Before Sydney, I thought the most important things I’d bring home would be on my resume. Turns out a lot of what I’ve learned is stuff you can’t really put in a bullet point.
The biggest one is communication. Like I mentioned in my last post, interns at CareGP are expected to share their ideas in meetings. At first I hated it, but now I’m way more comfortable speaking up, even when I’m not 100 percent sure I’m right. I’ve also learned to explain numbers in a way that people outside of finance can understand, which matters a lot when you’re building dashboards for a whole team.
Problem-solving is another big one. When a payment doesn’t match up, nobody hands me the answer. I have to figure out what went wrong, who to ask, and how to fix it. That’s taught me to stay calm and work through problems step by step instead of panicking.
I’ve also gotten better at adapting. Between a new country, a new job, and four new classes, things rarely go exactly how I plan. CareGP has employees from all over the world, and everyone has a different way of doing things. I’ve learned to listen first and figure out how the group works before jumping in.
These skills will help a lot when I get back to Pitt. I’ll be more confident in class discussions and group projects, and I think I’ll be way more prepared for interviews and future internships. Being able to work with people who think differently than me is something every employer looks for.
On the technical side, I’ve gotten a lot better at using Claude code to help with building financial dashboards. Payment reconciliation has also taught me how to spot errors and track down where the numbers don’t match, which is basically detective work with spreadsheets. I’ve also learned a lot about how healthcare payments work in Australia, including how Medicare fits in.
In class, International Finance taught me about exchange rates and how companies protect themselves when currencies change. Environmental Science gave me a better understanding of sustainability, which is something more and more businesses care about. Even Exploring Sydney counts, since it made me way better at presenting in front of a group. My internship class also has me reflect on my work every week, which helped me notice skills I didn’t realize I was building.