One lesson I learned during my internship that I could never get from a classroom or textbook is how real communication works in a professional environment. Communicating on paper is very different from communicating with actual people who have their own priorities, deadlines, and personalities.
I learned how to speak with higher-level leaders in a way that is clear, confident, and respectful, and how to adjust my tone depending on who I was talking to. A lot, though, I learned on the job through the stand-up meetings. I also learned how to communicate with coworkers, ask the right questions, and share updates in a way that keeps a team moving forward. These are skills you only pick up by being in the room, sitting in meetings, and watching how experienced professionals navigate conversations.
I also learned the value of building relationships, understanding team dynamics, and reading the room. No class can teach you how to handle unexpected situations, fast-paced feedback cycles, or moments when you have to think on your feet. My internship at FINDigital showed me how important these soft skills are and how much they influence the quality of your work.
One of the biggest lessons I learned during my internship is the importance of building genuine connections with the people you work with. In school, we’re taught how to collaborate and be professional, but not how personal relationships can actually strengthen teamwork. Although this topic has differing takes, I’m just talking about it from my point of view. At first, I focused only on being helpful and professional, doing the usual small talk, supporting tasks, and keeping the mindset that work is work. On my last day, one of my coworkers brought her daughter into the office. I ended up chatting and playing with her, and it really broke the ice between me and my coworker. Since then, we’ve stayed in touch. Recently I congratulated her on completing a marathon, and she checked on how I’m finishing university. That moment showed me that small, human connections can create long-term relationships that make work more meaningful.
This concept also mirrors how group projects work with friends, when you trust people and understand how they communicate, you perform better together. The same goes for the workplace, when you know your teammates’ strengths, weaknesses, and personalities, you collaborate more smoothly and produce stronger results. Overall, I learned that creating real connections at work doesn’t just make the job more enjoyable, it directly improves teamwork, creativity, and the overall experience. Moving forward, I want to be more intentional about fostering those relationships.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from my internship so far would be how important communication is when problem-solving. In the classroom, problems are structured out for us to solve most of the time. In the work environment, problems come up unexpectedly and are unclear; people have the wrong permissions, logs won’t load, etc. I’ve learned to communicate with my team to find the root cause of problems by troubleshooting with the information given. Going off of that point, I would also say I have a better understanding of how systems actually work. In the classroom, we learn the concepts of certain tools; I feel like the internship allowed me to see how everything connects in a real work environment.
Something I learned during my internship was how different real-world work is compared to the structure of a classroom. In class, assignments usually have clear instructions and expected outcomes– so a lot of hand-holding holding I would say. During my internship, I learned how to navigate projects that didn’t always have perfectly defined steps, and sometimes I had to figure out the “how” on my own. That experience taught me to ask better questions and confidently make decisions. Sometimes my co-workers didn’t know what they were doing either. I also learned how to collaborate with people who weren’t the same age as me and from people in different departments and experience levels. It was a bit scary at first, but it’s something I will need to get used to.
One thing that I have learned is how messy and unstructured the real world is. Things are rarely as simple as being given a task, and finishing it without any surprises. A big thing that is necessary to learn is how to navigate issues and misunderstandings. In class, the assignments usually lay out exactly what you’re supposed to do, the steps make sense, and the “right answer” exists somewhere. At my internship, it’s a lot more of knowing when NOT to do something without being absolutely certain that it is the right thing to do. There are many roadblocks, and things that slipped through the cracks. For example, our company has absorbed stores and stock from other warehouses that were not organized effectively. This requires carefully sifting through all of that stuff we have acquired, in order to not make larger problems later.
One lesson I learned during my internship that I could never get from a classroom or textbook is how real communication works in a professional environment. Communicating on paper is very different from communicating with actual people who have their own priorities, deadlines, and personalities.
I learned how to speak with higher-level leaders in a way that is clear, confident, and respectful, and how to adjust my tone depending on who I was talking to. A lot, though, I learned on the job through the stand-up meetings. I also learned how to communicate with coworkers, ask the right questions, and share updates in a way that keeps a team moving forward. These are skills you only pick up by being in the room, sitting in meetings, and watching how experienced professionals navigate conversations.
I also learned the value of building relationships, understanding team dynamics, and reading the room. No class can teach you how to handle unexpected situations, fast-paced feedback cycles, or moments when you have to think on your feet. My internship at FINDigital showed me how important these soft skills are and how much they influence the quality of your work.
One of the biggest lessons I learned during my internship is the importance of building genuine connections with the people you work with. In school, we’re taught how to collaborate and be professional, but not how personal relationships can actually strengthen teamwork. Although this topic has differing takes, I’m just talking about it from my point of view. At first, I focused only on being helpful and professional, doing the usual small talk, supporting tasks, and keeping the mindset that work is work. On my last day, one of my coworkers brought her daughter into the office. I ended up chatting and playing with her, and it really broke the ice between me and my coworker. Since then, we’ve stayed in touch. Recently I congratulated her on completing a marathon, and she checked on how I’m finishing university. That moment showed me that small, human connections can create long-term relationships that make work more meaningful.
This concept also mirrors how group projects work with friends, when you trust people and understand how they communicate, you perform better together. The same goes for the workplace, when you know your teammates’ strengths, weaknesses, and personalities, you collaborate more smoothly and produce stronger results. Overall, I learned that creating real connections at work doesn’t just make the job more enjoyable, it directly improves teamwork, creativity, and the overall experience. Moving forward, I want to be more intentional about fostering those relationships.
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from my internship so far would be how important communication is when problem-solving. In the classroom, problems are structured out for us to solve most of the time. In the work environment, problems come up unexpectedly and are unclear; people have the wrong permissions, logs won’t load, etc. I’ve learned to communicate with my team to find the root cause of problems by troubleshooting with the information given. Going off of that point, I would also say I have a better understanding of how systems actually work. In the classroom, we learn the concepts of certain tools; I feel like the internship allowed me to see how everything connects in a real work environment.
Something I learned during my internship was how different real-world work is compared to the structure of a classroom. In class, assignments usually have clear instructions and expected outcomes– so a lot of hand-holding holding I would say. During my internship, I learned how to navigate projects that didn’t always have perfectly defined steps, and sometimes I had to figure out the “how” on my own. That experience taught me to ask better questions and confidently make decisions. Sometimes my co-workers didn’t know what they were doing either. I also learned how to collaborate with people who weren’t the same age as me and from people in different departments and experience levels. It was a bit scary at first, but it’s something I will need to get used to.
One thing that I have learned is how messy and unstructured the real world is. Things are rarely as simple as being given a task, and finishing it without any surprises. A big thing that is necessary to learn is how to navigate issues and misunderstandings. In class, the assignments usually lay out exactly what you’re supposed to do, the steps make sense, and the “right answer” exists somewhere. At my internship, it’s a lot more of knowing when NOT to do something without being absolutely certain that it is the right thing to do. There are many roadblocks, and things that slipped through the cracks. For example, our company has absorbed stores and stock from other warehouses that were not organized effectively. This requires carefully sifting through all of that stuff we have acquired, in order to not make larger problems later.