Because I was working with media design and production, which I had learned to use outside of the classroom, I didn’t use any technical skills that I gained from my undergraduate education. However, the social and management skills that I had developed this past year proved to be very helpful during my internship. When I’m in a lecture hall with almost a hundred people, it can sometimes feel intimidating to ask a question. Becoming accustomed to asking a professor to clarify a concept or assignment without fear of being embarrassed gave me more confidence in communicating at my office. Though sometimes there was a language barrier, I knew that my coworkers appreciated that I was trying to practice my Spanish and were patient with me when I didn’t understand all of their explanations. With deadlines constantly coming up in college, I became used to working under pressure. I had to finish a video project my last week there while they were moving offices. By the time I was finished, my computer was the only one left in the office that needed to be packed and moved out. Having the pressure of finishing a project before all the equipment was taken down stressed me out, but I was able to work through it. I didn’t expect my last few days there to be so hectic, but I approached each day as a regular day at the office for me to get my work done and evenutally I created a video that everyone at the organization seemed to enjoy!
Hannah
It's amazing that you have improved your confidence through your internship and that will definitely help you in multiple aspects of your life. This sounds like a great experience!
ReplyDeleteI personally have struggled with being confident in front of large groups of people and have learned a lot through my internship experience. Madrid is a great place and I hope you are enjoying it although living in a foreign country can be a big task on its own. Enjoy!
ReplyDeleteI'm sure your Spanish speaking abilities have improved dramatically and that your co-workers were able to watch the change as it occured. It's great that they were so accomadating and understanding! This sounds like it was an amazing experience and that you learned a ton! Congratulations!
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with the statement that you made in your blog post regarding using the social skills that you gained from being an enrolled student at the university in the internship. I feel as though although I may have not applied all of the technological skills to my internship, the social skills definitely played an important role.
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