This experience has helped me gain both soft and hard skills in my professional development. In terms of soft skills; I have enhanced my communication skills, teamwork, problem solving, confidence and project management. Working in London, there are individuals from all backgrounds and nationalities. Because of this a lot of individuals at my workplace have strong accents. Some harder than others to understand. But as time has gone on I have become more understanding. Also my office has people of all ages and in different roles. Being in London has taught me how to communicate with members of my team who hold different positions. And also how to communicate with them appropriately in and out of the office. In my position, I do a lot of group projects and projects for many different team members. I’ve become even better in working in a team. Doing new projects, using new softwares come with challenges. When I face a problem or challenge, I first try to fix and find a solution. Sometimes using Google to help me find a solution. If not, I am comfortable asking my colleagues for help. Within my role as I mentioned I do a lot of projects and multiple at once. I’ve become better of how to manage each project and make sure they are completed by the due date.

In terms of hard skills I had the opportunity to learn a lot of new softwares and enhance my Microsoft Excel skills. Some platforms I got to use were FIAT, which is the Future Income Audit Tool. It helps with timely reconciliation and enhanced analysis capability. I also got to use Opera PMS which helps with our organization by vendor, reservations and more. While helping speed up our auditing. And using Peoplesoft, Marriott International’s accounts payable system.

But overall the two most important skills I learned both inside the office, the classroom and on the streets of London are time management and networking. In terms of time management, there is so much you want to do and see. But while taking a class there are some assignments that you need to complete. I recommend planning out when you are going to do these assignments and do them in advance. Because there is so much you are going to want to do and see when here.