This week, my family visited me in Ireland. My family was just as excited as I was when I landed this program in Ireland, as our ancestors are Irish. For this reason, my parents planned a whole bunch of different little trips to show me and my sister some of our Irish ancestry. On Thursday, the day they arrived, we went out to the Brazen Head, which is known as the oldest pub in Ireland. Here, we shared a few different plates and listened to live music. Then, on Friday, we went to the Hozier concert, which was really amazing as Hozier is from Ireland. It was really cool to see one of my favorite singers in their home country.
On Saturday and Sunday, we traveled up to Northern Ireland to visit Derry and Belfast. My dad’s mom was from Derry, so we stopped by her childhood home. It was very interesting to see our family roots. Derry itself was also very fun. We went on a tour of the wall surrounding Derry, which explained Derry’s history. I find the troubles of Northern Ireland to be very fascinating and upsetting. In Belfast, we went to the Titanic Museum because the Titanic was built there. At this museum, we observed how the Titanic was built and how this project affected the people of Northern Ireland.
This week at work, I helped to cold call different customers of the company that I work for. In these calls, I asked if the customers were interested in creating a trial of the software, iPPi, that the company I work for created. If they say yes, I create them an account and send them an email to give them the details. I like this job as I am confident in my skills to talk to customers. Communicating is a skill I always look to grow, so I am pleased when I receive tasks such as this one.
As for my leadership skills, I feel as though my leadership skills have grown quite a bit throughout this internship. Prior to this experience, I was very timid in groups. I definitely have a hard time giving my opinions or expressing my feelings towards other group members’ ideas. Expressing my opinions is definitely something that pushes me out of my comfort zone.
This internship has definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. My work had a few other interns who worked here with me. Most of the tasks that I was given involved completing a job with two other interns. The interns that I worked with were economics and graphic design majors. However, most of the projects that we were and are given have to do with finance, which is my major. For this reason, I often found myself in a position of leadership within the group. I did not have a particularly hard time giving my opinion in this group setting, as we all wanted to do our best work for the job at hand. The two interns that I work with are very easy to work with, as we have become friends and are comfortable sharing our opinions.
Leadership is a skill that I hope to continue growing in the future. I believe that courses from Pitt have helped grow my leadership skills immensely. One course in particular was Business Communications, which I took this past semester. This course helped me to learn effective business communication skills to stay professional yet effective. These communication skills are extremely useful if you want to grow your leadership skills. Knowing how to communicate effectively is a very big part of being a leader. For this reason, I also attempt to grow my communication skills more and more so that I can also become an effective leader.
On the other hand, my leadership style is usually one where a leader is welcoming yet pushes me to better myself. If I do not feel comfortable in an environment, I will have a difficult time opening up, giving opinions, and trying new things. I believe that a boss who is accepting of new ideas is very effective, as workers will not be afraid to branch out and try a new method or idea. On the other hand, I do appreciate direct feedback. I like when a leader tells me what I can do better or change so that I can bring as much as I can to the table. Additionally, this helps me to be the best worker that I can be.