As I approach the three-week mark of my experience here in London, I have settled into a rhythm both in terms of classes as well as my internship. This semester I am working at a Marriott where I am helping out in their Finance office doing various accounting tasks. This role is an extremely interesting opportunity for myself as I have little background in accounting beyond what the average finance student works on in their introductory classes, and so it has been a steep learning curve to get up to speed on the necessary practices.

In terms of hard skills, this role has been a great challenge and learning experience for me as I have been using systems such as Oracle which I haven’t previously experienced. Similarly, as previously mentioned, the extensive accounting knowledge required has been a new and unique challenge which has very rewarding in tackling.

Perhaps greater than any new hard skills, the soft skills needed to be successful in an internship abroad in London have been rather extensive. While many would say that office culture in Europe is far different from that of work in the United States, I have found the overall culture to be somewhat similar, with everyone working hard and with focus, while mixing in periods of work with periods of small talk and interest into the lives of their coworkers. The main challenge in this area has been in communicating with coworkers and developing ways to talk through issues in an effective way, while often times it feels like we are speaking completely different languages. It has been a rather hilarious challenge in trying to figure out each other’s slang and mannerisms as me, a Pittsburgher works in an office with people from everywhere from Wales to Italy, to Kenya, and beyond.

All in all, I have found that to me, the differences between Americans and Brits are somewhat overstated. While we speak in very different ways, things like our dates being a reverse of each other, or them calling chips, crisps, and have very different culture facets such as coffee vs tea, I have found at our core, Americans and Brits to be extremely similar. I have also found that deciphering the fascinating differences we have between each other, in things like language, sports, entertainment, food, and more has been more a way of binding people together as wonderful conversations can be sparked, instead of separation at our areas of difference.

I can’t wait to see where the next three months take me, what wonderful lessons I will continue to learn both professionally and personally, and I look forward to writing my next blog post to you all in a couple weeks!