Interning as a ux and web designer at a startup in Stockholm has been more than just an opportunity to grow my portfolio, it’s a crash course in soft skills, technical development, and communication. While I came in expecting to sharpen my design skills, I didn’t anticipate just how much I would grow in other areas. 

As the sole person at the company working on the website, I have a lot of freedom in how I approach my tasks, along with a lot of responsibility. This has really pushed me to improve my time management and communication skills. The people I report to work with in completely different areas, so they don’t have a very thorough understanding of the kind of work I’m doing, which makes it much harder to communicate and defend my ideas. I have had to learn how to articulate the reasoning behind my decisions in a way that those outside of my field can understand, which often requires me to think about my work on a much deeper level.

As for hard skills, I have to implement changes to the website, which is something I have never done before. I’ve had to learn how to use wordpress, and touch up on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, languages I have only briefly used in very basic projects. 

There isn’t much of a language barrier here, but the communication style is very different. Whether it’s a cultural difference or just a personality trait, I’ve found communicating with my supervisor to be quite challenging at times. He has a very specific vision for how things should be done, but provides no guidance or direct instructions. As a result, I’ve had to get comfortable reading between the lines and asking pointed, clarifying questions to ensure I’m on the right track. It felt a bit awkward at first, almost like I was interrogating him, but I’ve come to realize that it’s simply the most efficient way to move forward and avoid miscommunication.