When I first arrived over nine months ago in July 2011, I was incredibly excited to be abroad for an entire year. Although I had already held a six month internship in Sydney, Australia, working abroad for twice as long seemed to be such an extensive time. I realized quickly how fast time is ticking – be it from working or enjoying my weekends. Now I wish to jump back and do it all over again, because working with the GACC South and such a dynamic, young, but also very professional team encourages me to get up every morning to go to work.
Deejaying at former President & CEO Kristian Wolf’s going-away party last year October
I’m working in the PR & Communications Team with Pamela Jackson as my supervisor. Basically, I was introduced as the “Web-Guy” responsible for the GACC South website, newsletters and social media activities.
In addition, I was able to get involved in several design projects due to previous design skills I had gained throughout my studies and internships. The opportunity to have the freedom to develop my own design ideas gave me increasingly more confidence in my work as a designer. In particular, bigger design projects such as the 2011 Annual Report, a completely new newsletter layout and some contracted work for some of our member companies has made me proud throughout the year here at the Chamber.
My tasks have always been very versatile and challenging since I started here. I am still learning new things from day-to-day too, which allows me to possess new skills and enhance my existing experience.
For the cultural aspect, I would say working in a bilingual environment with both Germans and Americans is a great mix between “laid back” and very organized. Also to switch between two languages, sometimes even in the middle of a sentence, is a good way to prove your language skills and ability to be engaged 100% of the time. It is the cultural mix which makes this company so wonderful!
German American Chamber of Commerce of the Southern U.S., Inc 