9 to 5 Work Grind

,,Hallo Commerzbank. Sie sprechen mit Kirsten Brodeen"

Those words will be forever engraved into my memory. Whenever the phone rings at my office, those are the first words that come out of my mouth. That old fear of picking up to the phone and talking with strangers? Completely gone.

So what exactly am I doing?

I am currently an intern at Commerzbank AG, Germany's second largest bank. (I'm slowly collecting facts about the bank and spewing them out whenever possible.) 

 

Now that I have completed my third week there, I can finally explain what I'm doing and why I absolutely LOVE it!

What do I do there?

My internship gives me the chance to work in three branches of banking:

1) Wealth Management- this is where customers with large accounts come. Here, I'm learning banking 101 by working in the front and back office, learning about investment banking, credit and how to manage an account.

2) Flagshipfiliale- The innovative, "future" of banking. Think coffee shop meets bank. 

3) International Counter- Banking for diplomats and other international figures.

(more details to come about the last two...I'm still waiting to hear more.)

3 Weeks in, first impressions

Before I started this internship, I had never considered banking as a future career. I knew very little about the subject. However, my host mom insited that I do an internship in banking, stressing that it is international business in action. So why not give it a shot? 

Another perk is I get to wear a suit
to work and get the"Sie" case
when I eat or shop.

My office!
Located in the "Upper East Side" of Berlin:
Friedrichstrasse/ Unter den Linden
My office is first floor of windowss,
second one in from the left.

Currently I'm working in Wealth Management. Since I knew almost nothing about banking before hand, the past couple of weeks have been boot camp. My commute to/from work has become dedicated to learning all things bank...and in German. It has been pushing me to my limits, but I love the challenge. In order to keep up with the pace of the internship, I've been assigning myself homework. My "homework" has included reading articles on banking, understanding the terminology of banking, usually learning it in German first, then realizing what it is in English and keeping up with the stock market and latest news. It's been helping me put together and better understand  everything going on around me.                                                                    I've learned how to manage accounts, ranging from opening and closing accounts, to transferring money and everything in between. It's amazing understanding how the technology speeds up the process and makes money-regardless of amount- seems like just a number on a screen. I've also been really lucky and have been able to follow and help different workers. Working with Relationship Managers and Specialists in Investing Banking was a game changer...They're all incredibly nice and helpful, and have really taken me under their wing. I've been helping them communicate with their English speaking customers, and in turn, they've let go to meetings and on and off site appointments with customers and teach me how they do their job. Observing them and listening to them explain their jobs has been one of the greatest experiences yet. All of them are very experienced and successful in their fields, and so learning how they organize their day, manage their tasks and communicate with their customers has taught me more than words can express. Plus, I've really started to take an interest in investment banking. It's a primarily male dominated field, but at the bank, a woman is the head manager of it, and she sat down and took almost an entire day to explain the history (in particular the changes in 2001, 2008 and 2011) in the stock market and how it operates on an international level. To be in that profession, you have have to be incredibly sharp, keep up with the news and latest trends, understand politics and cultural relations, all while willing to take a risk (and accept failure and time.) That interests me and now I'm greatly looking into careers in that direction. We'll see how the rest of the internship plays and see if my interest continues to grow.

I'm not going to lie, this internship is incredibly challenging. Working 40+ hours/week is intense. That added on to working entirely in German is brutal. (I now truly value and love sleeping!) Nevertheless, I love having to work hard to prove myself and look forward to going in each day and learning something.

Lunch Break last week-
A few CBYXers and I got invited to a luncheon with the
head advisor to the Secretary of Education, Maureen McLauglin at the U.S. Embassy. 

Münster!

Halli Hallo!

Two weekends ago I took a trip down memory lane and visited Münster!

Münster!

It was amazing to take a spontaneous trip and visit some familiar faces in a city where my adventures in Germany all began.

Julius, my tennis buddy from when I studied abroad two years ago, was the birthday boy, and invited me along to celebrate in the festivities. It was the perfect excuse to take a last minute weekend trip! For the past couple of months, I have been trying to get back to Muenser to visit my friends and family there, but one thing after another, things kept falling through. But it finally worked out and it was an absolute  blast to be back in the city!

Picture with the birthday boy
We got absolutely no good pictures that night...

Directly after my first day of  work, I took a train to Muenster and arrived right when the party began. It was just like the good ol' times with Julius! We caught up, danced and talked a lot, and I also met his new friends from college. They're all studying law and just finished their finals and planned on celebrating all weekend! We all definitely succeeded at that!

I also met up with Caro, one of my best friends a couple of times there. We bounded right back into  talking like we used to and I got all caught up on the latest from our friend group, Most of them are away either in college or traveling the world. In fact, the majority of them are on a gap year too and one is working as an au pair nearby my college so we'll be able to meet up there in the fall! 

The highlight of the weekend was definitely seeing the Beckmanns again!

They are family to me. Our families go back decades to when my dad studied abroad in college and I have truly grown up with Jonas and Flemming. They're my big brothers! Since Jonas visited Colorado this summer, he and I have been debating what to call each other since we've been each others host siblings, exchange students and long time friends. We've tossed around calling each other cousins, my "brother from another mother" and a few others, but siblings sums him, Flemming and I up best.

It was great catching up with them. Not a lot has changed since I left though I did get a kick out of them still going to yoga and pilates (I used to drag them along to it...) Flemming is studying a lot for his Abitur (graduation) this spring and Jonas is doing his dual study and  the entire family still lives and breathes handball. A visit to them isn't complete without going to the market and going to a handball game! 

There was something special about visiting them this time though...there was a click that I hadn't quite had before. I'm not sure what it was but I  came back to Muenser and finally felt like 

 I finally accomplished the project I left incomplete. I was laughing, joking and talking  to them how I would talk to them in English, but in German. They knew me as a kid and how I normally speak at home and had a similar realization and celebrated in the success. 

Fun fact: I was on my tippy toes in this pic and they're all still a head taller than me