Studying abroad in London has truly been a dream. I have learned so much about myself and am eternally grateful to have had this experience. Everything I learned from my time here will be skills that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
I have noticed immense growth and faced numerous challenges. I have grown personally in realizing some of my habits that I had not noticed before. I have had to develop better habits to fit with my extremely busy schedule here. Balancing a 20-hour week internship on top of 3 other classes is a lot more work than I am used to at Pitt. It has been much harder to find time to do school work, but this has helped me to strengthen my time management. Academically, I have adapted to a new way of learning and new course structures. I am used to many small, weekly assignments and as well as several big assignments for each class. Here in London, I have mostly had a few large assignments worth a big portion of my grade. Unfortunately, these assignments for all of my classes fall at the exact same times. Most weeks are slow, but the busy ones are extremely hard to manage. As for my professional growth, I have had the privilege of working with Influence Associates as an intern for the past semester. My biggest takeaway from this experience is balancing the many demands of numerous people in the agency, and learning new technologies. Everyone always sees their own work as very urgent, and I have to decipher which is the most pressing matter at a given time. I have also learned lots of new Excel skills, as well as new softwares such as Meltwater. Meltwater is a PR-specifc software used to build media lists, locate contacts, etc. This has vastly improved my search and analytical skills.
Some key takeaways from this program will be time management and openness to try new things. I hope to incorporate my new perspective on time management by balancing school, work, and personal time more effectively. Before I came to London, all I knew was school and work. I fell out of some of my favorite things to do, such as working out, because I felt like I couldn’t find the time. But I feel that I am better suited to develop a more balanced schedule and stick to it. This is applicable in both my remaining time at Pitt Business, as well as my future career. I feel as though I have always been very open to trying new things, but this experience made me more open professionally. I never really considered PR as a field I would want to work in, but I am very glad for the experience. It has taught me a lot beyond what I will learn in an introductory marketing class or any of my supply chain courses. I can better tailor a search and think more analytically about how to search for the information that I need. This will help me in Pitt Business when researching for a paper or project, and in my future career when locating new clients
I am extremely sad to be leaving in just under 2 weeks, but am also happy to return to Pitt Business with all of my friends and professors. I will miss London immensely, and hope to return one day. So long London, and goodbye blog readers!
Some photos from my recent trips to Croatia/Montenegro and Amsterdam!