship. Most of our assignments were broken down into smaller tasks that would make up a larger project. When each task is broken down into smaller parts for various different companies and projects, it allows each step of the process to be reviewed. I would almost always submit my work to my supervisor prior to sending it to a client or work hand in hand with my boss to complete tasks. This meant that they could review it and ask me for edits or changes, providing feedback before it was sent to the clients. I could then take this feedback and finish the task to the liking of the client and provide the best quality of work possible. I believe this method of review was effective, as well as being able to contact our clients for their insights prior to submitting our work to clarify the ask of each project. Having a solid feedback system is important in any field in order to learn from your experiences and better your own skills.
The past 8 weeks have flown by. I was fortunate enough to work with a great group of people and loved working with my fellow interns. My placement for this program offered a really unique experience. To be honest, if not for this program, I don’t think that I would have been able to find an opportunity within a Venture Capital firm back in the U.S. with only my previous experiences. I am going to miss so many of the amazing friends I made during my time in Toronto and will make sure to stay in touch moving forward. I have one blog left wrapping up my entire experience coming in the next week. Stay tuned.