This summer in Spain, I will be working at Impact Hub Madrid. They are a global network that spans across 50 countries and over 100 cities. They connect organizations and companies in a common workspace, offer consulting services, and event coordination with the ultimate goal of creating a sustainable social, economic, and environmental impact. During my time as an intern, I will be working in marketing and communications. Due to the diverse nature of the impact hub, what I will be doing is going to be different from week to week and that is something that I look forward to. I think that it will help me to learn a lot about different industries and get the most out of this experience.

Most of the work I will be doing is in marketing, specifically in social media and developing campaigns to advertise to potential businesses that want to work with the impact hub. I will be working for the impact hub itself, but there is the potential that I will be helping some of the businesses that they are partnered with and work at their communal workspace. Something that I am also excited about, and think will be a good experience for me is working to help with event organization. During my time there, it is likely that some of the companies that work in the impact hub will be working on scheduling and developing events that they are going to run. In that situation I would be helping with planning and coordinating all the details to ensure that an event is successful. Event coordination is something that I have always been interested in and when working for the impact hub, I have an opportunity to explore if it is something that I am good at.
Since there are several companies working alongside each other in a communal workspace under the impact hub, I will most likely be helping with work for several of those companies, so I’ll have exposure to many different businesses and organizations which is something that I haven’t had the opportunity to do before. My first day at the company will be tomorrow and I’m excited to get started with working on my first project.

The impact hub is a collection of businesses across different fields that are joined by their desire to create a positive sustainable impact on the world. Since the impact hub itself is so diverse, something that I will need to be successful is to form relationships with people from different fields and learn how to best help their individual needs as a company. This requires me to be very organized in keeping track of different projects that each company has going on at the same time. Given that there will be several projects going on at once, I will also have to be excellent at multi-tasking. It is possible that I could be working on planning one event while still working on a marketing campaign and to make sure that the quality of work I am doing on either project stays the same, I will have to make sure that I am able to work on several projects at once.

Another important skill that I will need to be successful is being adaptable and able to work collaboratively. The team that I will be working with is made up of 8 people, but there are 15 that work in the impact hub. To work well in a team requires collaboration and learning how to use the strengths of individuals on the team for the best results. Working with others on a project means that there will likely be disagreements on what is the best way to move forward and being able to respect different opinions is something that comes with working collaboratively. Adaptability is another important skill to have given the nature of the impact hub. What I will be doing is going to be different on a weekly basis and I will need to be very comfortable with moving from one project to the next quickly. All of the skills needed to succeed in this workspace are something that will be essential in whichever career path I end up on down the road. I look forward to getting to know my company, coworkers, and starting my time as an intern in Madrid.