Meine Neue Stelle

I started work this past monday as an intern at the company responsible for settling companies into Berlin. It's different than I thought, initially thinking they recruited companies to come to Berlin - but they actually take off at the point where the company decides to come here. It's a mixture of marketing, databasing, and other random things they decide to give me. My first week was spent proofreading powerpoints, doing some translation and starting the organization of a big conference for the trade show in Hannover. I was actually kind of bored this week because I got through things really fast. At the same time though I'm familar with the German internship process - it takes awhile for them to actually trust you to do things and get them done, that's when before you realize it you're so busy you can't tell up from down anymore. Given I'm going to be there for five months, I'm sure they've got plenty in the works to keep me occupied.

I'm in a decent sized office with three other interns. Within the first day, I convinced everyone that it would be better for us all to listen to internet lounge radio on our computers as opposed to the drone of clicking keyboards and the mouse sliding across the grey desktops. It seems to help the mood in the room, more relaxed and the "slave labor" feeling you get with most internships seems to get better with each passing hour of the music in the background. My favorite line from last week, "Hey, do you know my e-mail? I'm not quite sure. I need to call the US Embassay back and let them know what it is." The head of the department did not laugh, but I did of course.

I noticed cultural differences right away. The most in-your-face is the closed office doors. The office is composed of long hallways, with offices on the sides and all the doors are closed. All of them. If the door is open, they probably have just stepped to get a coffee, or are about to leave. In the US, a closed office door basically means: Leave me alone, I am busy. Here, it's not that at all. I mentioned it to a fellow intern, that it still feels wierd to walk down a hall of closed doors and her explanation:

"I like it closed because I hate feeling like people are watching what I do,
or overseeing me. I can do my work, I don't need people peeking in on me."

Explanation accepted and we agreed mornings our door will be closed, and afternoons we can leave it open. The people are friendly, laugh often and make jokes - but there is also a very high level of unpersonalization in the office culture. Personally, I love it. The main complaint about life in an office in the US for me is the constant questions - prys into personal life, meant to be as casual conversation, but actually it's the way for the US co-worker to "size you up" and see what you're really about. I'm sure it exists here in some way, but I have yet to encounter it. I've realized too, that I say "thank you" way too much, a remnant of my english where "thank you" is often used as a way to say "good bye".

Overall, it feels good to get up in the mornings and have somewhere to go. Student life in Germany was getting old fast, lots of late nights and sleeping in...waking up and feeling pretty much useless most of the time. Now, I am feeling a little more accomplished and getting up before noon does wonders for my mentality (except for Saturday and Sunday mornings of course).

Update again in a month or so...

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