Hi, I’m Ozten, I study Philosophy and Economics, and I started my internship at Taught by Humans in February, where I worked as a ‘Research and Partnerships Intern’.
As this was a remote internship, my first day started in my room, at my desk, on a video call with Laura (founder of Taught by Humans), where I got to know about all my tasks and projects for the upcoming weeks. Laura is a fun and reassuring person, who always made me feel welcomed in the workplace. She valued my opinions and listened to what I wanted to get out of the experience.
Taught by Humans is a start-up with a mission to provide data education for everyone: from those already working in data, to those aspiring to do so; as well as those who use data as a part of their jobs.
As part of my role I researched grants, competitions, and events; as well as potential partnerships with charities, networks, and other companies. I have also immensely improved my spreadsheet skills through the opportunity to attend Laura’s spreadsheet ‘Lunch and Learns’.
My other responsibility was researching, designing, and formulating questions for the survey and subsequent report on ‘Women in Data’; alongside my colleague, Alice. Working on this report was informative and engaging as I researched the many – sometimes challenging – experiences of women working in data.
It also helped me develop my professional tone of voice and communication skills; and – through working with Alice via online video conferencing – it also improved my collaboration skills.
As I deal with mental health issues, when I got accepted to this internship, instead of feeling happy and excited, I started to feel extremely nervous and thought I made the wrong choice. I feared not being able to balance all my academic work, as well as taking physical and mental care of myself while working as an intern and applying for postgraduate degrees at the same time. However, this was coming from a place of self-doubt and anxiety surrounding finishing school.
Working as an intern gave me so much confidence and taught me many practical skills that I have incorporated into my personal and academic life. The work I was producing felt meaningful to me and I am proud of myself for the work I contributed to a report that highlight the inequalities experienced by women working in technology.
I believe that completing an internship alongside your degree is an extremely valuable experience, which helps you to gain practical skills as well as expand your horizons and help you look at life through a wider lens.
Want to become an SME Internship intern?
The SME Internship Scheme has now opened for the new academic year! Check out our website for more information, and details on how to participate.
You can also discover more blogs in our “My SME Internship” series for inspiration.