The first week of this program has officially come to an end. Even though I am still fighting through some of the jet lag, it has been very memorable and fun. During orientation, I got to learn about Berlin’s history through tours and planned events, see and speak with different organizations and companies, and visit multiple parks. I was also able to use some of my German skills. It ranged from ordering food, asking for where a certain item is in a store, shopping, and being able to understand announcements on the train. It is nice to see that all the years of studying are paying off. I also spent some time exploring so I went and saw the Olympia-Stadion for Hertha BSC, one of two soccer teams that are in Berlin. It is a stadium with a lot of history and I had only seen it on TV before. It is also the first soccer stadium I have seen in Germany so I am hoping to add many more. Another thing I loved from this first week in Berlin was the public transportation. In Pittsburgh, the public transport is good, but definitely not the best. In my German classes, we talked about the public transport here in Germany and how good it ran. With the buses, U-Bahn and S-Bahn, you can get anywhere in the city in a decent amount of time and I love it. The honor system with the tickets is interesting as well. Unlike in Pittsburgh where you tap your card or pay before you get on, here you just get on and it is assumed that you have a ticket.

This past Sunday, I took the ICE train to Hannover and saw a Bundesliga 2 game between Hannover 96 and Holstein Kiel which now checks seeing a soccer match in Germany off my bucket list. Even though Hannover lost 5-1, it was still a good game. The atmosphere was a lot different than what I was used to at soccer games in the USA. There are still some specific teams in Germany I would like to see play and some other stadiums as well so I am hoping to complete some of those items during these eight weeks.

Tomorrow my internship starts. As stated before, I’ll be working for Coniant GmbH in the healthcare tech industry. This is a field that I am not too familiar with but I look forward to gaining the experience. For this field, there are many skills and strengths that are key to being successful. For skills, being good with technology is key. For example, being able to compile data into spreadsheets, organize it, and then being able to find what you are looking for when it is needed. Project management is another skill that is critical. Specifically for me, I will be working on a project in Saudi Arabia. I would assume that then full-time employees have more than one project to balance. Being able to manage them all, remember what is specific to each project, and maintain the relationships are important. Having good cross-cultural skills is important as well. Healthcare is needed all over the world, and this company specifically does work all over the globe. Having the skills to understand cross-cultural differences is important as it can make or break the relationship between customers. The main strengths needed for this field are people skills. Being able to work well with people as you are their main source of contact between the product and them. Having good people skills can lead to good first impressions and possible returning customers. Being customer-oriented is a good strength as well. Being able to put yourself in their shoes and see what could make an offer better for them will help gain more business for the company.  

There are also competencies that are unique to being successful in Berlin. As the healthcare field grows here in Germany, there are many vacancies for jobs so having previous experience can also be really helpful. While any experience is good, having experience in the healthcare system can make you more appealing as you will already be familiar with things such as the laws and guidelines of the industry. As for the laws in the field, knowing them can also help. They are very different from the USA for example so being familiar with them can speed up the transition to being successful. One last competency that is unique to Berlin is perhaps knowing multiple languages. Berlin is an international city where many different languages are spoken every day. By speaking another language like English, Spanish, French, or Arabic, you can take up more projects at work and be of more use to the company you work for.