Summer Internship Reflection - Andrea S.

Before coming to Japan, I expected this job to give me more real-life work experience related to marketing. My goal in the future is to work remotely and work in either digital marketing or social media management, so I was excited to gain more experience in marketing and website design. 

I have learned even more about website design than I expected as we completely built a new site from scratch with Squarespace. I learned a lot more about website design, SEO, and improved my ability to communicate important information in a concise manner. Additionally, my research skills improved as we looked through other coworking sites to inspire the layout of ours.

One challenge has been navigating a workplace where I do not speak the language, but with the help of the CEO, Tomo-san and my fellow internship member, Ikdoo I have been able to learn useful phrases that are necessary in Japanese business. It has been really interesting to learn the Japanese business customs such as the business card exchange, bowing, and various phrases. 

I applied my psychology major into this internship by carefully keeping in mind the user’s experience and taking constructive criticism from the members. Considering the user’s experience is a vital part of creating a website and that is something I learned more as we continued to design it. User experience is heavily related to psychology and is connected to how people think and behave, so my background has been useful.

This summer internship impacts my future career because it gives me a really unique experience to speak about in interviews and put on my resume. I believe that this internship will help me stand out from other applicants and also show that I am culturally competent and able to adapt to different situations. Also, this summer internship has shown me that I want to be a digital nomad, which is the target audience we have been studying. I hope to work remotely and travel the world, so this internship has encouraged me to pursue that lifestyle. 

Outside of work, I have tried my best to meet Japanese people and see as much as I can by taking advantage of my days after work and my weekends. Being here in Florida for this period of time has made me realize that I really want to return to Japan soon and have more opportunities to travel around.

Some of my favorite moments have been with my Japanese friends that I met off of Bumble BFF, like going to dinner, cafes, or day trips like Kyoto. It has been a great way for me to learn some useful Japanese phrases because I have fully immersed myself in the culture instead of just surrounding myself with Americans.

Some other special moments have been visiting Macho Bar, Team Lab, Arashiyama, Nara with the cute deers, and USJ. It has been a great experience and I am happy I have been able to do so much in my spare time. 

Overall, this has been a great experience and I am happy to have such a lovely supportive group of people here at The DECK who have been very kind to us the whole time. Tomo-san, Fumi, Tomoe, Ayami, and Shizuka have been an amazing staff to get to know better and I feel lucky to have spent time with them.

I also absolutely love and adore my co-workers Ikdoo and EJ, and they are now my lifelong friends.

Experiences like this internship abroad further help me gain a more worldly viewpoint and more professional experience that I can discuss with future employers and colleagues.