Over the last four weeks of working, learning, and living in London, I have developed both hard and soft skills that I will use for the rest of my life. As this was my first time leaving the country, developing skills surrounding cultural competency have been a huge part of my experience here. As my coworkers come from many different places around Europe, not just the UK, I have learned a lot about how different cultures come together in the workplace. From small things like adjusting to spelling differences, to larger ones like how certain words that are common in the US aren’t even used here. Keeping an open mind while learning about the differences between what I am accustomed to versus how I had to operate in my internship allowed me to learn about being flexible and adapting to a new environment rather quickly. As this internship is over the course of six weeks, it was important for me to adjust to making mistakes, receiving criticism, and correcting myself as I moved forward from the first day on the job. This is a skill I will definitely use moving forward.
As for hard skills I have learned, for my position I learned how to use multiple different platforms to complete my responsibilities. The first platform I learned to use was Hubspot. This is used to create, publish, and store emails. As one of my main tasks is to develop emails to be sent out to the users of our website, Hubspot was the first platform I learned how to use. The name was familiar to me and I believe this platform is often used for marketing tasks in the US, as well, so I am very happy to have gained some experience with it and become comfortable using it. The second platform I learned how to use was Miro. On Miro, we store grouped emails on separate boards so it’s easier to find certain emails that are sent out consecutively, such as rewards emails. This platform was a little trickier to figure out, in my opinion, but I eventually became comfortable with it around week three. The third platform I learned how to use was Trello. Trello is where we put in requests for creatives we need for emails, newsletters, blogs, and more. We provide a briefing, an example, and the copy for what we want, and submit it as a request to the creatives team. The last platform I learned how to use was Google Ads. I expected this one to be the easiest, but I think I actually struggled with this platform the most. I did get the hang of it, but of the four platforms I gained competency in over the last four weeks, Google Ads gave me the most difficulty. These platforms are all generally common, and I am grateful to have gained experience using them.
These skills will all be extremely useful to me as I move forward in future internships and when I fully join the professional world upon graduation. The combination of hard and soft skills I will be taking away from this experience will make me a more efficient and flexible student, leader, and employee as I continue to develop through Pitt Business and the organizations I am a part of, as well as my future internships and jobs.
A picture from my flight back from Dublin this past Sunday!
A picture from Kensington Gardens!
Olivia Ciampi, GBI London, Summer 2024