Program Overview
I was fortunate enough to participate in the Global Alumni Mentorship Program offered through Fisher’s Alumni Undergraduate Mentorship Program. This provided a solid alternative to the study abroad program.
The program involved weekly meetings over the course of 3 months where my mentor and I discussed a variety of topics including the cultural, professional and ethical similarities and differences between our cultures – Spain and the Midwest of the United States. Although I haven’t been to Madrid before, I have spent some time in Barcelona, so I could speak on some elements that I remember about Spanish culture. My mentor had spent a Semester at Fisher College of Business, so we had plenty to discuss what he thought about his experience in the US.
Throughout my life, I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of mentors that I’ve learned quite a lot from. However, most of those mentors grew up in similar cultures to my own. The Global Mentorship Program offered a fantastic, novel experience to connect two disparate cultural backgrounds in a mentor/mentee setting. During our last scheduled meeting, we both agreed how happy we were to have connected. We planned that we will continue to reach out and check in with each other via WhatsApp and Zoom meetings.
Pre-Program Reflection
Like many other students seeking to study abroad during the past couple years, my plans for spending time abroad were also put on hold. I originally was aiming for a semester at La Universidad Pontifica Comillas in Madrid, Spain, but every time I could have reasonably attended the program, it was cancelled. I would have been able to go in the Spring of 2022, but at the expense of an on-time 4 year graduation. I made a judgement call, as I figured I could get a jump start on my career and then pivot into a global assignment sometime in the future.
Prior to engaging in this peer mentor program, I was a bit disheartened that I didn’t have the option of living and studying abroad for 3 months. With that said, I was still eager for some form of a global experience, and I was extremely glad to have been presented with the opportunity to have a global mentor working professional from Madrid to connect with.
Going into the mentorship sessions, I was particularly intrigued about the concepts of the acceptance of globalization and certain controversies surrounding the EU. With ongoing event such as Brexit and some mass migrations into EU countries, I was eager to learn more about his opinion on the situation. Additionally, from his LinkedIn experience, I was aware that he was currently in the consulting industry. I was curious to learn more about the relative working hours in Spain, as I know first hand from friends and family about the considerable work load in consulting in the US. I would be remiss if I didn’t ask about the cultural differences, including the stereotype of Spaniards being more “personable” as compared to the “straight to business” mentality of Americans. I had these general thoughts going in, but I was careful to both phrase my questions with consideration and to maintain an open mind to ideas that might challenge these perceptions.
In order to prepare for this setting, I made sure I always had the best virtual meeting setup. Now that virtual meetings have become such a big part of our lives, I strongly suggest investing in a decent virtual setup. A full HD webcam and microphone will cost you no more than $80 on Amazon, but I can assure you, the return on investment is outstanding. I landed all my job offers through virtual interviews, and I have a strong hunch that my HD setup and crystal clear voice helped in the process. If you are to be viewing someone through a screen, it is best to have a great microphone and an HD camera to do it with – it really makes the best out of the virtual environment.
What I see on Zoom
How others view me on Zoom
While on Program Reflection
Our first meeting went extremely well. I thought it would be best for the first call to be very casual – I didn’t want to overwhelm him with a bunch of questions right off the bat. We meshed really quickly as we learned more about each other’s family and general life story and education history. We also quickly picked up on the basics of each other’s values, and I think we realized that we are both somewhat ambitious and have high goals for our futures. The majority of the conversation was in English, although we did speak at the end briefly in Spanish, so I could give my mentor the opportunity to gauge my Spanish-speaking ability. He was actually quite surprised that I had only learned Spanish from school, but I reminded him that I also have had considerable practice outside of school and have been studying the language for a very long time. We ended up sticking to English for most of our conversations as his English was quite strong, and he mentioned that he loved getting English practice.
At first, we had a little difficulty sticking to a schedule of meeting virtually once a week. We were communicating strictly through email, which sometimes we forgot to check. He mentioned that we could use WhatsApp, a great alternative for international messaging. After we made the switch, we had no problem getting notified of schedule conflicts or meeting time changes, as we were instantly notified of updates on our phones. For any future mentees in this program – I strongly recommend connecting with your mentor via WhatsApp.
After the first meeting, I started to ask a few questions about Spanish Culture. I was really curious about the home life situation, and I was surprised to find out that it is actually quite common for Spanish youth fresh out of university to live with their parents for some time into their careers. There is somewhat of an expectation, at least in my family, that once you graduate that it’s expected of you to move out of the house and become more independent, so it was quite interesting to see that cultural difference.
Another point he mentioned was how great and widespread the use of public transportation in Madrid, so much so that many people don’t even have a car. One of the primary factors that influences this is the high cost of gasoline, upwards of 7 dollars per gallon pre Ukraine-Russia conflict. Additionally, there are limits on the horsepower that vehicles can have in Spain, which therefore limits the carbon emissions into the atmosphere. If I am to accomplish my goal of contributing to combat climate change, It’s imperative to understand the current efforts around the world – so it was great to get this first-hand perspective.
Eventually in the later meetings we really got into topics such as Leadership, Ethics and Globalization in the Spanish Business world. The insights were fascinating, and I will explore them with you in the following section.
Post-Program Reflection
I learned so much during my mentorship program, so it is a bit difficult to boil down all that I’ve learned in just three key takeaways. However, If I had to choose, here are the following biggest pieces of information I’ve learned that made me think, challenged my perspectives, or surprised me:
- Despite my desire to spend time abroad and see the world outside the United States, there are plenty of people trying to get into the US for a variety of reasons – including higher wages and more opportunities.
- There is a much greater emphasis on work-life balance, even in competitive work heavy industries such as consulting. It is rare to have work days longer than 10 hours in Spain.
- Amazon is just as big in Spain as it is in the United States – Free 2-day shipping and all. I knew that Amazon was a global company, but I didn’t realize they had as strong of a presence in Europe as they did in the US.
Another detail that didn’t fit in my top three is the fact that in Spain, if you leave a property unattended for two months and people move in to your house, you can’t just kick them out. This is a huge difference from the United States, where if someone is on your private land, you have the right to call the police and have them removed from your property. In Spain, it is completely different – individuals have a constitutional right to find housing, so if they make your unattended “house” their home, they have a right to live there, and it’s a huge process to get them out.
So how did the above takeaways shape me and my own perceptions and decisions going forward?
I think that I gained a greater appreciation for the benefits and drawbacks of living in both countries: the US and Spain. In the professional setting, Spain indeed has a greater focus on relationship building and connecting with their clients, more so than that of the United States. This was a stereotype that I had going in – the “Straight to business” American mentality – but it was confirmed in my conversations with my mentor. Additionally, the work life in consulting in Spain is on paper about 9-7 Monday – Thursday and 9-3 on Fridays. This averages to about no more than 9 hours of actual work Mon-Friday and only 5-6 on Fridays. I can speak first hand from my Sister, a management consultant in New York, who works Monday through Friday every day and no fewer than 11-12 hours per day.
With that said, there are benefits to working in the United States, including higher paying jobs. My mentor mentioned that there is some general political dissatisfaction at the low salaries in Spain. This is causing a lot of the engineering and other high talent from Spain to leave to go to Germany and other countries with higher salaries. Due to the Spanish culture of living at home and low expenses through the use of public transportation, the lower salaries are manageable for people working in Spain. However, it is something to note for people interested in moving and working there for a time.
These conversations were highly informative, as I’ve grown to appreciate some benefits and drawbacks of working in both places. To summarize, Spain on average may have better work-life balance and public services (transportation, healthcare, etc.) but may offer less high paying jobs than in the US. In the end, my mentor mentioned his long term goal of making his way into the US both living and working, just as I am looking to get that experience abroad one day. I know that we will both have a great connection to reach out to no matter what our future holds.