Undergraduate Blog / Career Development

Home Office vs. In-person Internship

It is hard to imagine that my amazing experience at Deloitte Bulgaria is coming to an end. I have spent almost two months working with a highly ambitious, dedicated, and professional team at the FAS division. Looking back, I learned a lot about M&A, Forensic, and Corporate Finance – three service lines that I assisted during my internship. Throughout my time in Sofia, I had the chance to work both in person as well as from home for a couple of weeks. Personally, I liked the in-person time better for a couple of reasons:

  1. You get to meet people, network and find friends

Aristotle calls the human being a “social animal” and that is because we need to socialize, to communicate our ideas, and to hear from the others. Online platforms such as Zoom, WebEx, Teams, or Skype for Business have tried to mimic the interpersonal relationships in the past months. Even though they have been good enough to work effectively, in my opinion, the relationships between people were lost. During my time at home, I missed the lunch break when I got to know better my colleagues or the stimulating work-environment in the office. I missed the open space, where everyone could share ideas and learn from the others.

  1. You are busier with work and you learn more

As an intern, I need guidance to complete successfully different tasks. Thus, it is much easier just to ask a desk neighbor at the office compared to scheduling a time to call and discuss my questions when at home. In addition, when I stayed in the office my colleagues could rely more on me and give me more tasks because they knew that they are around and we can easily keep each other posted on the progress. Moreover, I realized that the easiest way to learn is by being engaged in discussions, much similar to the college experience at Babson.

  1. You feel motivated and excited for the new day

That may be just a me-case but I felt like I was more productive and motivated in the office, when I was surrounded by people with similar tasks. At home, I was working hard as well, but every day felt the same and time was passing very slowly.

I am happy that I had the chance to experience both work from home and at the office because it showed me the importance of communication. I would like to thank Deloitte Bulgaria for giving me the opportunity to be part of this amazing team!