As I near my last month studying and interning in London, the number of lessons and skills I have gained as a result of spending so much time in this country has been truly extraordinary.

Firstly, in terms of hard skills, with my internship working accounting, I have been able to gain so much of an understanding of the way businesses operate both in terms internal and external reports. Coming from a finance instead of accounting background, it has been really interesting working in a department which focuses on a field that has to operate in a very different way with very different objectives. It has allowed me to work on so many processes like daily revenue reports, invoicing processing, and so much more.

More significantly than the hard skills I have gained, I have also been able to work on the acquisition of any number of soft skills that are so much harder to achieve outside of working and living abroad like I am right now. Firstly, I have grown to better understand and acclimate with people from countries far different from my own. Now for interactions with English coworkers this isn’t much of a difference beyond their unique accents and propensity to make fun of us Americans for any number of things like fast food or cheap beer. On the other hand, with London being one of the most diverse places in the world, it has been extraordinary working with people from across the globe, with people hailing from places as far as India or as near as Italy. It has been so fascinating to talk to and learn from these people and learn how to mesh our very different cultural ideals in a productive way. Next, beyond working with culturally and nationally different people, living in Europe has been a unique experience which has taught me so much about the wider world as well as myself. Living abroad has been a truly unique way of seeing the world as you end up doing things like making a morning commute to work every day like a Londoner, or buying food at the grocery store that is so much different from our own, or even having to avoid getting hit by one of the cars that are driving on the opposite side of the road.

All in all, studying abroad here in London along with completing work at my internship has been a truly unique experience that has allowed me to grow both as a person as well as a professional. Similarly, these developments have come about not only in terms of hard skills like working on accounting or different computer systems, but also in terms of the soft skills I have gained through working and living in a country very unlike my own. I am so excited to see where my last month will take me and hope to learn so much more before I leave.