I took a picture here of me preparing before my meeting with my supervisor.

There are always times with many people you meet where there are communication errors. Part of any job is to piece together what exactly is requested of you and how to do it. Logic and reasoning go a long way in this regard. If you’re new to a job, like this internship, you may not have the context surrounding the work environment necessary to decipher terminology or activities familiar to your profession. I make sure I understand completely what my supervisor wants of me. Since my supervisor is Ukrainian, she has an accent, luckily, I am not unfamiliar with the accent, and she speaks fluent English. 

Because I am not well versed in the world of research and economics, I have challenges with unclear directions on what exactly my supervisor wants. I also do not know what my next task will be or the best way to do these tasks. Thankfully, my supervisor has been great to work with and I look forward to working with her throughout the summer. Now, there are still ways in which I need help or extra time to think through tasks like anyone else. 

My first ever task was to create a table of verb coded events that have to do with government and institutional actions communicated by the media. Say there is a call to stop Ukraine aid, this would fall under a certain number classified as a threat to stop aid. I go through the full list and mark these code verbs for a project and I only add them and summarize the action if they are relevant to the project my supervisor is working on. 

At first, I grouped up the code verbs all wrong, I was creating groups that were not very relevant at all. Half way through the week I changed the whole way I was grouping up these verb codes. I then added relevance, making groups directly related to what was being measured. I even used the words “directly related to … “ for each group I created. I did realize that some could overlap, so I overlapped some groups. This epiphany came through steps of thinking out what exactly was needed of me to better the research being done through the database that the keywords would be used in. 

In terms of unclear direction, I also experienced a bit of a shock when I was told the essay I was to write should not be an essay, but instead a summary of research. This was my most recent assignment. I was researching the literature on defense contractors reactions to the war, and the impact of certain events on the defense industry. I learned a lot through this process, even how to read case studies better than before. I also learned how to read and understand better the methodology and reasoning behind economic literature. The literature, which I hear, is quite different from financial case studies. 

This is a very real skill within itself, as I know I will be involved in financial research further on in my undergraduate career. Another skill I have been honing is on my familiarity with financial metrics and methodology. My supervisor wanted me to go through, learn, and then explain different valuation systems, which I put in my report. On my own, I wish to look at more financial studies, and as a goal that would be very nice, would be to get caught up on the literature and understand financial methodologies better.

Now, I face uncertainty with my immediate task. I have to learn how to use finance api plugins in python, to do specific research on historical intraday prices for a list of defense contractors. It also needs to be able to be automated so I can do many things to look at the whole industry. This is so I can look at price shocks with regards to specific meetings with regards to Ukraine aid. 

This task is very ambiguous with regards to how to do it. There are many ways in which I can do it. Even looking at the software I use, I do not have to use python, and if I use python, what website or software do I use to access it? This task will be my most learning heavy yet and will require time and patience. First, I am going to look up what are the best python access points in windows 11 and then play around with the API data I am looking for. Then I am going to research how to automate and perform the tasks I am looking for.