Carolina Velasquez, Madrid Management Internship Program

Intern in Marketing Consultation at Grupo Consultores, Spring 2012

Internship: I worked at a marketing consulting company called Grupo Consultores in downtown Madrid researching and creating presentations about the current state and rankings of marketing, advertising, and media companies in Spain, Mexico, Brazil, and China.

I Learned: I learned a lot about the history, culture, government, and the economy of Spain that I could have never learned from a textbook or otherwise. Without actually being in that culture and in that country, it’s incredibly hard to grasp what it’s all about. I also learned that although we are worlds apart, people live and experience very much of the same things that we do in our daily lives.

Hardest Part: Finding out that the local Spanish university that I was studying at was actually going to be a lot more difficult than I had anticipated. The university setting is much different in Spain than in the U.S., and it was difficult to adapt to all the bureaucracy, teaching styles, and learning styles.

Best Part: The best part was getting the opportunity to explore a completely new world in which you are free to roam and immerse yourself in the culture as much or as little as your heart desires. Being able to say that you know your way around a country and a city that such little time ago was completely foreign to you is a pretty amazing feeling.