My Internship

WHAT I HAVE LEARNED


In the beginning, my choice to make this internship in research project by ZEE has an aim to get experience about a project in the university. Actually, I have spent more than three years in an engineering consultant in my home town. I know very well how the project is executed in the past experience. I though, I have enough knowledge about project in consultant in my home town. And that time (my internship) was the moment to acquire about project from other institution in Germany. My preference was in ZEE.

From this internship, I got new practical knowledge and also I had found dissimilarities between the project in consultant in my home town and in the university in Germany. In short, it is different 180 degrees. Many things are different in the recognition of the project and also in the actualization in the community. But I will not explore about those contrast. I will only give brief explanation about what kind of new lessons I gained from my internship.

Generally, there are 9 lessons I have learned during my internship. They are interview, communication in the project, working plan, meeting with the community, publication of the project, schedule of the project, draft of master thesis proposal, international study, and website for internship. All of them have different substance and point. The detail will be described as below:


Interview
Interview in this internship is a part of content of the project. When I joined this project, two interviews were formulated. They were in Morbach and Scwäbisch Hall. As a practical student, I had been involved in both of them. They are:
1. how to find information about important actors in certain study area from internet
2. how to make any cross check whether those actors exist or not
3. how to select key actors to be interviewed and included in the list
4. how to prepare the interview
5. how to make a plan for interview
6. how to handle the interview result

Of course I did not learn all of them in instant. Coincidentally with working, I have learned some new things, such as the activity no. 1 up to no. 3. It is different with the activity no. 4 up to no. 6. I learned how to prepare and make a plan for interview from the meeting which I had attended. My supervisor and college in the same room explained many things too. Besides, I learned from every document that I had read during internship, e.g. how to handle the interview result and transcribe it into transcription. From this part I become familiar with interview and the formulation.


Communication in the Project
In this internship I have learned a new way to communicate each other within the team. Before the internship, I though communication means only direct contact by discussion and meeting. And I also thought the media are only by telephone, fax, letter, and email. From this internship I learned this communication has very broad understanding. In this project, communication includes:
- how to arrange documentation of working and important files within the team
- how to communicate and keep communication in the team
- how to coordinate the team

I learned that arranging important document for project in the purpose it can be accessed by all team member is one form of communication. In addition, I learned that making every documents can be understood by other member is other manner of communication. I learned that minimizing conflict and solving the problem within the team by meeting and discussing it more often is one way to keep communication. Moreover, coordinate the team with trans- and inter disciplinary expertise from diverse component into an integrated, harmonious, and effective interaction of movements is also included in communication. The central emphasis in communication is keeping the working atmosphere in good condition, even in bad situation.

How I have learned all of that? My supervisor and college explained to me some facts about working in team. I learned by reading some documents had been sent to me. I also learned by observing and analyzing all interactions related to the project. At the end I learned, communication has an important role in overall of the project. Whether the output good or bad, it depends on how the team can correspond exactly their working in the project.


Working Plan
Truly, I have known already about working plan. But the formation of working plan in RE-Regions Project is a little different. Something new I got from working plan in RE-Regions is how to make detail plan for each activity level and project component by utilizing definite color and code in the plan. There are many colors used in the plan and each of them has fixed meaning. Also the code, each of code has specified meaning. Both of them depends on activity level and component of the project.

From the beginning I saw the plan, colorful is the first word came out from my mind. The purpose is only to make it easy to be seen. People can find with very light in which step are they if the color is different. Lesson I got, format of working plan is free to be determined, it depends on how detail the team want to plan the project. But, the plan should be able to be read by all team project .


Meeting with the Community
As I have explained in previous section (what I have done), I had attended a meeting with the community. To be honest, it was not the first. I had been in the same place, but with different task. Connected to this internship, two new insights I had gained from the project:
- how to prepare a meeting with the community
- how to introduce the project in the community

Like usually, I learned both of them from explanations of my supervisor and colleges and also from the routine meeting which I had attended. One impression that I still remember up to now is criticism of the community about the project. My college explained one example about the community expected something outside the project scope. Also when the community want something unpredicted before by the team, this condition could be also happened in the meeting. That is the reason why a meeting to prepare a meeting with the community is executed. Something I learned from this meeting, it is not only discuss about how the community will think about the project, but also to predict what will be happened in the meeting. I also learned the questions could be possible will be pointed out by the community. These questions are predicted before by the team. This part was very interesting to me, because honestly I never think so far about the community and the project. It is a new knowledge for me.

The next I have learned is about how to introduce the project in the community. It looks like a simple thing, but in fact it was not. I have been explained again by my supervisor and my college about this also. There are some series how to perform it. As I have learned from the meeting with the community. From my point of view, this introducing part will give first image for the team and the project. Even actually first image is not so important to be thought very serious, but for the next step of the project first image is important. It likes a general statement "If for the first time is such like that, how about the next?". So, introducing the project in good way and give a good first image should be done without doubt.


Publication of the Project
In my mind, I thought publication of the project is only by publishing it to the research publication or other scientific journals. Well, this publication is more abroad than I ever think. My supervisor and my college explained to me, publication is a part of some obligations in the project. This fact, I never know also before. From the explanation which I have understood, publication could be in research or scientific journal, in seminars or conference, flyer, brochure, pamphlet, poster, or even official website in internet.

How to publish the project is the lesson I learned afterward. For publishing in scientific journal, a lot of journal can be a choice. Again, it depends on how good the quality content of the article published is. The article should have two name of writer minimum. The other requirements are general, in the same way like many other writers want to publish their article. 


Schedule of the Project
Regarding schedule, I am the one who cannot fit the schedule of my self to publish this website. Up to now, I am still learning this exercise. There was experience I got from this part during my internship, how to fit the schedule into the project. It is always the case, it should be someone in the team gives reminder to fit the schedule. Otherwise everything will be late or more than the time frame. In one side, communication takes apart in this action. And in the other side, working plan has an important role too.


Draft of Master Thesis Proposal
This is the first time I have to write my real idea into proposal. Of course I had written my final project (bachelor thesis), but the idea came from my lecture. It was not mine. Two worthwhile exercises I learned, they were how to gain and express the idea into written form and how to compose the idea into draft of proposal.

If someone asks to me "How to gain and express the idea into written form?", I will answer, it needs many energy and time. It is not easy. I found my self should think and search many things, again, and many times before I could finally write something. It could not be counted again how much articles, sites, and sources I had read. Also gain the idea is difficult.

Composing the idea into draft proposal is easier to be done. I learned by direct implementation in draft proposal. In realization, I referred to some articles and literature also. My supervisor has a very big role in this part. She criticized my draft and gave many homework to improve it better. Even in the end of this internship, the draft proposal has many unfinished corrections, I found my next work to improve the draft was lighter.


International Study
The idea to make this study came from my supervisor. She asked me to make an international study about region with renewable energy in 100% self sufficiency. In the beginning, this idea is great personal project. I like it very much. in the realization, I faced some problems. For example how to perform the result and how to compose some data become one single data. A valuable lesson I obtained from this part are:
- how to select and combine the data
- how to make any comment
- how to make any suggestion

Actually, selecting and combining the data are the easiest thing to do if the sources give the same information. In case some sources give different number of capacity or number of installation, it will be very difficult to be decided. The problem is I do not know the actual condition in the field. It is hard for me to decide which number of capacity should I follow and which number of installation should I refer to. I thought, this is the weakness of study literature

Making comment and suggestion are also a challenging task for me. In this part, I try to give a useful and wise comment and suggestion. I did this in the reason I do not know the exactly situation also in the region. I only could give comment and suggestion based on some facts I had collected in my site. I look this chance as an opportunity because I am still a student, and this student is still learning. In case I made a mistake, then it should be turn back to a fact that I am a student which is still learning. From my point of view, I see this international study as a way for me to learn by other method. In fact, even this site is not the best ever, I have learned much.


Website of Internship

One fact about website is I do not know how to make a website before, but I want to have this website. So I said to my supervisor, I wanted to make the report of internship in the website. My reason to make this website is sharing experiences and insights I gained from this internship. There are three requirements from my supervisor about this website:
1. The website should be accessible by everyone
2. It should be online without time limit
3. It should be in the form like a formal report.

Creating and designing a website, even I am not a master of this field is not difficult. Of course I had searched many information about it. The result, I have this website now. This website had many transformation from the first version up to now. The background why I should to change so much time because I have to fulfill two of three requirements above. In the first version, I had created one with personal address (http://fingernote.co.cc), but it could be online free for one year. Then I changed the website and searched any other possibility to give an online and free website without time boundary. My choice came to this site. Many articles I had read give suggestion to choose this site. In the process of building and designing the website, I found that it is easier to be done and also it still gives many space to make personal creativity. I do not feel this site give any limitation to the design, in the other hand many facilities can be used easily and free also without any problem. This site also gave suggestion how to build and design the website. And also they give suggestion to publish the website without pay anything.

After creating and building this website, the next task is filling the content and start to write the report. As I ever say about writing, it is not easy. But I have done this website and I have finished it also. I have finished my task.


Next to Conclusion and Suggestion

Back to International Study



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