Internship site: International Finance Corporation (IFC)
Location: Washington D.C.
Department: Corporate Information & Technology (CIT)
Length of employment: 3 months
The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution that is focused exclusively on the private sector of developing countries. Through these partnerships, they work to create markets that open opportunities for all.
I had the opportunity to work in the Corporate Information and Technology department, that is internally focused on providing IT solutions for the World Bank and the IFC, as well as externally for the bank's clients. My day to day activities included, amongst other tasks, monitoring project and portfolio statuses, documents and internal web updates, process improvement, analyzing data and developing reports. Although many of these activities were internally focused, they were essential in ensuring the effective functioning of anything IT related within the organization, that spreads through each department and ensures they are able to conduct their functions accordingly.
Global
There were also many global aspects associated with my overall internship experience and below are a few examples:
1. Working in an international organization like the World Bank Group, you interact with people from various nationalities and backgrounds daily. Within my department alone, there were several nationalities represented. This taught me the value of diversity and how people's backgrounds influenced their ways of thinking and how they interacted with others. I learned about various communication styles, and how to work in diverse, multicultural teams. I valued interacting with people and hearing their varying stories on how they came from their home countries to work at the bank. I was made aware of the pride that people placed in their cultures. Regardless of their current environment, they freely spoke their home languages to people from similar backgrounds, and proudly boasted on their home countries and cultures. The World Bank embraced this cultural diversity, and even catered to varying tastes with a wide selection of food from all over the world in the cafeteria. So not only were you exposed to languages and meeting different people, you were able to try food from around the world too. A truly global experience.
2. One of the benefits of working at the bank was that I had the privilege of attending World Bank events. At these events, international issues such as gender equality, diversity, poverty and inclusion were discussed. This gave me insight into how such a large international organization views such issues, and what their vision is to solving them, or to get people to think differently about them. Through the information and innovative solutions presented, and the engaging dialogue and interactions that followed, my perspective on these global issues were broadened and what originally seemed like large issues that seemed impossible to tackle, became more tangible to me. This added a new level of value to my internship experience.
Lessons learned
With each experience comes lesson learned, and here are a few that I took in from my experience at the IFC:
1. Going above and beyond your scope of responsibilities always pays off.
2. The more diverse the team, the more viewpoints but also the more vibrant ideas generated
3. Embracing cultural differences is a key trait when working in diverse teams, and even more, in an international organization.
4. There is no task that is too little. Each contributes to the greater mission of the organization.
Location: Washington D.C.
Department: Corporate Information & Technology (CIT)
Length of employment: 3 months
The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest global development institution that is focused exclusively on the private sector of developing countries. Through these partnerships, they work to create markets that open opportunities for all.
I had the opportunity to work in the Corporate Information and Technology department, that is internally focused on providing IT solutions for the World Bank and the IFC, as well as externally for the bank's clients. My day to day activities included, amongst other tasks, monitoring project and portfolio statuses, documents and internal web updates, process improvement, analyzing data and developing reports. Although many of these activities were internally focused, they were essential in ensuring the effective functioning of anything IT related within the organization, that spreads through each department and ensures they are able to conduct their functions accordingly.
Global
There were also many global aspects associated with my overall internship experience and below are a few examples:
1. Working in an international organization like the World Bank Group, you interact with people from various nationalities and backgrounds daily. Within my department alone, there were several nationalities represented. This taught me the value of diversity and how people's backgrounds influenced their ways of thinking and how they interacted with others. I learned about various communication styles, and how to work in diverse, multicultural teams. I valued interacting with people and hearing their varying stories on how they came from their home countries to work at the bank. I was made aware of the pride that people placed in their cultures. Regardless of their current environment, they freely spoke their home languages to people from similar backgrounds, and proudly boasted on their home countries and cultures. The World Bank embraced this cultural diversity, and even catered to varying tastes with a wide selection of food from all over the world in the cafeteria. So not only were you exposed to languages and meeting different people, you were able to try food from around the world too. A truly global experience.
2. One of the benefits of working at the bank was that I had the privilege of attending World Bank events. At these events, international issues such as gender equality, diversity, poverty and inclusion were discussed. This gave me insight into how such a large international organization views such issues, and what their vision is to solving them, or to get people to think differently about them. Through the information and innovative solutions presented, and the engaging dialogue and interactions that followed, my perspective on these global issues were broadened and what originally seemed like large issues that seemed impossible to tackle, became more tangible to me. This added a new level of value to my internship experience.
Lessons learned
With each experience comes lesson learned, and here are a few that I took in from my experience at the IFC:
1. Going above and beyond your scope of responsibilities always pays off.
2. The more diverse the team, the more viewpoints but also the more vibrant ideas generated
3. Embracing cultural differences is a key trait when working in diverse teams, and even more, in an international organization.
4. There is no task that is too little. Each contributes to the greater mission of the organization.