Michael Wu

I've always wanted to go abroad to experience a different culture. I chose Ireland because it is close to Europe and it has the rising Silicon Dock that is similar to the Silicon Valley here in the United States. I hope that I can gain a different perspective of the professional and technology culture in Europe.

The most interesting experience was actually the loose, relaxing work culture even in startups that has only 5 people. I find the inter-relationship between co-workers are really tight. I experienced almost no barrier of hierarchy

One of the biggest challenge I experienced is to work on my own. Working in a startup gave me a lot of autonomy, but this also means that I had to do my own research, draft my own plan of attack, before starting writing a program to that satisfy my supervisor's description. I think I responded well by writing him an update email every other day to inform me where I am in the project and he will always provide me feedback to make sure that no matter what I do, I will be on track.

I will get up at 8, have breakfast until 830, and then catch the bus at 845, arrive at work at around 930. Start my morning routing(checking email, greeting with coworkers and having a morning briefing conference), and then I will start coding or doing research until around 1300. I will then go to lunch with my co-workers at around 1300, have lunch until 1400. I will then come back to the office and work until 1730. Then, I will go to the supermarket across the street to purchase dinner, and bring it back to the dorm to cook it. And at night at around 2000, I will go to the gym until 2200. And before sleeping, I will do some of my online course work.

I took one online course that investigated and reflected my work environment, and another course that taught me the Irish culture. These courses are significantly easier than Berkeley Classes, but they are work intensive, especially after you worked for a full day and you had to do all the chores with homework.

I think going abroad to London, Munich and Amsterdam was my most memorable time abroad. It was some great trips that I would have never imagine myself embarking on unless I went abroad

I think I begin to view how work can be enjoyable, relaxing, and fun together with productivity. The different culture really helped me to build this sense up

Purchase your travel abroad ticket very early so that you get the greatest discount. Also don't try to go on Friday night, just go on Saturday morning and return on Sunday. Prepared to work really hard in the weekdays so that you have the weekends to yourself