Journal Week 07 — Connections Across the World

Brief

Hi! I do not have any major updates this week. I got sick halfway through it, but there are still a few events I would like to share.

What’s new?

This week, I took part in an activity with another division of my team. We work closely together, but they are on the other side of the world. In fact, I had two opportunities to interact with them.

First, on Thursday, we had a team-building event with that part of the team. Our managers felt that, even though we are one team, we had been working somewhat separately—and I think they were right. From my side, I had never interacted with these people before; I had heard about them in daily meetings, but that was it. An event focused simply on getting to know each other helped me feel much more comfortable.

The first event went well. We had Zoom breakout rooms where I got to meet small groups from the team, and then everyone else afterward.

Why is this relevant?

As I mentioned, there were two events. The second was another team-building activity, but a slightly special one. It is meant to make spending time together more enjoyable, and the organizer changes every time the activity takes place. Who organized it this week? Yeah, you guessed it: me.

For reasons beyond my control, I had to organize the activity rather quickly. At first, it was a little stressful because I did not know what activity I could choose—one that many people could play without it becoming boring.

In the end, my worries were unnecessary. I came up with a practical idea, and the activity went very smoothly :D

Any other things?

A couple more things happened this week:

• I am scheduled to give a TED Talk in three weeks.
• My internship project already exists—or something like that.

The first item is similar to the team activities my team does. Every three weeks, one person gives a short presentation in the style of a TED Talk to help us improve our English and presentation skills. I think it is a great idea and a very good opportunity.

Regarding my internship project, a comment came up during a daily meeting about a tool that was not being used. Someone on the team decided to try it and shared that its capabilities were quite good. I realized that part of that tool overlaps significantly with my use cases, so I am considering pursuing the same idea with a different approach. I will need to look into it further.

Learning and progress

This week, I had the chance to practice communicating with my team—not only the part I see regularly, but also the part that is more than seven hours away. I consider this something I need to improve and keep in mind. At the end of the day, I think that if you know how to work with your team, you know how to work, and vice versa.

Next steps

• Rework my internship project a little.

• Practice my English again.

• Start preparing my TED Talk.

Reflections

This week was interesting in terms of handling tickets and communication. But as the internship progresses and my university responsibilities get closer, I have started to realize that I have several pending tasks that I tend to forget and need to address soon. For example, I almost missed these blog entries three times, even though they do not really take much time. Also, this is my second-to-last semester, and my university is asking me to submit an English certificate soon. That is a responsibility I cannot set aside.

I think I need to improve how I manage my tasks, since I need to be responsible in multiple areas at the same time without neglecting my work responsibilities.

I think learning this is part of the process, and I would love to add it to everything I learn during this professional experience. Thanks for reading :D