Work

I had to do so-called stope reconciliation (analysis of actual blasting and output with respect to planned output) of already blasted chambers in a given mining block. It was a demanding task with a lot of responsibility since I had to gather data from very different departments with different business goals. It taught me how to carry out my work with different approaches from a social perspective since it was, in the end, a team effort.

Experience

My accomodation was provided by the company and I tried my best to socialize with colleagues as well as with other trainees, that were in Ireland at that time. The IAESTE summer reception offered many opportunities to experience the country in a very friendly environment. I learned a lot of new things about Ireland since it was possible to dig deeper than it would be by visiting the usual tourist routes and destinations.

Discover

I learned that the same thing can be viewed in different angles and can be interpreted in even more ways. I had to give up on believing, that my education was the only right way or "gold standard" in some form and that everything I studied is always based on facts only. It turned out, that there is a lot of philosophy in mining engineering, that has to be considered when thinking about a particular task in the field. I had to learn, that I can't work with a static viewpoint, but rather have to relearn everything in a dynamic way so that I can adapt to a common baseline, that is present in a company. This would not have been possible if I had worked in my home country only.