I am going to let the pictures speak for themselves:
Sorry for messing up the schedule this week. I always try to upload the articles on Monday-Wednesday-Friday. But I’ve been busy the last two days. Not with work. Let’s just call it time to gain skills regarding the intern company dynamics. What do I mean by that cryptic and probably grammatical incorrect sentence?
On Monday we had an opening party for the new office at the house of our boss. I actually invited Pegah to be my plus one, weeks ago. But when I told her that we would depart at 4 o’clock, she told me she couldn’t make it that early. I considered not going, but ended up asking Konrad whether he would accompany me. And as it turns out he was working nearby and was getting off of work early anyway. Together we were driven by a colleague to the domicile of Stuart. The house is situated on the countryside, near Antrim. And I can tell you this much: Everyone I know would have loved to live in this house.
We got a lot of food served, ranging from different salads to exquisite desserts. But the absolute highlight of the evening was croquet. Don’t make the mistake of calling it cricket. I’ve been reprimanded before. The explanation of all the rules would go beyond the scope of this article. The short story is: Get the balls through the hoops with a mallet. Konrad and I competed as Team Germany but couldn’t take home the victory. But we were also not the worst at it. I am happy that I went to this get-together after all, it was really fun.
As for Tuesday, I was also informed about a special event. But when I read „Strategy Day“ I didn’t think much about it. I thought it would be a gathering in which the future strategy of the company would be discussed. It turned out be a trip to self-discovery. It reminded me of the team training we have had in our training once. But this class took a step further: We played with Lego – the whole day. It started out easy, with the task to build a bridge. As the day progressed, we had to depict ourselves (our role in the company) with Lego and I think my model was pretty accurate.
We talked about the aspirations of the company, the goals and DATACTIC’s cash cows. Some personal struggles and problems became apparent during the building tasks. I found the final company build really fascinating, being a network intern I didn’t know anything about the dynamics in the company. I wouldn’t have known that their main income is the sale of repeatable solutions (which sounds and is quite abstract). When we got to the point, where we had to say what decision we made based on today’s therapy session, I didn’t know what to say. There is only one and a half week left. There is not much time left for me to adapt my role. However, I also don’t think there is a need for it. I am playing an extra in this company full of data analysts, developers and sales & marketing managers.
All in all, I can say that these activities did indeed help me to gain skills regarding the intern company dynamics. I learned new things about the company. I learned new things about my co-workers. I learned to build a bridge with Lego. I learned to play croquet and… wait, that’s it.
