Wow, what an incredible two months that was. Without sounding cliché, that was definitely one of the best periods of my life. Being able to fully live and immerse myself in Germany without the stresses of a full-time position transformed this trip into a huge, formative experience for me.

Personally, I have grown a decent bit. I feel noticeably more outgoing and comfortable talking with random people I don’t know. The daily interactions, from ordering coffee to striking up conversations at conferences and festivals, has slowly expanded my comfort zone.

My conversational German is at least passable in most situations. The immersion experience of living in Berlin forced me to use the language daily, and I found myself picking up nuances and colloquialisms that no textbook could teach. It’s incredibly satisfying to hold a basic conversation with a local, as long as it lasts…

Meeting people from all walks of life, like the guy from Kazakhstan at The Merge, made me truly appreciate the multicultural nature of Berlin. These encounters opened my eyes to different perspectives and life experiences, broadening my worldview in a number of ways. I feel that I absorbed so much culture in the last eight weeks just by being in this major city and noticing things. The small things. The fact that Lidl cashiers don’t bag for you, the fact that all major shops close on Sundays… It’s all part of being German, but these experiences feel different when they’re stacked up over time. These small cultural differences, which might seem insignificant on their own, painted a unique picture of German life.

Academically, I have progressed quite well. While my job did help me learn WordPress, I felt that more of the learning came from my own personal side projects. Pokemon Teambuilder and Recipe App stand out as particularly valuable learning experiences. Through these projects, I’ve totally mastered using tools like Tailwind, and I am much faster and more efficient when it comes to designing front-ends. The hands-on experience of building these applications from scratch forced me to problem-solve and think creatively, skills that are invaluable in the tech industry.

Additionally, I researched GraphQL, a new way of transferring data that allows programmers to “filter out” data that doesn’t need to be shown to the user. This discovery has opened up new possibilities for optimizing my projects. The Pokemon Teambuilder, in particular, is shaping up to be a project that will need to be converted to use GraphQL, as data is being fetched and passed around constantly, and I don’t want users to be downloading over 10MB of data just to make my site run. Learning this framework has given me a concrete goal to work towards now that my job is over.

The weekend trips I made to other cities provided a much widened my pool of cultural context. People, like the man I met in Dresden, acted differently compared to those in Berlin. Berlin is like the NYC of Germany – a melting pot of cultures rolled up into a single city, where you can hear everything from French to Lithuanian to Russian. Because of this diversity, English is widely spoken. Dresden, on the other hand, offered a different experience as a more traditional German city. Many people there speak German, and some don’t know much English at all. They’re at my level, but with the roles flipped. These contrasts between cities helped me understand the nuances of German culture and the varying levels of globalization within the country.

Professionally, my growth has been multifaceted. I definitely progressed in terms of understanding office dynamics. However, my work environment had lenient expectations, allowing me to take plenty of breaks and arrive at work whenever I wanted. While this flexibility was nice, I recognize that it might not be representative of most workplace environments I’ll likely end up in. It’s a mixed bag.

Dealing with co-workers was definitely a significant area of growth though. Being able to set boundaries clearly is something I often struggle with, but I felt empowered to do so here. My manager made me feel like her equal, someone she trusts if I felt we needed to change course on a project. This experience has boosted my confidence in professional settings and taught me the value of open communication in the workplace.

I’m optimistic that my improved people skills will help me in Pittsburgh. While the technical skills I’ve gained will certainly be beneficial academically, I believe the soft skills and professional experience will be even more instrumental in helping me find work. Now that I have professional experience and decent coverage of the technologies I want to work with, finding internships should be much easier. I have a clearer vision of what I want to do and the steps I need to take to be the most qualified candidate I can be.

Now that I’m home, I’m both sad for what was and excited for what’s to come. This two-month journey has been more than just a trip or an internship – it’s been a transformative chapter in my life, one that may influence my life’s trajectory far after I graduate.

Tschuss!

Liam