The second month of my EYE experience has been much more about getting involved, taking initiative and understanding how everything works behind the scenes. I feel that I am no longer simply observing or helping with individual tasks, but becoming more confident in contributing my own ideas and taking responsibility for different parts of the work. During this month, I continued working on social media and content creation, while also getting involved in events, workshops and other activities organised by YouNet. What I enjoy most is that the work is quite varied – one day I can be working on an app scripts, and the next one I can be helping with an event or discussing ideas for a new activity. This variety has made the experience much more interesting and has helped me understand which parts of this kind of work I enjoy the most.
One of the biggest things I have learned is to be more proactive. I have realised that I don’t always need to wait for a clearly defined task. If I notice something that could be improved or have an idea, I can simply bring it up and see where it goes. This has made me more confident not only in the workplace, but also in thinking about my own professional direction.
Of course, there have also been some challenges. Balancing different tasks, deadlines and my own projects has sometimes been difficult, especially during busier weeks. There were moments when I felt overwhelmed by having many things happening at the same time. However, I am gradually getting better at organising my time and deciding what actually needs my attention first.
I feel that the objectives of the programme are being met, I am getting a lot from the experience. I am learning about how an organisation works, but I am also learning about myself – what kind of responsibilities I enjoy, how I work in a team and how much I can actually do when I trust my own ideas.
For the final part of the exchange, I would like to take even more ownership of my work and focus especially on creative and communication-related tasks. I also want to use the remaining time to ask more questions, meet people involved in different projects and make the most of the international environment around me. At this point, I think the biggest change is simply that I feel more comfortable. I know the people, the rhythm of work and the city much better, and that gives me more space to experiment.