During my time in London, I’ve had the opportunity to learn from experiences in my international internship and develop professional skills that will benefit me in many future roles. This summer, I am interning at an entrepreneur consulting company based in London that works with businesses globally. I was primarily a data research and analytics intern at my company. I worked with the data team to clean, validate, and redesign the data architecture of the company’s contacts database. Additionally, I briefly worked with the international team by sorting through, researching, and organizing the data for global entrepreneurs and companies competing in our pitch competition. I also had the opportunity to attend speaker events hosted by our company where I could meet and interact with high-level entrepreneurs and clients. I am balancing my internship with two six-week courses, Shakespeare in London, and the Global Internship Course.

Through my time as an intern in London, I have gotten so much professionally out of observing my office and learning from my coworkers and supervisors. Firstly, the importance of a good work-social balance in an office. At work, we came in every day to work through our projects, but I observed that a lot of the senior co-workers would socialize more than I expected throughout the day and discuss personal information with each other. At first, I was surprised with the amount of chatter and openness they displayed, but after working on the data team where we had to work together to solve problems, the social aspect of an office is key for collaboration. Knowing more about co-workers helps you better know their work style and how to best be a successful team. Through observing coworkers and supervisors, I was also able to learn how to communicate professionally and appropriately with other employees of all levels. Knowing the audience is so important to know how to interact both socially and professionally, so being able to observe interactions between the CEO, my supervisor, other senior co-workers, and interns has furthered my knowledge of how to successfully communicate based on who I’m speaking with.

On top of professional development, I have also gained important transferrable skills from my time in London. Within my internship, I have been able to vastly improve my problem-solving skills through breaking down issues with the database we worked on and brainstorming ways to go about fixing it. Not only did this help me gain knowledge about data manipulation which will be useful in the future, but it also taught me a general method for taking on problems and coming to a solution which can be applied to all aspects of life, both professionally and socially. Outside of work and the classroom, I bettered my time management skills. Going into the program, I was initially overwhelmed by my desire to explore the city and take advantage of being in London while balancing 20-hour work weeks and 2 classes. While daunting at first, I learned how to prioritize my time and plan out my days in advance so that I had time to get all of my work completed while also getting to see all the London sights and enjoy the amazing city around me.