Internship experience with TRANSPOREON GROUP Americas 2014 Martin Unglert
Table of Contents: 1. Housing... 3 2. Work experience... 4 3. Travelling experience... 6 4. Conclusion... 8 Experience Internship Martin Unglert Page 2
1. Housing When I first arrived in the US, I stayed at a hotel I had booked from Germany in order to have some time to find a nice place to stay during my internship. As I work with a small German based company they could not provide me with any housing. I was looking for a nice place to rent for myself and I had a good experience with the website www.craigslist.org, as there are a lot of housing opportunities listed. I realized that renting a room or apartment close to my office is not as cheap as I expected it when I was looking for it from Germany. I really appreciated my company was providing me a car for the time of my internship, because I was able to schedule appointments to see the different houses and drive myself to the appointments. After my experience here, I would definitely recommend anyone coming to the US should visit the home in person before booking something online. It took me about two weeks before I found a nice place in Manayunk. Manayunk is a surburb of Philadelphia, which is about 35 minutes away from my office by car. I really appreciated living with three American roommates in a house with a My first rental car in the US shared kitchen, living room, bathroom and separate sleeping rooms. I benefited from living with three roomates by having the opportunity to meet their friends. I was also able to improve my English significantly as I was forced to communicate in English all of the time. Furthermore, we became very good friends and we did a lot of activities together. For example, we took trips to Ocean City, NJ. We celebrated Thanksgiving with my roommates' family in Pittsburgh and attended some of my other roomates shows to watch him act. We had a good time while cooking German and American meals, also celebrating birthday parties with them. These were all unforgettable experiences. Bavarian flair at Ocean City We were also celebrating the 4th of July together. Here I saw the biggest fireworks display I have ever seen and also attended my first All-you-can-eat Icecream Festival. Finally 13 balls of ice cream... Experience Internship Martin Unglert Page 3
2. Work experience Before I started my work with the Transporeon Group Americas, I also did a two month internship in Germany at their headquarters. Their main product, which I was responsible for, is a webbased platform to connect shippers and carriers in the logistics business. As the office in the US was just established in 2011, they did not have a shipper consultant in the US until now. I was introduced to this position and was able to support our customers when they had any questions regarding how to use the software or how to set up a tender in order to recieve the best freight rates for their company. Originally, this job was done from the German headquarters. Due to the time difference, this was not the best solution. Our customers in the US appreciated having a contact person available at their regular office hours. As a result, our CEO has already hired an American to replace me when I return to Germany. Because I received very good training, I was able to explain the system to our customers, do online-trainings with them The office and support our sales team when they showed the system to interested companies. I also got the chance to fly to Chicago for an on-site meeting with my colleague. We met one of our customers face to face which was very advantageous for a big project that I supported later with them. I also became very good friends with our CEO and my co-workers. We had some beers after working hours and also had lunch together often. One of the highlights during my stay was definitely the bike ride with my colleague Mike from Philadelphia to Atlantic City. It is normally expensive to join this annual ride, which supports fallen police officers family members. My colleague helped me to convince our CEO to sponsor my entree fee to enable me to participate in this unforgettable experience. The ride had over Riding the Ben Franklin Bridge 2,000 riders and a police convoy. During this 65 miles ride, I met a lot of Mike s friends and family members that also joined the ride and even more of them when we arrived at our destination in Atlantic City, where so many people were welcoming and cheering us. After the ride we had an awesome party there and were celebrating in bars and casinos. This was the beginning of many other great nights with those unbelievable guys. I also attended a big 80's themed party with a rented schoolbus to bring us from bar to bar. We had German cooking nights, unforgetable birthday parties and a Philadelphia Eagles game. Arrived in Atlantic City Unforgettable 80's party Experience Internship Martin Unglert Page 4
Awesome ride in the mountains I was also invited to visit Mike s house in the mountains where we had so much fun with a bonfire, smoked ribs (the best ones I've ever had!), and much more. I also had a really good time when I attended a Linkin Park concert with my coworker, Allyson, in Camden. I will never forget my ride to this place as I decided, in German manner, to take the bike instead of my car and had serious trouble getting home as the Ben Franklin Bridge was closed at night for pedestrians and bikers. I ended up having to wait for a bus in Camden for 45 minutes and ride my bike home from the bus stop. Linkin Park in Camden (NJ) Experience Internship Martin Unglert Page 5
3. Travelling experience I was lucky to successfully negotiate some vacation time during my stay here. This enabled me to fly to the west coast with my girlfriend when she came to visit me. We had a really good time when we rented a car and saw a lot of the beautiful nature. After arriving in Salt Lake City and gaining a good impression of this old city, we headed out to Alpine, which is close to the Grand Teton Nationalpark. We Yellowstone National Park were suprised by snow in September, which did not discourage us from hiking around a beautiful lake. The next day we went further to the Yellowstone National Park with it s impressive geysers and canyons. We also saw a lot of awesome rocks and a beautiful scenery at our next stop which was at Arch Canyon in Canyon Grand Canyon Lands. The red rocks were also very fascinating. We met a lot of other tourists and realized that this trip only could have been topped by renting a camper or RV which would allow us to camp in the parks for an affordable price. Most hotels and motels there were very expensive. We also booked a tour to see the Antelope Canyon, which is a very impressive slot Bryce Canyon canyon and fantastic to take nice pictures. Of course, we also stopped at the Grand Canyon, but as it was more crowded there, we did not spend too much time. My personal favourite was the Bryce Canyon, which looks like a bunch of giant natural amphitheaters. We also stopped at the close, but very different Zion Nationalpark Antelope Canyon California Trees in Yosemite National Park with much more trees and green than Bryce Canyon, which had mostly rocks. After all that beautiful nature, our next stop was the destination for so many bachelorpartys and gamblers Las Vegas. We stayed at a casino hotel at the Strip, which Fountain show Las Vegas allows us to see the City from their most exciting perspective. Beside watching a great show by the Blue Man Group we also saw the gigantic water fountain show in front of the Bellagio and tried our luck at the casinos. It is really impressive to see this crazy city beside the Death Valley where nothing grows and the temperatures are extremely high. We also saw the Yosemite National Park with its gigantic trees. These trees are not imaginable if you haven t seen them with your own eyes. Experience Internship Martin Unglert Page 6
After two weeks, we reached our final destination in San Francisco where we explored the city, and of course, the Golden Gate Bridge as well as Lombard Street by bike. This was such an impressive vacation. I still can t believe that we experienced this in such a short amount of time. We saw so many completely different types of landscapes from geysers with temperatures of less than 30 degree, up to beautiful rocks, lakes, canyons and cities with more than 100 degree. I also got the chance to do another journey when my cousin came over from Germany two weeks later and we did a great trip up to the Finger Lakes (NY), where we got some bikes and rounded some of the lakes. Unfortunately, it was no longer that warm at this time but it was okay for riding the bikes. The Fall at Finger Lakes (NY) trees were so beautiful colored in the fall. We also did a lot of hiking and saw beautiful waterfalls and met a lot of very nice people, including my coworkers family in the mountains. From there we continued our journey to Michigan, where we have some distant relatives. We had an awesome weekend with them, as they celebrated their annual big party with all their friends on their house at a beautiful lake. First carved pumpkin Lighting boathouses along the Schuykill river in Philadelphia Experience Internship Martin Unglert Page 7
4. Conclusion It was a tough decision for me to leave my home area, my family and especially my girlfriend for this long time. But without exaggerating my time here was one of the best times I ever had in my whole life. Before I did this adventure, I could never imagine to leave my home area for a job or any other reason, as I have set up a really good network of friends at home in Germany and have many obligations with volunteering tasks. Before I came to the US, I had serious doubts if I will feel comfortable as I didn t know anybody here. But I was really surprised how easy it was for me to make new friends. I met a lot of great people through my roommates, while playing badminton, floorball, pickleball or joining the local bike club. I was riding my bike more than ever before, I even successfully completed a 100 miles bike ride with some friends from the Philly bike club. I was invited to awesome partys, was able to follow and celebrate the German and American soccer world cup games with my coworkers. I got the chance to play Laser Tag as Barney Stinson with my friends and celebrated my first Halloween with them. My work was exciting, my coworker called me a wizard because my Excel skills. His family loved me and invited me to all the holidays as Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years eve. My first car I got here was a Ford F-150 truck a real American car... I also had two Philly Cheese steaks and a hamburger on top for dinner. I once was talking to a German speaking customer and I forgot how to say something in German I switched to English as I felt more comfortable with it I felt like a true American after all these experiences. Alltogether my time here was unforgettable, awesome and my heart also beats for the US now. I will try to take this open minded attitude back to home and come back as often as possible to maintain the friendships that I ve made here. I m also looking forward to have them visiting me in Germany to show them also more about the German culture and especially the Bavarian culture. A special Vergelt s Gott (Bavarian for Thank you) to my colleague Mike, who was mainly responsible for me having such a great and unforgettable time here. I m happy to spend New Years Eve together with my girlfriend at Times Square in New York and having a legendary German goodbye party as culmination (where I already expect my colleague Mike s family coming with a whole bus...) Philadelphia, Dec. 9, 2014 Experience Internship Martin Unglert Page 8