This week was a dream come true. July 6th is a national holiday, and so myself and a large group of friends booked a trip to Split, which was easily one of the top places I wanted to see while abroad. I got to leave work mid-day Friday and catch my flight at 4:50 and eventually landed around 10:15. We decided with the large group, an Airbnb was the best option, and it did not disappoint when we arrived on Friday night. The villa was beautiful. We had a chill day Saturday, where we slept in and then visited a public beach during the day before having a nice dinner together at the villa.
Sunday is where the trip got even more exciting. We did an all-day boat ride that gave us a wonderful breakfast and late lunch, as well as the chance to jump off the boat and snorkel in a ton of different areas around Split. This was awesome, as none of us had really gotten to go to a beach destination and have the chance to swim in the ocean yet; let alone in Croatia where the water was near-perfect. We finished Sunday with a nice dinner at the Villa and hung out while watching the world cup Round of 16. Monday was then another chill day where we woke up early and rented a cabana at a private beach where we could store our luggage and lounge all day. We then showered up and arrived at the airport around 4:30 for our flights that left about two hours later. The trip brought everything I expected Split to bring and was 100% worth the last-minute flights and Airbnb bookings.
It was also nice coming back to the office and starting the week on a Tuesday after the long weekend. My supervisor and I had begun more work on our financials for one of their projects on Wednesday, which has been the heaviest “hard skills” that I’ve learned while at Lucent. As I mentioned in previous posts, the technicals for Lucent were very different than financials I was used to, as their business model includes a ton of different aspects of the energy market. Moreover, it deals with multiple markets that are in different countries, which means the regulations and ways to achieve certain permits can vary greatly from project-to-project. I would also say I have gained a ton of skills in terms of researching these markets and the ways they operate differently – which can also be very difficult as the governmental websites and municipalities I have to access are in foreign languages. Safe to say I have been doing translation work almost every time I have to do extensive research.
The other hard skill I’ve learned would be the mapping software that I mentioned last week, which was a unique tool. Although I may not use it in my future career, it has been a valuable insight into the depth that Lucent operates at. I feel like there will also be similar interfaces and such that I could potentially need to use in future positions, so it was a great tool to learn about.
In terms of soft skills, I think the ability to openly and consistently communicate potential issues or questions has been the greatest advantage this internship has brought. This is my first internship in a professional business setting, and so it was hard at first to find responsibility. It has gotten a lot more comfortable just walking a few steps to my boss’s office and asking what it is I can do to help.
When it comes to global competencies, I would say that I have had a very open mind since starting at Lucent. My main supervisor is British, so there are not many cross-cultural barriers to work through, but it gets a little harder with my Czech and Polish coworkers. They can use English with a small accent but operate on an entirely different schedule in terms of communication. They are a lot more reserved and are a lot less inclined to engage in smaller conversations that don’t relate to work. It took a bit of time and a few separate lunches with them to bring out their friendly sides, but with Lucent being such a small company it has gotten better each week.
Hvala!
