Professional growth and human enrichment

After a three-month stage at the Permanent Representation of the Italian Republic to the EU Institutions, in Brussels, my next destination was Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia. I was hosted by EDAS a.s., a consulting company.

Work environment is international, dynamic, highly trained. For me it was very interesting and stimulating. Since the beginning I understood that experiences such as this do help you grow professionally, learn more and more new things, and get enriched in human terms. My colleagues always provided generous and useful suggestions and recommendations about work and social life in Slovakia. After a few days they became very good friends.

During my first internship month I was engaged in an intense phase of study, deeper understanding, and comparative monitoring of employment regulations in the European, Italian, and Slovak bodies of laws. It was a preparative phase for my second phase, i.e. drawing up a juridical-sociological-anthropological publication about Italian workers acting in Slovakia. My researches included several visits and interviews in companies and offices where Italian citizens are working.

During all those months I tried to get acquainted as much as possible with the place I was living in.

I regularly had lunch and dinner with local workers and lived with them. I had a chance to read the newspapers and watch TV to get informed about local news. I also attended some hockey games, the national sport of this country. I travelled a lot. I went to different trips and excursions with new friends. This experience also shaped my human side and my character.

At the end of the internship, EDAS managers asked me to continue our cooperation.

My very positive experience in this country in the middle of Europe will go on with different tasks and functions. I am aware that I still have to learn a lot. I know I will have to be humble but also tenacious, showing willingness to help whenever needed. There will always be some colleagues who will teach me new things or who will need my help.

I don’t think people travel to go back. I believe that everyone – boys and girls who left their place or will leave their place through the Leonardo Program – will never go back to the point they started from; because, in the meanwhile, every one of us has changed. Our life is enriched.

As Proust writes in his In Search Of Lost Time: «The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes».

Dr. Lucio Manocchio