Intern, UN Women
Summer 2017
What overall were you prepared to do in the internship from the courses you are taking at MIIS?
I think my work experience prepared me more for the internship more than my MIIS courses. On another note, I would recommend for students to learn tools in the Meta Lab, as they are very helpful, especially during my internship.
What were new skills you had to learn on the job?
I would say I honed more skills in using data analysis software. I used OpenRefine, Survey Monkey, Tableau, and NVivo. I learned OpenRefine and Tableau from quick tutorials from the MIIS Meta Lab, but I got further experience in getting to use it during the internship. While I’m familiar with using Dedoose in MIIS, my internship was using a different qualitative data analysis software, NVivo, and I used online tutorials to learn this.
Another important skill that I learned was writing UN documents. I was an editor of the Transform magazine, which is the magazine for gender-responsive evaluation in UN Women, and reading through references of previous Transform editions helped me prepare for this edition.
What was your impression of the job you were doing? The company? The industry in which they operate?
I had a workplan that detailed my responsibilities throughout the internship which included knowledge management and communications. Those were very important, however, I would say the best part about my internship is being part of the corporate evaluation on women’s leadership and political participation, which is not originally part of my workplan. I got involved with it around the end of July and I am glad that they like my performance and are willing to involve me even after my internship.
Do you feel this is an organization you would like to work for? Why or why not?
I think this is a challenging job, primarily because it involves a lot vendor management. That’s something I would like to further learn. Working in the UN involves having to contract consultants, and a project team is likely to have consultants from all parts of the world, so most of the work are done remotely, except the initial meetings and field visits. Of course, I see myself having a career here, and the impact areas we work in UN Women, are important. Hence, I feel like I’m making an impact.
As you return to campus for the next semester what courses/skills would you like to pursue to help build or improve skills needed for your longer term career goals?
I will be taking project evaluation next semester, so that’s something I look forward to doing since I can participate in an evaluation from start to finish.
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