By ISA Dublin intern Abigayle Pignatari
Interning in Dublin, Ireland has allowed me to grow personally and professionally while also giving me the opportunity to learn about the local culture and get a glimpse into an international organization. I was able to learn and develop multiple Career Readiness Competencies, as well as gain invaluable relationships and skills for the future.
Critical Thinking
I have developed significant growth in my critical thinking. The biggest task I got assigned to was editing the 2017 annual report. Initially, I did not know what was going to be expected of me for this project, and I was left to figure certain things out for myself (i.e. understanding who the audience was, what sort of content was being used, and how the manuscript was being formatted).
My supervisor left it up to me to fill in the blanks. If I had questions, she was more than willing to guide me, but I was doing research and reading for a good part of my first week. I was able to strengthen my critical thinking skills by using knowledge from my academic classes to work through this task.
Collaboration
I was given the opportunity to work with individuals from numerous departments in both our Ireland and United Kingdom offices. During my internship, we had a week of three different projects going that each involved individual work as well as collaboration with the different departments.
Working with the various team members on the projects taught me more about the company, my writing skills, and how to collaborate with a wide range of colleagues.
Independence
I had the opportunity to create numerous documents and presentations. My supervisor would give me a basic outline of what she was looking for, but she would let me take the reins. Tasks like this helped me to gain confidence in my work and allowed me to work independently more efficiently.
I was debating between a semester or summer abroad, and I know that picking the summer internship in Dublin was the best choice I could have made. My summer internship has taught me so many invaluable things, both personally and professionally, and I hope that others consider the benefits of interning abroad.
Learn more about interning in Ireland with ISA.
