Going into this internship I assumed the skills I would gain would be mostly technical and that I would finish with a list of tools I could use and software I understood. That did happen, but the things I’ve noticed developing most aren’t just that. The most useful ones have come from the overlap between…
Author: drm155
Adjö Sweden
I thought this experience would be about the obvious stuff. A whole new city, language, and company I had never heard of. What I realized is that what works here in the US is different than what works in Sweden. The first thing I got wrong was that it would be hard. I figured the…
Success vs Framgang
The thing that took me longest to understand about professional success in Sweden is not what people are trying to achieve. Its what they are trying to avoid looking at. At home, the ways to be successful employees are mostly additive, meaning you work more, you’re visible, you make sure the right people know what…
Communication Hurdles
Before I arrived in Sweden I read how they were very low context individuals, meaning communication is explicit and direct. People say what you mean and do not add a lot of filler. On paper that put Sweden and the US in roughly the same place, and I assumed it would be easier to adjust….
Leadership Goes Both Ways
Before this internship, if someone had asked me to describe my leadership style I would have said something about leading by example. However, I am not sure what that would have looked like in practice. What I actually believed was that a leader is the person who knows that should happen next and tells everyone…
Adapting into Swedish Culture
Before I started, I assumed the cultural side of working in Sweden would be the difficult part, and that the work itself would be the straightforward part. What I’ve found is almost the complete opposite. The parts I expected to struggle with turned out to suit me, and the part I assumed would be simpled…
Adapting in the Workplace
Most of the uncertainty in my internship hasn’t come from people being unclear on purpose. Its come from the idea that a lot of the direction simply isn’t decided yet when a project gets introduced to me. Coming into it, I think I expected work to arrive as a set of clear instructions and when…
Value of Time Management
One of the biggest adjustments from being a student to being an intern has been how I think about my time. In school, every class hands you a syllabus with the deadlines already given to you. You know exactly when the midterm is or when the paper is due. Each percentage is laid out for…
Starting out in Stockholm
My first week in Stockholm is finishing up. I take a 35 minute train into the city every morning, work at my internship during the day, and spend most evenings exploring the city with my new friends. We’ve mostly been walking around different neighborhoods, finding places to eat, and taking advantage of the long evenings….
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