Hello everyone! It’s crazy that this week I have started my fourth week of my internship which means that I am past the halfway point with my program. Hence the name “a medio camino” which translates similarly to halfway there or halfway through. Today’s blog post will be looking at my time in Spain so far. I’ll be reflecting on my growth I have made both personally and professionally while also sharing some of the adventures from my week.
Internship Update and Weekly Question → Critical Reflection on Skills and Competencies
This week’s weekly question combined nicely with my weekly internship update so I will be combining the two. With one month down and one month to go I have just completed my midterm reflection with EUSA, the company I am studying abroad with. This caused reflection on my growth but also allowed me to think about what else I hope to gain.
I have begun to notice major improvements within my Spanish. I find it easier to communicate with my boss and coworkers but also with my host family. Even the other day while I was walking to the store a lady asked me where the nearest metro station was, I was able to understand her and point her in the direction of the station she needed based upon what line she wanted to take. It can be hard to benchmark your progress during an experience like this. Especially in terms of language progress as you are constantly failing and improving. I imagine I will see a drastic improvement in my Spanish once I return to my Spanish classes in the fall and notice an improvement in my ability to write and skills related to grammar. However in the meantime small things like being able to tell someone where the metro is with confidence and having a simple unprompted conversation are nice steps with my improvement in Spanish.
When looking into some of the hard skills I have gained from my internship thus far I would say the largest would be market research. Before coming to Spain a lot of my industry experience had been related to content creation and social media promotion. Being able to investigate potential clients for the company, look into discrepancies within third party candidate sources or investigating other companies and how they differ has helped me understand the benefits of market research and what some of that can entail. A major area I have found interesting is how companies track and store this research for the sake of future use. For example a lot of the research we do is stored in excel and then taken out when needed for other things when it comes to tracking client engagement and day to day contact with clients we use Salesforce.com. Using a major sales platform like salesforce.com has shown me the backend to tracking marketing and sales engagement but has also given me an experience with a platform that major companies like Spodify and Amazon use.
Reflecting on the soft skills that I have developed from this experience I think this program has provided me with countless. From communication, teamwork, to confidence and problem solving. Everyday I’m tasked with new challenges to work on that are developing these skills. Specifically time management and managing 45 hours a week at the office and being on time everyday with just about an hour public transport commute. Your reflection on developing flexibility and adaptability is insightful and demonstrates significant personal growth. One of the key skills I’ve developed and found particularly challenging at times is flexibility and adaptability. Adapting to a new workplace in a foreign culture, along with their unique way of working, has been a major learning experience for me. Additionally, flexibility within my daily schedule has been crucial. Often, I’ll be working on an assignment when my supervisor asks me to put it aside and focus on something else or take a break to assist with another task. This constant need to adjust my plans has helped me become more adaptable and responsive to changing priorities. For someone who usually prefers a structured schedule, this experience has been invaluable in teaching me how to navigate in changing environments.
Reflecting on this growth and looking at moving forward I’m happy with the way that I have been growing but something I want to start adding more of is asking my supervisor how I can improve and in what areas I can do better. A lot of what I get is positive praise for the work that I have been doing but I do want to get some criticism to allow me to grow further. I plan to add more of these types of questions into my daily work so I as myself can continue to learn and improve.
Spain Adventures
This weekend continued with amazing opportunities and adventures in Spain. As always I have enjoyed time with my host family and we have been watching a lot of the Euro cup soccer games. Further I have been heavily enjoying getting Tapas and trying different spots throughout Madrid. Luckily this week hasn’t been too hot so I was also able to go for some morning runs in the Retiro park. I have been thoroughly enjoying the time before and after work to do some of this exploring and overall getting to see and experience more of Madrid.
This past weekend I also took a short weekend trip to Barcelona, a place that I have wanted to visit. Like all of the other places I have visited thus far in Spain I was simply astonished by the beauty and architecture of the city. From the Sangrada Familia, local parks, neighborhoods, and beaches it’s been amazing to see the beauty and architectural complexities throughout Spain and its cities. On Saturday in Barcelona I walked close to 30,000 steps exploring the city and stopped to take a nap on the beach which was very much needed. Barcelona was truly such a fun city and i’m so grateful that Spain has such accessible, relatively cheap transportation that has been allowing me to travel on the weekends.
As I continue on with my next month I can’t wait to continue sharing my experiences, development and adventures!
