MY REFLECTION
A very important skill I learned was how to adapt to being in a different culture where people might have different viewpoints and finding a way to come to a compromise. There might be a situation in which I thought a specific way a project should be presented due to various experiences I have had, and someone I was working with might not have agreed with me. In these situations, it was evident that our own personal experiences were the driving forces for the thoughts we had and that the culture in which we grew-up had significant impact on that. In the end, it should be noted that neither was wrong, nor right, there were aspects of each idea that would be beneficial overlapping the others. We had to learn how to respectfully communicate what we each thought and explain why exactly we thought that. After hearing the reasonings behind it, it was much easier to see it from the other perspective and we could work together to combine the best part of each idea to turn it into the most effective and efficient project possible. It was very interesting to get that new perspective and truly highlighted how important it is to understand and appreciate cultural differences for what they are and embrace them.
An interesting skill I learned would have to be the ability to make a TikTok and digital media in general. I did not have a lot of experience in this type of thing prior to this internship and it was very challenging in the beginning trying to learn not only the most effective way of doing it but learning how to use the programs in general. In the beginning, I really struggled with formatting and trying to figure out what would appeal to people the most, as I did not really watch TikToks and did not know what would work. After becoming more familiar with the app and doing research on videos that gained the most reach, I began to alter my approach and changed it for the better. The same applied for the presentations, as I am typically and overthinker and would find myself spending hours just trying to create a good color scheme. I have really appreciated the experience to do this as it made me realize that content creation is not my strong suit. I am good at imagining the ideas, but not the best at bringing them to life. It has taught me that in the future I do not want to create content, but rather come up with ideas for it and create the marketing strategies behind them.
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A skill I learned that was very beneficial was the way a real job is run. I have had basic entry level jobs before, but nothing that really was about my future career. Having set hours, expectations, and requirements has given me a glimpse about how the future will look and what I want from it. I had to learn how to manage my time wisely, and most importantly how to effectively manage my time and priorities. There would often be something I wanted to work on because I enjoyed it more, but had deadlines on other projects. I had to accept that because I am working a job, I do not have the choice to just not do what is expected of me and had to figure out a way to manage that.
What I gained from this internship is a new perspective on how other people think and how other cultures operate, specifically in a business sense. I was offered the chance to compare how a local Italian would go about completing task compared to myself, an American student. It was very interesting to recognize the diversity I knew existed but had never experienced first-hand. It really highlighted how culture influences various views and how marketing techniques must truly be diversified based on the target group. I am very passionate about my love for this school and studying abroad, so it has been a great experience to be a part of showing that to others.
The main challenge I would definitely be the fact that I realized I do not like video-editing very early on in the process. It is not something I am that good at and was not easy for me to just pick up. I had great ideas envisioned and just could not figure out how to bring them to life in the way I wanted. It was a good experience because it was something I just had to overcome and figure out how to do as it was a main part of my job, but was very difficult at first.
Covid 19 was the one time in my life I ever truly felt overwhelmed and anxious about life. This was something I had never experienced before and struggled to cope with it for a while. Not only to not be around people, but to not leave my house and have such a personable way of life taken away, was everything in one of my worst nightmares. After a bit of an adjustment period, I decided what I really needed was to get away from everything in my normal life and have a new experience with new people and new things, which leads me to Italy. I was feeling lost with my life and needed a change, I just did not know what. Italy was that change for me. Regardless of the fact that the Covid restrictions are more regulated here, to get away from everything and have this experience was exactly what I needed in my life.
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I will use this experience in many forms in the future. It was amazing to experience so many aspects of business I never had before, including adapting to a new culture, and content creation. I have learned a great deal of beneficial skills just on video editing and presentation apps that will be able to assist me in my future career. I also learned how to adjust to a different culture and embrace the differences between them. This is something not many people can say that they have done and I am excited to take it to my future employer.