Die Praktikantin

I mentioned in a previous post that I would elaborate on what it’s like to be an intern in Germany. Allow me to deliver on that promise.

As required by CBYX, I obtained an internship for the second half of my year in Germany (read more about that process here#). I was hired as a research and consulting intern at the Institute for Environmental IT Hamburg GmbH, or ifu. I’m currently in at the end of my third month of my five-month internship, so I feel like I can finally give you a good overview of what it’s like to be a US American intern in a German company. Of course, this pertains only to me—other PPPler have had wildly different experiences, but the only one I can share is mine.

To give you an idea of how unique my experience was: my team is full of young people. The whole office is very relaxed, and there’s only about 25 people in ifu total. Going into the intership phase, we were fed stereotypes about German work/office culture (which probably really helped some people!). We were told that Germans are very formal (SIE, not DU!), clothing was more casual than in the US, offices aren’t usually as tech-oriented, etc. At my office, though? My coworkers are super informal (Du all day, every day!!), they take of their shoes when they get to work, we work almost entirely on the computer and online, and we come and go as we please. We do live up to a few stereotypes, though: we have at least one meeting a day, we do a lot of planning in advance, vacation/time off is taken very seriously, and we do not, I repeat, do not, come in to work sick. It’s a pretty good gig. At the beginning, however, I did not feel so comfortable.

Starting out, I felt very lost. My responsibilities as a research and consulting intern were not made immediately clear, and that was a source of a lot of stress. My supervisors had told me from the start that I would not be doing “stereotypical intern things” like making coffee or translating everything for them. They made it clear that I would be helping them perform actual LCAs (Life-Cycle Assessments), and that I would be an important member of our 7-member team. When I first got there, though, one project had been put on hold, and they weren’t sure whether or not I should start working on another project. Because I had nothing to do and I still wasn’t even sure how to go about doing the things they did ask me to do, I felt extremely stressed, alone, and incompetent. With the combination of my boyfriend just having gone back to the US, living in a new place, and the lasting darkness of a northern-German winter, I was having a really hard time learning to enjoy my internship.

About a month in, though, I finally started to feel like I was learning the ropes. I was given tasks regularly, I understood (95% of) what I was asked to do, and things were improving. Everything at the actual ifu office takes place in German, but a many of the reports and external communications are in English. This gave me other, smaller opportunities to shine, as I was often asked to edit these reports (and did a damn good job of it, by the way).

By the second month, I felt like I was actually contributing to the workflow in the office. Most of my job involves using software to model the inputs, outputs, and environmental impacts of production and transportation processes. When we don’t get actual data from the companies for which we make the models, we have to search online for scientific literature that gives us clues as to the process data. This was almost all of what I was doing—I would search online for scientific papers, read them, extract data from them, do calculations to apply the data to the process I was working on, and then model it all in the software using functions I had created. My models would then be used within a larger model to help analyze the production of, total, one product. In short, I had started doing work that was actually meaningful to the company and our customers, yet, somehow, I was less stressed than I was at the beginning.

I’ve now got less than two months at my internship left. Reflecting on the past 3.5 months, I’m able to come to a few realizations:

• The hardest part, by far, was the language barrier. It really was the root of most of my problems, even though I have pretty solid German. I mean, I’m a fairly awkward person as it is, but connecting with my coworkers and getting over my fear of asking questions is way more difficult when you’re on shaky ground as far as vocabulary goes. That said, my coworkers are really understanding and put up with my sometimes-wobbly German. The only way to get better is to speak!
• You have to know exactly what you can bring to the table. Moreover, you have to let your Arbeitgeber or Chef (employer or boss) know what you can offer and how it applies to them. This is really important to making sure that you are doing things that you understand. For me, this involves editing English reports at work—I’m confident about it, and I produce good work. Then we’re all happy.
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions. I am always afraid to ask questions. Don’t be like me.

There is, of course, a lot more to be said about being an intern in Germany, but if you keep those three things in mind, you’ll be able to be fairly successful as an intern.

As for me, I’m going to spend the last chunk of my internship working hard and, hopefully, enjoying it, instead of stressing out (as I am wont to do).