In this first week abroad, I have experienced more than I could have anticipated. Prague has been nothing short of an incredible experience. The city manages to feel ancient lined with old churches and cobblestone streets, yet alive with intriguing restaurants, shops, and residents at every corner. Between exploring the winding streets of Old Town, crossing Charles Bridge to Prague Castle, and making a trip to Kutná Hora, there has been no shortage of things to see. There have been countless sights that stop you in your tracks with beauty unimaginable in the states.
Beyond the sightseeing, just navigating daily life here has been its own adventure. Figuring out the trams and metro in a city where you do not speak the language is very humbling at first. It did not take me long to get comfortable with being a little lost, and honestly it has pushed me to pay more attention to my surroundings than I normally would. The city itself has a very calm presence during the day. There is no rush, and the pace of everything just feels different. Then at night it completely flips. The energy picks up, restaurants fill up, and it turns into something else entirely. Both versions of the city are worth experiencing in their own ways.
I am working with the company Peakforce, a business-to-business sales and customer acquisition startup based here in Prague. This industry relies on the use of AI-assisted tools to help companies generate leads and drive upper-funnel sales across a range of industries. To be successful in this industry I believe a key skill is to focus on adaptability. Walking into a new industry in a foreign country means I will have to let go of some of the expectations I had coming in and be open to how things work here. In just one week of daily interactions around the city, I have already gotten a small taste of what this will look like. Learning to hold back the instinct to make small talk with a cashier or fill silence with conversation has been a real adjustment. I expect that same awareness will carry directly into the workplace. The pace and structure are very different along with the way people operate daily. I must be okay with a level of uncertainty and use my active listening strength to better accommodate to changes. Communication across the language barrier is also going to be a necessary competency. Not everyone I will be working or interacting with is going to be a native English speaker, so I will focus on being patient in formulating ideas and questions with others.
One thing that feels specific to working in this environment is the need to be proactive. Feedback here tends to be more on the indirect side. You will not always get a clear signal on how you did on a certain task or what may need to be changed. I will be working to read between the lines and hold myself accountable rather than waiting for someone to do it for me. Coming from a more straightforward feedback culture back home, I will need the competency to be more self-aware overall.
Heading into my first day, I would be lying if I said I was not nervous. Starting a new role in a foreign country, with people I have never met, is not something easy to mentally prepare for. At the same time, I am eager to start this opportunity. There is something fulfilling to me about the idea of contributing real work to a company while also being in a position where you learn something new every single day. Being that Peakforce is a young, fast-moving company, I think that environment is going to push me in more ways than a traditional internship setting might. I plan to walk in with an open mind and a positive attitude to figure things out as they come to me.
By the end of this experience, I am hoping to walk away with a true understanding of how early-stage startups operate, what it takes to drive sales in a competitive business-to-business environment, and a broader perspective on what it means to work and adapt in a completely new part of the world.
