I am wrapping up my internship working at a nonprofit in London and it is time to look critically at my experiences thus far. Years from now when I am applying for graduate schools, internships, and jobs, I will need to be able to articulate what I have learned and how that makes me the best candidate. By taking a moment to analyze my new skills and my opinions about this work environment, it will be a lot easier to determine what kind of workplace I want to be in and for me to earn a place in that business.
The environment I work in is very chaotic, to say the least. People come in and out all day – people who love stopping to talk for 30+ minutes at a time and people who demonstrate pure disregard for any social order. My organization also has a calm side. When all the clients are gone for the day, I have an hour of peace before heading home. This is when I put statistics into the computer and chat with my coworkers. The day goes from high stress to no stress in the blink of an eye.
Sometimes i love the bustle of people and how I get to talk to 40 people a day, but most of the time it is very overwhelming. In my future profession I would like to be seeing clients in a one on one setting where I could still connect with them without also being bothered by three people who also need me for something and two others who just want to shoot the breeze. For this reason, if it were possible, I would change the style of my environment to something a bit more quiet and organized, like an office. I would also make it so that I could have more contact with my co-workers. They are all fun and interesting people, but they work in secluded offices all day while I work at the reception desk. Because of this, I have very little contact with my co-workers other than the 30 minutes before clients arrive and the hour after they depart.
But don’t get me wrong, I like to have the opportunities I get for communication all day with the clients. In fact, one of the things I would not change is the relationships I get to build with them because I am not secluded in an office all day. I get to witness firsthand the diversity of the clients. I have been at the organization for the shortest time out of all the employees, but I think I definitely have the best stories.
Part of the diversity that makes my clients so interesting comes from the part of the city that the organization is located in. At first I swore that it was located in a bad area that was dirty and unsafe. Now I see it as part of the overall character of the environment. And while I wouldn’t have minded working in a ritzy part of town, I would not change the location of my organization and risk giving up how interesting each day pans out to be.
Along with my environment, I have a few thoughts on my supervisor’s work style. I love the general London style of work that appears very low stress. I may have just gotten lucky with my internship, but I get an entire hour break when I am only in the building for six and a half hours of work. Back home at my job behind a grocery store meat counter, I only get an hour break if I work a full eight hours (not including the break.)
But back to my supervisors, I have found that they are very hands off when it comes to my tasks during the day. Most of what I do is very dimple and they know that I will come find them if I have any questions. I prefer this kind of supervisor because I do not like to be micromanaged and when I finally reach my goal of being a clinical psychologist, I plan on primarily being my own boss anyways. I like to have the freedom to make my own decisions, but sometimes the style really bothers me.
For example, when I am given special tasks such as writing up a survey or creating poster boards for health and safety. I often find that I am not receiving nearly enough information and feedback. I always have to ask several different people one million questions and it makes me feel like I am being very annoying, but I have not been at the organization for as long as everyone else and I have to ask so I don’t screw anything up. My supervisors style is usually to give me a vague task, let me do whatever and then judge it at the end like some sort of work pageant. I would much prefer if I was given more instructions, but I do appreciate the creative freedom I am given during the initial process. In the future, I would like to be a more laid back supervisor, but one that makes sure to check up once and a while so that my employees don’t finish an entire task and then find out they have to redo the entire thing.
Besides realizing my preferences in work environment and supervisor style, I have learned a lot about myself. The biggest things I have learned are that I really do like people and that I am not as sure as I once was about what I would like to do in the future. When I say that I really do like people I have to explain a little about myself. I am very introverted and always have been afraid of small talk, even though I have always been very good at presentations and interviews. I have even been seen on the news answering interview questions after sports games in high school.
Someday if I become a clinical psychologist, the conversation would not bother me as much because I would have full control over the conversation. There would be less exchange and more diagnosing based on questions and answers. That is what i always told myself. I am now learning that talking to people I don’t know is not scary at all. I actually really like talking to people, even though it is completely exhausting.
This realization has led to my second lesson from my internship. I decided last year to study clinical psychology over anthropology because I didn’t want to have to move away from my family, go out of my way to interview others, and have to write for a living. After taking this internship abroad, I have learned that anthropology could actually make me really happy if I tried. I practically do anthropology everyday while I am here. I spend all day observing both the general culture of the British and the social culture of both the homeless and the mentally ill. My plan has always been to just be a clinical psychologist in a very diverse area in order to fulfill my passion for psychology and culture, but now I see that if I wanted, I could do it the other way around. I could be an anthropologist who mainly studies the mentally ill.
While I have been working here, I have also developed a few new skills. For one, I have become very comfortable with Word and ZDrives. In America, shared files like ZDrives are called something else like Dropbox. When I first started using shared folders, they were very confusing, but now I would say I am proficient at using them. I have also improved on my writing skills, as I have been asked to write d up several things including thank you letters, surveys, and posters. I would argue that I was already a very good writer, but it was interesting to finally apply it in a work setting. I would like to continue improving and becoming more comfortable and confident in my written communication.
I have been blessed to spend so much time learning and improving myself at this nonprofit, but after college I will not be looking for an organization to work at that is like this. I think the work is very fulfilling and rewarding, but it’s a bit chaotic for me. Also, it really doesn’t match my field of studies, but I do hope that I can find opportunities to volunteer like this in the future.
Adventures Abroad 