As I begin my final week of my study abroad program in London, I will reflect upon how this experience has contributed to my professional development and what transferable skills I have learned. The most important way that my time in London has helped me grow professionally would be through the soft transferrable skills I have learned including beginning to learn how to work in an international setting with people from other cultures. I have learned that people may work differently and at different paces than I may, and I believe being more aware of this and cultural differences will benefit me in any future career setting whether it be with coworkers or clients.

Similarly, I have been given the opportunity to communicate with people from other cultures at my internship and with my professors. While the U.K. may not be that different than the U.S. in terms of communication, there are some differences such as British people are less straightforward than Americans which is important to know and be aware of when in a work setting with them or just generally communicating. Also, at my internship, I had the opportunity to lead a few meetings with people from other European countries, so that gave me a bit of practice with cultures that may be even more different than the U.K. which was interesting.  Being able to communicate with people outside of my culture and developing more cultural intelligence is incredibly important as the world becomes more globalized every day and even in my own home country, people are different and people from other cultures live there. It is so important to be able to adapt to these types of differences to effectively work with others and produce the best results.

Additionally, I have learned some hard skills including developing a greater aptitude for excel which will be beneficial to my future career because most business roles use the program in some capacity. I have also learned how to use the program HubSpot which could potentially be used in another role depending on what programs the company I work for uses.

Overall, I believe this experience has contributed to my professional development in some important and quite transferrable ways that will likely stand out to future employers over students who may not have studied and worked abroad.