2DEGREES

UNITED KINGDOM

Vinaya Roehrl,St Peter’s College, First Year Undergraduate,MBiol Biology, Remote Working

Work Projects

My part-time internship at 2degrees was focused mainly on promoting sustainability and lowering the carbon footprint in supply chains. I worked on several projects with the Customer Service and Development Team and my tasks were very diverse; from website translating and doing an instructions video voice-over in Thai, to phoning and emailing suppliers, checking data, and writing short articles on environmental topics.

The main project during my internship was to help convince suppliers of Asda and the Co-op to submit environmental data to the company's platform. This meant taking on an administrative role to set up accounts and contacting representatives at companies by sending reminder emails. I would plough through a long list of contacts and record the progress of their data submissions. I was also there to answer questions customers had and helped explain the submission process. Even though it was a remote internship, it was always possible to reach someone via Slack or quickly hop on a video call to clarify any questions I had.

Daily Life

We had our daily team meeting in the morning where we would discuss the main tasks for the day. I would usually be working on two projects, but for the majority of my time I was contacting suppliers to ask them to join the company's programme. Sometimes, co-workers would contact me on Slack and ask me to help with other projects. My workday ended at 1pm as I only worked part-time and afterwards, I would cook or do some reading and go outside. Working from home was a bit stressful at times as I had frequent internet and audio problems, but my supervisor was very understanding, and I was always able to work something out.

Lasting Impressions

Overall, I am very happy to have had the opportunity to work with 2degrees and their team, they were very supportive and welcoming. Even though I really wished that the internship would have been in person, I learned that working remotely is also doable. Most of all, I was very happy to be able to put my language skills (German and Thai) to use. I definitely improved my communication skills, not only by contacting representatives at many companies but also staying in touch with co-workers, so that our work did not overlap, and we formed an efficient unity. This was not an easy task due to the remote working, but it was beneficial in improving my team-work skills.

I was also introduced to many new platforms and technologies which I had never heard of before. The experience has definitely helped develop my work ethic. In terms of career ambitions, I am now confident that going into academia is not the only viable path for me. I would also be happy working in a company like 2degrees as this experience showed me that contributing to sustainability and the environment in any way is a very rewarding thing in general.

Lena Depner,Pembroke College, Final Year Undergraduate,BA Experimental Psychology,Remote Working

Work Projects

I worked at Manufacture 2030 which evolved out of 2Degrees. Their product is a software that manufacturing sites can use to reduce their environmental footprint. I was part of the customer success team together with three other interns.

The main tasks revolved around two client campaigns, one with Asda and one with Honda. We were involved in communicating with their suppliers and support them in using our product. This included calling suppliers, writing many emails, as well as keeping track of our communication in Excel and Customer Relations Management software. Additionally, we got an insight into technical aspects behind the software and were tasked with researching about carbon factors. We also produced content around sustainability and food related issues for a client website, where we had much freedom to choose topics that we were interested in.

We received great support from the team. Everyone was very friendly and helpful, and through many video training calls they made sure that we had all the knowledge and training to get going within the first week. We had daily video calls with the whole customer success team, where everyone would summarize their tasks from the last day and the To-Do items on the list for the new day. Within these calls, we always had the opportunity to clarify things and ask for explanations. They were also great to get an idea what was happening around the company. Most of our communication happened via Slack which made it very easy to ask for help, despite the remote working situation.

Daily Life

On a good day, I got up early and went for a run with a friend before getting ready for work. I had a shower, breakfast and usually tidied up my workspace before starting at 9am. Due to the time difference from Germany, where I lived, and the UK, where the company is based, I always had an hour before our team call at 9am UK time, i.e. 10am German time. I made a time plan for the day and created a to do list to keep track of my tasks. I did make sure I would have a few conscious breaks to my workday. These consisted of either making cups of tea, going for a short walk or doing 10 minutes of Yoga.

In my free time in the evening, we sometimes had virtual drinks with colleagues on a Friday night. Other than that, I sometimes met up with friends or family or went rowing. There were bad days as well when I would not be super productive and feel bad about myself. In these situations, the remote working situation felt like a very big obstacle, because I think in a personal work environment these motivational holes are avoided by having other people around. In the internship, I tried to get out of these motivational holes by taking active breaks, i.e. walking or Yoga.

Lasting Impressions

I enjoyed the internship a lot and was surprised by how welcome I felt and how well I got to know the colleagues although the internship was completely remote. I gained a lot of experience in drafting professional emails and calling a large number of people. During the course of the two months I noticed that I became a lot more confident in these things, and it was nice to feel responsible for a client. I also learned many things about data processing, especially within Google Sheets, which I actually found interesting and I believe it will be useful in the future.

Although I never considered Marketing before, I also developed an interest in this direction and could get some insights into the Marketing and Sales processes. Most importantly, I enjoyed working in sustainability, for a company that contributes to mitigating climate

change. I am especially grateful for this opportunity, because I felt my background in Psychology would never allow me to enter this field. The internship strengthened my desire to work in sustainability or climate change related fields. It also made me realize how much I enjoy communicating with people in my day to day job.