IU senior Katie Rodwell broke out of her comfort zone this past summer by not only living in Ireland but by starting a new internship as well.
Rodwell is a psychology major, with a business minor and she spent her summer in Dublin, Ireland working for Redtree Recruitment where she was able to put her skills to the test, gain new ones, and create relationships along the way.
Redtree Recruitment is a recruitment firm that recruits for specific job sectors such as HR, IT, law, insurance, and more.
“I was a recruitment administrator intern,” said Rodwell. “I learned about resume sourcing, writing job descriptions, preparing people for interviews, and my main task was GDPR compliance.”
With the assistance of the IU Office of Overseas Study and an IES Abroad internship coordinator, Rodwell was able to find an internship that met her personalized criteria based on her resume along with participating in a mock interview.
“The coordinators are guaranteed to find you a position, but they make sure it is one you truly want to participate in,” said Rodwell. “All of the positions are going to be effective learning experiences and not just a paper-pusher job.”
Throughout her internship, she applied her skills from previous classes that she completed at IU.
“K201 definitely helped me because I had to use excel spreadsheets and nested IF functions,” said Rodwell. “IU has provided me with a breadth of knowledge because of the number of different classes they offer, which have all been transferable in some way.”
Along with acquiring the hands-on work experience, Rodwell gained guidance with the help of her supervisor and co-workers during her time at Redtree Recruitment.
“Throughout my two months in Ireland, my supervisor Noreen O’Keeffe, and my co-workers Mia Hutchinson and Denise Grant, offered me a lot of advice career-wise, travel-wise, and taught me a lot about the Irish culture,” said Rodwell.
Work was an important aspect of her summer, but she had the opportunity to partake in out-of-the-office activities as well through her internship program.
“I did a tour of their national sports arena where they host their National Gaelic games of Gaelic Football and Hurling/Camogie, and I also did a trip to Belfast Northern Ireland," said Rodwell. "That was fun because I got to meet people in my program that I didn’t work or live with, and they gave us a lot of opportunities to interact with all of the students in the program including non-IU students.”
She highly recommends not only participating in an internship but traveling to a country you aren’t familiar with.
“Overall, I gained great job experience and skills, but I did learn a lot about myself and about being more independent and more open-minded because you’re living in a different culture and community," said Rodwell.
If you are interested in receiving the same opportunity, view the IU Office of Overseas Study website to see your options, along with the IES internship program.
