Week 5 in Dublin is in the books! Now over halfway through the program, I’m able to reflect on how much I’ve grown since coming to Dublin, particularly in my soft skills and hard skills.

The experience of living in another country and finding my way has helped me develop soft skills in several areas. Firstly, I believe I have become more adaptable since coming to Dublin. Going into the program, we were given information about certain things beforehand, but there were still a lot of unknowns. Many things we had to figure out ourselves once we arrived, such as the cheapest place to get groceries nearby or how to take the bus to our internship location. From living in Dublin I have had to adapt to an almost completely different lifestyle from what I know in Pittsburgh. I think this is a skill that will be very important for life after I graduate. I may move to a new city and have to start over and develop new routines. While in some ways it still feels somewhat daunting, having the experience of living in a foreign country makes me feel more capable and prepared to start the new chapter of my life after graduation.

Another soft skill that I have developed during my time here are my communication and interpersonal skills. One of the best parts of this program has been all of the new people I’ve gotten to meet. Getting to know the other students in the program has strengthened my communication and interpersonal skills, and often, I learn something new after a conversation I have with someone. Since Pitt is a fairly large university, this program has allowed me to make friends with people I maybe would never have crossed paths with otherwise.

I have also developed my interpersonal communication skills from my conversations in the workplace. My company has a small team, with only about 10 employees. Because of this, it is a very tight-knit group and my coworkers know each other on a personal level. Getting to know my coworkers has been an important piece in my acclimation to the company. I enjoy having conversations with them about our lives outside of work, such as their family, interests, and what they like to do in their free time. This is more typical in Irish workplace culture, where work and personal life are seen as less separate from each other and it’s not seen as overstepping to ask about someone’s personal life. Having these conversations with my coworkers has overall helped me become more comfortable at the company and also helped me learn more about Irish culture.

I’ve been strengthening my hard skills at my internship on platforms such as Excel. Many of my projects include entering data or converting currencies into Excel spreadsheets. While I prefer more creative projects over data entry, I know that it is a valuable and important skill to be proficient in these types of platforms. I have also gained experience in market research. Many of my larger projects have included gathering data on various competitors and compiling that data into spreadsheets or PowerPoints. In particular, I have been doing a lot of research on U.S. brands because the company is looking to expand to the markets there.

Circling back to the topic of soft skills, this past weekend my roommate and I developed strong problem-solving skills when our travel plans fell through at the last minute. We had booked flights weeks ago to fly to England to visit her family. However, due to unforeseen circumstances of the airline going on strike, our flights were canceled. Despite this major inconvenience, we were still determined to make it to England, and with no other flights available, we were left with very few options. We ended up taking a ferry from Dublin to a small island in Wales called Holyhead, and from Holyhead, we took the train through the Welsh countryside to a town in England, located West of Birmingham, called Shrewsbury. From Shrewsbury, we were picked up and made the 2-hour drive to our final destination of Cheltenham. It ended up being an 11-hour day of travel, and even though we were exhausted, we were glad we did it.

The next day we took a short road trip and stopped at both Stonehenge and the town of Bath, where the famous Roman Baths are located. I thoroughly enjoyed both and was impressed by the history and preservation of the sites. Bath was an incredibly picturesque and charming city that I hope I get the chance to visit again. Of course, the trip would not have been complete without some hearty English pub food. I loved my time in the English countryside and getting to experience it with my roommate’s family. There is still much more for me to explore in England so I’m sure I’ll be back sometime.

Cheers!