Visiting Katharina at her workplace

Hello Katharina! What is exactly your role in the company where you attend your placement?

I work at a company called Lasa. It is a charity which does training consultants for other companies. For my daily routine I work a lot with the PC. I sort the incoming letters by name, by date and by other criteria; I probably do secretary work. As far as I am concerned they trust in me and give me a lot of responsibility. I work with their database and their courseware which have to be treated as confidential.

Sounds great, I am impressed! What are your achievements so far and what were the challenges in your first weeks? How did you manage them? Are there still some of them left?

My biggest achievements so far are the facts that I can speak a lot of English every day and that I got to know a lot of new people at my workplace who became friends of mine. I can get a whiff of what it is like to work in a charity company and I really have to admit that I like the work of Lasa. At the very beginning it was hard to speak another language than my mother tongue (I speak German and Russian). Nevertheless my colleagues are so nice and supporting, they always help me with words I do not understand at all and translate them into easier ones. So I communicate a lot. I cannot think about a challenge that is left yet.

So is it right that I took the view that your cooperation with your colleagues and management is amazing?

Yes, in deed! I have to say that my boss is extremely pleased with my work. I am very proud of myself!

What are your plans for the rest of the placement to get the most out of it?

I am attending voluntarily an English course for two hours after my work every day. I want to improve my English skills as best as I can in these eight weeks. In the future, I definitely would like to return to London and work here as an au-pair for probably a year. One day, I can maybe work for Lasa again. I fell in love with London and my life dream would be to live and work here. In my opinion this imagination is manageable; you only have to work hard enough!