As I near the end of my time here in London, I have realized how much I have grown. Not only personally, but as a business student as well. Through my internship, I have gained first hand experience working at an international company. It has allowed me to learn about other work cultures. For example, it is common for employees to know multiple languages. My boss works for a company based in Uruguay, but they have offices in other countries as well. As an intern, I was given access to my boss’ email and many messages were in Spanish. This realization has motivated me to start learning another language and Duolingo has been very helpful in achieving this goal.
Other than this, I can not say I have learned many professional skills. While I am thankful for the opportunity to have worked an internship, I was not challenged. For example, I was only assigned busy work such as summarizing Ted Talks and sending an email script to clients. The only reason I am including this in my blog post is because I believe transparency is important and necessary. A transferable skill I did learn was how to stay optimistic at work. Not being challenged could be discouraging at times, but I remained positive and willing to learn anything I could.
In a more general sense, it has become easier for me to adjust to new environments. As a natural introvert, a new environment can be intimidating, but studying abroad has helped me come out of my shell. In my CAPA class, Analyzing and Exploring the Global City, I now feel more comfortable sharing my thoughts in class. Before studying abroad, I was always the student who kept quiet and only raised my hand if I had a question. I never answered them. In this sense, I will be a more involved student when I come back to campus in the fall. I believe this will help me advocate for myself in future professional opportunities. In addition, I believe studying abroad will set me apart from other job candidates in my future endeavors.
Despite my commentary on my internship experience, I have enjoyed every second of being here in London. I am extremely grateful to be a Pitt student who had this opportunity. Not only will I talk about the GBI Program in my personal life for years to come, but in future job interviews as well.