MBA Thrills: Did anyone say “the Panama Canal”…?!

While entertaining a few options for my summer internship, I received an invitation from Dell Inc. to be interviewed for a position in Latin America. “Why not?”, I thought; it won’t hurt to hear what they have to offer. ..

I landed in Panama on June 22nd. Since it was my first time here, my expectations were a mix of the known and the unknown. I chose to come here due to several reasons but I was far from being able to know how many of them would materialize.

Today, four days before I will pack my things and head-back to the “Music Capital of the World” I feel it was a good choice. The combination of working on an interesting, multi-national project, living in a Spanish-speaking country and getting to know the people and culture of Panama, has been more than I could have asked for as a summer experience. Add to that a trip to Amsterdam, an amazing home-visit in Israel and a trip to a friend’s wedding in Mexico, and this summer can be called nothing but GREAT.

Panama isn’t as famous as some of its neighbors (Costa-Rica, Colombia and Guatemala). Nevertheless, it has a lot to offer, both from a business and a touristic point-of-view. It is becoming a hub for Latin America and a gateway for American Businesses. Having a significant US influence, Panama is more easily accessible than other countries in the region.

The touristic destinations here are awesome: Bocas del Toro (a Caribbean paradise) , the Taboga Island , the Grand Island (Isla Grande), the San-Blas Islands (populated by indigenous Indians), the Pearl Islands, and, of course: The Canal. All of us have heard about it, but the amazing thing is that, until I actually went to see it, I wasn’t aware of how it works.

At Dell, my project is basically done and was a great opportunity to expose myself to some of the challenges facing a global company in developing a market. Dell’s site in Panama is one of its biggest in the world and serves countries from Canada in the north to Argentina in the south. My project was approved for implementation and it is going to be exciting to hear that I was able to contribute to an improvement of Dell’s operations in the region.

Working in a Spanish-speaking country has obviously enabled me to significantly improve my Spanish and bring it to an advanced level. I have taken-on the challenge of convincing my colleagues that I am “worthy” of being spoken to in Spanish and, once that was achieved, I was able to manage meetings, conference calls and even presentations in Spanish. Now I will have the challenge of continuing my Spanish education: reading, speaking with my Spanish-speaking classmates and with my Colombian side of the family.

My summer internship has been a great combination of working in a global company and being exposed to a new business market. It would be interesting to see when, down the line, will this knowledge come-in handy. Now, though, I should make sure that going home will not be a challenge in-and-of itself. Tropical storm “Dean” has upgraded itself to a Hurricane category and is expected to cross my path home. We were told that summer internship may turn-out to be challenging, but I don’t remember that natural disasters were mentioned…