This was my first full week at my internship, and it was a great experience so far. I already feel as though I have been working with my company for a while. One awesome thing about my work was that I got to see two of our client events in action. In my picture for this post is Cafe en Seine which was one of our venues for the week. Getting to see how these events ran was an amazing learning experience for me. It also made each day feel new, as it was a very busy week for the company. 

While I had many positives this week, I did have to work through a few minor challenges. My first challenge so far has been navigating when I ask for feedback. For example, if my supervisor is busy, and I finished a set of tasks, I do not want to interrupt their work. A solution that I implemented was asking other colleagues if I could help them with anything. I also try to ask as many of my questions up front and take detailed notes when receiving an assignment. It is important to clarify early on to avoid wasting time when working on something. Especially when we have so many detailed folders used to stay organized. Everything needs to be in the right place to ensure that other team members can collaborate easily.  

Another aspect of my internship I am navigating is cultural differences. In Ireland, people often take more time for lunch and prioritize people over work. On my first day in the office, I ate my lunch rather quickly and was immediately ready to get back to work. Later on in the week, I was out of the office working with clients. When we were with our clients, we staggered our lunch breaks, and my supervisor told me to take a proper lunch. This meant that I was actually taking time to slow down during the work day. This was a welcomed change for me, because I always associated work with the job coming first. It was nice to be able to take a step back from the day and come back to the task at hand without feeling rushed. 

This will most likely be an ongoing point of adjustment for me on the job. I foresee more cultural differences that I will have to adapt to. This exposure to Irish culture will enhance my experience, as I will be better at adapting to cultural differences between my future colleagues. These differences may not always be as simple as the length of a lunch break, but I will approach them with an open mind. 

Other than these two small points of uncertainty, there is not a lot that I have to navigate within my internship. I think a large reason that work is fairly straightforward is from taking initiative. If something is confusing or I need help I try to sort out the issue as soon as I can. Moreover, I focus on asking questions about our work when there is down time. For example, if we have time before or after an event, I might ask my supervisor how the event would look if we had 300 people instead of 68. This is a good way to stay engaged on the job and learn more about the role. In the case of the question I listed, it would not be possible to have all 300 people on that particular event at once. It would need to be run in staggered groups throughout the day. 

Overall, it is important to maximize my time on the job. I need to be motivated during the day and show a genuine interest in my internship. My supervisors do provide outlined instructions for what my work day looks like in terms of tasks or site visits. However, having conversations about my career goals or aspirations for the summer is a necessity. I believe you can only get as much out of an experience as you put into it. That concept might be overused, but it is constantly repeated for a reason. Since this is my first internship, I have to focus on taking advantage of each day in the office. Instead of merely completing tasks by a deadline or showing up, it is about the quality of work I produce and the commitment I make to my team. 

I cannot wait for more projects to come and adventures in Ireland! Hail to Pitt!