International Conference in Istanbul – Turkey

The last 2 weeks of August I went to my 5^th AIESEC International Conference, this time at Istanbul – Turkey playing a completely different role. I was not part of AIESEC anymore; I was company representative… hehehe, very strange. It was the first time that I missed AIESEC and I realized that I am no part of it anymore but it is just the changing processJ.

The best thing about the conference was to see many friends from all over the world that I was not expecting to see them again and be together with Svitlana. The worse part was please those senior people from the company with many silly requirements but the experience was great. I learn a lot about these senior people and I could meet some from different big companies.

Other important chapter of my business trip to Istanbul was going to the FORMULA 1 RACE. It is unbelievable how noisy the cars are, how great is to attend a world sport event as formula 1. We were just in front of the start point with gold tickets. Filipe Massa, the Brazilian from Ferrari, won the race and I bought a t-shirt from Ferrari with his name and the Brazilian flag.

The country is very different from what I was eexpecting. After going to Egypt I was expecting an Islamic conservative country but what I found was a very open and modern country. The city is beautiful and full of people with western clothes, behaviors and mentality. See the golden gate, the bridge which connect the European and Asiatic continent were also very interesting.

The fun part !!!

I live with 6 people in the house. Elias and his wife Fernanda, Daniel from Colombia, Adela from Czech Republic and I share a room with Marcelo from Brazil, a very good friend. The people are very cool and we have a lot of fun together. We did 2 Brazilian barbecue, one in the house and one the beach that were very successful, we went to the most amazing nightclub complex called Hard Rock, we went to movies, we went to Saw grass Mills many times and of course to the beach !!! We also get together with trainees in Kraft Foods in “bigger social events”. They are very cool people as well.

I can have fun in simple conversations at home, remembers funny stores in MC time in Brazil together with Elias, remember good parties and Carnival in Brazil, and just making jokes from our daily life. The house environment is quite cool and funny.

I am doing many things that I really like that I didn’t have time before. I am reading a lot, have time to reflect, time to write a blog and communicating with friends, call my family, taking care of my personal life.

Everything is exactly what I was looking for in this experience !!!

How does it look like living and working in the US, specifically in Florida

The place is everything I have dreamed about in terms quality life. First of all the work culture is quite different from Latin America and from the one I used to have in AIESEC. Before I used to work between 10 to 12 hours a days, lead an average of 150 to 200 people, work at almost all weekends, do not have time to eat and sleep properly.

In the US people really respect the 8 daily work hours and if you stay more than that you are seem as not competent enough to finish your task on time, unfocused or workaholic. So I work 8 hours a day, I never work at weekends, I sleep minimum 8 hour a day and I have breakfast, lunch and dinner everyday !!!! I have much less amount of task and I can go to the swimming pool after work at home.

So in the first month I was 4 kilos more and all people that saw me was really impressed how I was recovered, looking more healthy after jut one month. I am doing acne treatment, using professional shampoo and when I buy my car I will start the gym with a personal trainer. But it doesn’t mean that I am becoming a metro sexual.

The life is very convenient and the prices and incredible good. So you can do less effort because you have machines to do everything for you in a very accessible price. Also all the fancy branded clothes are very accessible so after more then 2 years without buying clothes I am changing my closet.

The weather is very hot as I really like, the sun is always shining, the beach is close and you have air conditioning in every place. The palms and lakes are everywhere, the houses are beautiful and everything is clean and organized. These are specificities from Florida, the Caribbean in the developed world !!!

My profesional internship experience at DHL US

After almost 5 years working at AIESEC aiming to provide leadership experience, a learning environment and professional exchange opportunities to young talented people I went to my next step: go for a professional exchange experience myself !!!

I was planning to go to Europe but a very important person in my life, my mentor Elias, was the one who called me on Friday to talk about other issue and mentioned the opportunity at DHL in the US. It was not Europe but it was in Miami, in the beach, living in a house with a swimming pool, big and very interesting company, HR, I would still be somehow related to AIESEC and go to International Conference. So I decided to apply on Sunday as many people decided but fortunately I got the job.

I am responsible to coordinate the internship programs in the US that are four: the local internship (estagio normal), the MBA program, the Coop program and I am also responsible to coordinate the AIESEC program in the whole Americas region.

Until now I love the job role, the company, the people from my department and specially my boss. People are very suportative and very welcoming. Together with corporate responsibility HR is the subject I most like in business administration so I am sure this experience will be very rewarding and decisive to my future.

Bellow you can find some pictures that illustrate my professional experience.

The building that I work and me going to work in front of my new house !!!