The last three months have flown by and I am already halfway through the internship: unbelievable if you ask me!
If I had to give a general impression of the first part of my exchange I would say that the balance is positive, but there are some aspects that could be improved to make my experience even better and more profitable.
The first few weeks were a bit hard because there was a lot to get used to, from the work environment, to the equipment, to the way Carlo works and how the days are structured, but now I found a balance and I am in a routine that helps me to stay focused on my goals and to learn something new everyday. In the beginning I also felt like the things that I was working on were not very relevant to my business idea and that I wasn’t learning much, but after some weeks I started to get trusted with more responsibility and I realized that I was free to come up with my own ideas and suggest them to my Host Entrepreneur, and this completely changed my view of the collaboration.
A lot has happened during the past three months: I got to create posts for social media and to start a new project on YouTube; I got to participate in a conference and I got a lot of feedback on my business plan from Carlo. Of course there have also been a few small challenges, like some lack of communication or some delays in deliveries, but talking through them has been the key to improvement and to creating a better experience both for me and for my Host Entrepreneur.
What I really like about collaborating with Carlo is that I get to see how he works and how he leads his enterprise, while also getting a lot of precious advice on my business idea and my future. I highly value the moments in which he asks me for my opinion before he tells me what he would do, so that I have a chance to think like an entrepreneur and then get feedback from someone who’s more experienced. This really helped me to get a deeper understanding of his thought process and his entrepreneurial expertise.
In the next and last three months of my stay here I would like to get even more involved in the enterprise and get to work on more varied projects in order to learn as much as possible while I’m here. I would also like to get more integrated in the co-working space and to improve my communication skills, both in the everyday workflow and in the occasions when something unpleasant or a challenge needs to be discussed.