Hello Everyone!
This week marked my week of work for Nodis Homes. It included lots of learning, getting to watch the Real Madrid game with my family, attending a Flamenco show, and a day trip to Cuenca!
Internship Update
Monday was my first official day with Nodis Homes where I got a tour of the property, went over details of the internship and got to meet the employees. My supervisor was very nice but I’m definitely still adapting to only speaking in Spanish and it being my main and only form of communication. I’ve found that understanding the accent is the most difficult as it varies from a Latin American accent but with time it will get better. I have become accustomed to saying the words “¿Qué?” and “¿Puedes Repetir?” My supervisors and coworkers probably think they’re the only words I know.
My second day was when I actually started working, my supervisor assigned me to look over their marketing materials to gain a better understanding of the company. Then we began to contact potential clients, and clients who had expressed interest in living in their residences whether it was by a third party cite, contact form, call, or email. The company has auto generated emails for clients who express interest and it has been my responsibility to register potential clients who have expressed interest into the system and to then send them the auto generated email with an attached brochure of more information.
As the week continued I began doing more work within their sales and marketing platform Salesforce.com where they track all of their clients and how they have communicated with those clients from their first email, call, website visit etc till the time they leave the company. It allows the company to see where clients are coming from and further how they communicate with them throughout their apartment search process. It was cool to see the backside of this platform and how it concedes with sales and marketing. Further I have also been looking into their third party platforms and making sure their marketing representation is correct. I found some inconsistencies within their Marketing on one of the third party websites which the platform did not give us access to fix, I passed it on to my supervisor to take a further look.
This week has been a lot of learning through watching my supervisor and trying to keep up with conversations that my coworkers are having while not being totally lost. This week alone I started to understand the culture of my workplace, what is expected of me, and enhanced my communication in Spanish. As mentioned earlier, with time this will only get easier.
Spain Adventures
As for experiences outside of my job this week my program attended a Flamenco Show, a traditional and classic Spanish dance show. Before the show we had the opportunity of getting a short class from one of the dancers in the show to learn some of the basic moves as you can imagine we did not do very well. Overall the opportunity to see the show and learn from one was the dancers was truly exceptional. Attached below is a picture of the show.
On Saturday I joined my host family in watching the Real Madrid game in the final against Germany. They invited some of their friends to have appetizers and pizza while watching the game. It was a super cool experience but was definitely very crazy. They all were very loud and were super happy to see Real Madrid win. It was a lot of fun to be able to watch the game with them and be a part of one of their family traditions.
This past Sunday, I had the incredible opportunity to visit Cuenca, a town about two hours from Madrid. Our day began with a hike along the breathtaking Júcar river, which had truly beautiful views. Afterward, we explored the historic old town of Cuenca, which is rich in culture, history, and architectural marvels. Even though it was just a day trip, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to witness such beautiful nature and a charming town.
Week 2 Question → Time Management
My typical time management schedule is based upon priorities and what I feel is the most important to get done or what I feel is the best use of my time at this moment. My first few days haven’t been all that difficult within time management as I typically only have one or two things at a time that my supervisor assigns to me and once I complete them she gives me other tasks.
As my internship continues I imagine she will be less involved and give me more tasks to work on with less check-ins. As this happens making sure to ask her and communicate what the most important task is and making sure to prioritizing that before moving onto something else is crucial. One technique I like to use is writing tasks down in my planner to help me keep track of what I need to get done and then as I go to check them off this way I don’t miss any information, tasks, or deadlines assigned to me. I have been taking my planner to work everyday and my supervisor uses a similar technique. Further making sure to focus on the task I’m working on and avoid distractions is also crucial to success.
Arriving to work on time takes time management in itself. I have about an hour commute to my internship that requires walking, taking the metro, and then a bus. Making sure that I wake up and catch the correct metro and bus to my work is crucial as I don’t want to be late. Each night I set up an alarm for when I need to wake up and check the metro and bus schedule to see what time I will need to leave.
For this next week I will be working at a different location as my supervisor is on vacation. Tune in to my blog next week to see my adventures in Spain and what I’ll be up to with my work!