Putting the "G" in LGO

If you're not hip with the name change, the "G" in LGO stands for Global. And, I am doing all that I can to live the Global of the program.

First, and the most obvious, I am living in Germany for my internship. This means (as you might have read in my previous blogs) that I am learning a new language and a different culture.

Additionally, I am traveling like a maniac; so far I've been to Stuttgart (Germany), Dublin, Liverpool, Frankfurt (which is only an hour or so from Marburg) and Budapest. Upcoming travel includes trips to Siena, Italy and the US. And, there are still some trips remaining to be planned to France, Amsterdam, Rome and Spain... plus, other cities in Germany that have been raved about... and possibly other locations if good plane fares turn up. To be able to travel and explore Europe to this extent is awesome. Being a West Coaster, travel to Europe never seemed easy, so it's great to be able to take a 2 hour plane ride to anywhere on the continent.

In addition to the obvious travel aspect, I have the unique experience of working on a project that spans across countries. A lot of LGO internships may be site focused, but mine is anything but, which makes me pretty lucky because I get to travel to places like England and Italy for work. Naturally the travel is fun, but the really cool thing is experiencing first hand the different work environments of each country. It gives you some great insights into cultural difference (good and bad) and adds a whole new level of complexity to my project.

MIT offers a lot of different classes on international business and relations.  With my schedule being so busy, I haven't taken advantage of those... BUT, this internship experience is really invaluable. I am not sure that a class or case study could teach me some of the thigns I am learning now.

Free Time...What do I do with it?

After a year of taking classes and working on two degrees, internship comes like a breath of fresh air. I think every one of us was looking forward to a break from the chaos of classes. The non-stop projects, homeworks and exams are tiring. And, even with a relatively "light" semester (which I think I had last Spring) there is still tons to do and no down time.

Now that internship is here, and I'm 6 weeks in... I am "overwhelmed" with FREE TIME. Being in a different country makes it even worse, because the things you might normally do to occupy yourself (TV, join a club, etc.) are not as easy to do when you don't speak the language. It's a tough thing because you go from being extremely busy to very NOT busy. So, the question is how do you fill the time?

Being in Europe, filling the weekends is A LOT easier than filling the weekdays. Drew and I are taking day trips and traveling often (he's even posted about our recent trip to Dublin on his blog), but what to do after work?

Drew's trying to teach me tennis, which I am loving... and he might not be.

I'm reading a lot and plan to read the Harry Potter series, just a few years after the hoopla... ;)

I should be exercising more, but it is odd that with an abundance of time, it's hard to fit in.

Learning the language, I spend a minimum of an hour with Rosetta Stone each night, but there's only so much that can be done before I'm over saturated...

Cooking dinners... something I did MAYBE a dozen times during school.

Stalking my friends on Facebook. Well, I made time for that even during my busiest days, so I've become rather efficient at it. ;)

I suppose as my project gets rolling along, I'll be able to spend the evenings working on my thesis, but still, it's quite a change of pace from school days, and although I'm not complaining, I am still trying to get adjusted.

But, for now, off to search The Internets to see if I can find any after work activities near by...

Back to work…it’s not quite like back to School

LGO internship is a pretty important and big part of the entire LGO experience. The first summer and fall are spent pondering what internships will be offered by the partner companies and if there’s one that you’ll really want… Domestic Plant Trek through Feb/Mid-March are spent preparing for the interviews (or trying to) and then hoping you’ll get one of the internships you want… then the rest of the Spring semester is spent in a whirlwind of activity to prepare for Internship. Then, suddenly, you show up at your first day of work and wonder what the heck you’ve got yourself into. Or, maybe that’s just how it happened for me…

Living in a country where I don’t speak the language… Check
Working in an industry that I have no background in… Check
Doing a project on topics that I’ve spent a lot of time studying in classes and had limited experience applying in “real life”… Check
I feel like there should be something that’s priceless here… but I think you can figure that out on your own. ;)

Anyway, I think the combination of all three of the things mentioned above have made the experience a bit overwhelming for me. I came from a job and company where I had become the person that knew it all (well, of course, not ALL, but a lot). I’d had the opportunity to have about 6 different roles and had learned a lot about both the manufacturing and business management details of building fighter airplanes. It was a pretty comfy place and even though I had some challenging assignments, I had built great relationships with my co-workers and I could always find someone to help me out. It has been a long time since I really started fresh… and, with school, you have instant friends because you’re all thrown into the same situation together. But, with work, especially some place where your culture is different, the language is different and you’re “THE INTERN” it’s an added challenge.

Things are coming along though. All of my co-workers are willing to help me, despite the fact that they are swamped with work. My officemate has even been helpful beyond work stuff and is teaching me some German, which is great!

And, I’m getting a grasp on my project and am really excited about it. I feel very lucky because both my supervisor and my project sponsor have expressed how glad they are to have me here and the importance of the project. It makes me feel good to know that I can/will have an impact on the organization and company. Warm Fuzzies! :) Plus, something that’s exciting (and also a bit dorky) is that as I am learning about my project, I am discovering that there are some things I learned about in school that are actually going to be useful in my project!! AND, there are also things that I did in my past work life that will be useful. So, as people talk about accruals and write-offs, I smile a bit inside about the A in accounting that I worked my butt off for during the fall. And, when people mention that they use SAP and Business Warehouse for data reporting, I am thankful I fumbled through it at NG so that it’ll be a bit more familiar now.

All in all, things are coming along. I’ll add a post about Life in Germany at some point in the near future… but, as a reminder, Drew and I are here together and as he usually does, he’ll be posting much more frequently than me… including lots of our traveling experiences, so check out his blog too!!

Internship (& Germany), here I come!

June 1st is a big day in the LFM. The class of 2011 will start school and many of us in the class of 2010 start our internship.

There's four of us going to Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics (and lucky for you, we're all bloggers!), and we all start with "orientation" on Monday. It's actually pretty neat - NVD has monthly operations leadership team meetings and this month it's here in Cambridge. So, they decided to have us participate as part of our first week & orientation. We actually had the opportunity to meet this group of people once before in March, so hopefully that will make it a bit less nerve racking. It's exciting, though, being interns with NVD because it's the first year this divison has participated, so we're getting a chance to help influence the future of their participation - hopefully we don't mess it up! :)

Starting work this time seems a bit different. I did lots of internships in undergrad, but I feel there's more pressure now... they pay a lot of money for us, and we have to write a thesis on the work we do. Now, I've worked hard, but, I'm not sure I've done ANYTHING that I could write about for 50+ pages... oh well, I'm sure it'll come together.

Part of the excitement of my internship is the international aspect. There are 10 of us going to Europe and a few others headed to other parts of the world. It'll be pretty interesting learning how things work there and seeing the differences of the cultures. I'm sure it'll be a challenge at times - beyond the language, but I can't wait.

7 days until the move across the ocean!! Now, back to some packing since the Uhaul is scheduled for Friday...