Hi everyone, welcome to week 5! I can’t believe we’re already more than halfway through. This week has been very eventful, but also a lot of fun!
On Monday, I started the day with a meeting with my co-workers and our boss to catch up on what we’ve done during our internship so far. The company I’m interning with, the Global Undergraduate Awards, has undergraduate students as a target audience. Because of their focus on undergraduate students, my co-workers were very interested in hearing from the interns, since all of us are at different stages of our undergraduate student careers. As students with different cultural experiences, the other interns and I were able to provide feedback on the way things were being done to reach students. During the meeting, we had the opportunity to share our opinions and offer suggestions on systems that could be improved, as well as what we thought was working well. It felt really special to be heard by the full-time employees. Even though we’re “just” interns, we were taken seriously and truly listened to. Later that same day, I went out to lunch with one of my co-workers who’s working remotely from France next month. I won’t see her again since she’ll return after I’ve left, so it was nice to spend some time together and celebrate our last day as co-workers!
On Tuesday, we were given a new task to help out with, and we also had a co-worker hangout after work, which was really nice. It was our last time all hanging out as a full group before two interns finished their placements and one of the supervisors left for vacation. The task I was assigned involved updating a spreadsheet with data from 2023 to 2025 and creating a graphic analysis of various statistics for my supervisor so that he could present some of them at a board meeting. It was a great opportunity to get more practice with spreadsheets and organizational systems like monday.com. I’m excited to see how the skills I’ve acquired during my internship will translate into future jobs.The way I see it, learning tools like Monday will help me adapt faster to new workplace systems in the future. That evening, our co-workers’ night out started with a pint, followed by darts, and then dinner. I had never played darts before, but I’m glad to say I wasn’t as bad as I expected! The whole team had a lot of fun, we played games, had some drinks and appetizers, and even captured some funny videos for the company’s social media account. After darts, we had a lovely dinner at a restaurant called Lemon and Duke. We spent nearly four hours together, and saying goodbye was really bittersweet since I won’t get to see some of the co-workers again before the end of my internship. I feel very lucky to have been part of such an amazing team they’ve definitely made my work experience here in Dublin a very special and unique one.
On Wednesday, I was finalizing some graphs and troubleshooting a spreadsheet issue. My co-workers and I spent hours updating it. While improving my knowledge of how to use spreadsheets is one of the hard skills I have been improving, one of the soft skills I’ve developed the most during this internship is communication. Working in a company where multiple people collaborate on the same projects has taught me the importance of clear communication in being efficient and producing great work. These communication skills have also benefited me outside of work by helping me connect more deeply with people from different cultures and learn from their experiences.
By Friday, I had completed all the graphs my supervisor needed for the board presentation, and it was time for a weekend trip! I had the chance to visit Paris, and it was amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever walked as much on a weekend as I did there. Getting to Paris was a bit of an adventure. My flight was delayed, and since I didn’t land directly in Paris, I had to take a bus and then the metro into the city. Over the weekend, I walked around 40 km and saw most of the big tourist spots! In addition to visiting the well-known landmarks, like the Palace of Versailles and the Eiffel Tower, I also explored some local neighborhoods and stores. I also finally got to try the famous French pastries, I had a pain au chocolat and a baguette, and it did not disappoint!
This was a great week, I can’t wait to see what week 6 will bring!