My STEP project has changed my views on the workplace and I will carry this with me throughout my life. The main activities that my STEP Signature Project entailed was keeping in contact with my co-workers, collecting data, and forming a presentation that would help my company gain a competitive edge. During this time of 3 weeks, in Stockholm, Sweden with seven other OSU students, I was able to learn so much about the culture. A work-life balance is highly stressed in Sweden, and our project was able to give us a balance and a great opportunity to learn.
Starting off, I learned that the world is much larger than we think, and that everyone thinks in a different way. All around the world, people live under different ideologies, which affects the way people think and act. While in Sweden, I realized that I have a very Americanized approach to work. This being that work is something I can’t truly enjoy because work is meant to put food on the table. In Sweden, I learned that work can both be something that you enjoy, and something that you get paid to do. During my time at work, I was able to meet so many wonderful people that enjoy coming to work everyday, enjoyed their fika breaks, and had a really positive outlook on their work/life balance. I think that going into my professional career, this is something that I will look back at because knowing how much I enjoyed the culture at BSH, makes me want to spread this ideology wherever I go in my future.
It started off when we first arrived at BSH headquarters. Myself, along with the seven other OSU students on this project, were all greeted with open arms and a huge smile on everyone’s face. Everyone knew us already as the “Ohio State Students,” and everyone was super eager to meet us. It came as a shock to me of how welcoming, and warm everyone was, because everyone went out of their way to welcome us to the office. Everyone came down into our office space to talk with us, because they wanted to meet us, wanted to know our experiences, wanted to know who we were, and they all were all very genuine. After the first day, I knew this project would change my view on the workplace.
After our first week, we were accumulating a lot of research and data. We were on a really great pace to succeed, but we were also a little confused. Our project scope was a little broad at first, and we wanted to make sure that we were on the right path. The managers at BSH wanted to make sure that we were on the right path as well, and made sure to schedule hours of meetings, time out of their own day, to chat with us and make sure that we felt comfortable. Our manager even flew out from Finland just to see us. After discussing our ideas with our manager, she loved every single one of them, and even started jumping up and down from excitement. I started to think to myself that the culture was very different, as I felt like I would never see that in America.
During the same week, the company had a cookout, and all of the interns were invited. From this, we were able to meet half of the big office, and continued to go on lunch trips throughout the week together. From this experience, I was able to meet so many people that I will continue to talk to throughout my life. The whole office showed signs of hospitality, togetherness, and great culture that I feel like I wouldn’t regularly be able to experience in America since the work culture is so different in the United States. I felt truly enveloped in their culture of fun and togetherness in the workplace, and learned so much from this experience.
This change was of the utmost importance for my life due to the happiness I was able to experience while working. I feel as though most people go about their lives by working in a job that may not make them as happy, and going through this experience has taught me that being happy in a future career is so important. It makes you more productive, more friendly, and keeps you satisfied until you retire. I will take what I have learned from this internship, and I will make sure that I spend my career doing something that makes myself happy and the people around me happy. It has taught me to have a positive outlook on going to work, and truly enjoying yourself while you are working, and I will take this with me for the rest of my life.
