Fröhlichen Donnerstag!

My first week of work is almost at an end! The time has flown by so far. At my internship, I have met the partners of the office as well as many of the other employees. On my first day I got set up with my own computer and keys and was tasked with my project. My project for the summer will to be helping the data team create a more automated way to update their spreadsheet of data. In addition to working, I’ve been spending my free time doing so many different things. One of my favorite things to do is try different foods and restaurants. So far, among the various beers I’ve had, I have also had the pleasure of trying authentic Weiner schnitzel, currywurst, Döner kebab, apple strudel and so much more. Additionally, there are a number of cafes I’ve been trying for breakfast in the morning. I’ve also been keeping up with other cultural foods and have had my fair share of Indian food while I’ve been working (my coworkers love it). Germany is reverent of Christian holidays, which allowed us to have the today off. While this meant many stores were closed, it provided the perfect opportunity for me to explore museums. My friend, Cate, and I went to museum island where we could go in any of the museums on the same pass. We spent the day in both the Neues (New) and Altes (Old) Museums. They certainly both had interesting artifacts but overall, they were fairly similar. The weekend is a perfect time for me to relax and sightsee the things I most want to see. I hope to be able to do some traveling while I’m here as well.

Time management in jobs is so important to being able to get all of the tasks done and meet deadlines. In my prior jobs, time management was very important, but the time metrics were so close together that it was more forced. If you didn’t have time management skills, you wouldn’t last in the job. This job however I have one project that I was given to complete by the end of my internship. It has some smaller goals such as having to do research and make a tentative plan with my supervisor. So, the first two days I did research knowing that on Wednesday I had a meeting to discuss my findings and start working on the project. Since this is the first job that I’ve had a lot of flexibility in timing, it was important that I stayed focused on the task so that I had good information to report back in the meeting. Now, the rest of the time at my internship will be devoted to putting my plan into practice. My supervisor has been very helpful in guiding my plan in terms of what his needs are and what he thinks will work really well. I think the most challenging piece of the time management for this project will be the pacing. The table that needs to be created will have about 5,000 fields that will need to be linked through various sheets and while some I have completed already; it will take a decent amount of time to complete all of them. To help keep myself on pace and to ensure I finish this project before the end of my internship, I am going to set myself some time goals. It will be important to keep as close to this schedule as possible so I can finish all of the fields. I don’t have several different assignments, so my job isn’t necessarily about prioritizing tasks however since this task is my only priority, I really want to design it well. If all goes as planned by the end of my internship my company will be able to go from manually entering information into over 5,000 cells to downloading the required information and it automatically populating into the spreadsheet I’m creating. In the coming weeks, I plan to get through 1-2 fields a day so that I can report back at the end of my internship with good news that they will have a fully functioning spreadsheet.

In the meantime, I plan on going hiking, celebrating with two of my classmates for their birthdays, and taking some time to relax. I’m loving Berlin and I can’t wait to see more of what it has to offer. Until next time, Bis Später!