Exploring 西班牙's 业务 Culture During a Summer Internship in 巴塞罗那

我现在正处于我的 与CEA CAPA在巴塞罗那进行为期八周的全球宝博体育计划! 过去的四个星期, I’ve been working with a creative marketing and advertising company on their strategic team. I've been researching different markets to see what other companies are doing in terms of their campaigns and initiatives. 从这个, we learn what makes them successful and how we use that to create a better strategy for our client. While I love the team that I get to work with and the job itself, I’ve noticed a few differences in culture that I wasn’t expecting.

在我开始宝博体育之前, I took a half-semester course at Ohio State that went over what to expect from our 在国外宝博体育 从全球商业的角度来看. We learned about different greetings around the world and how business practices differ around the world, 来自日本, to 澳大利亚, to 法国，到美国。.S. Even though every internship experience is different, after being at my 巴塞罗那宝博体育 三个星期以来，我想分享一些西班牙vs. 我注意到的美国商业差异.

商业的步伐

Before arriving here, one of the aspects of Spanish culture that I continued to hear about was the 午睡. 据我所知，a 午睡 是几个小时的下午, 通常在最热的时候, 当每个人都从工作中休息，回家小睡. This made it seem like the pace of Spanish life and business in general was very relaxed and slow. 然而，我注意到情况正好相反. 我的公司早上9点上班.m. 到下午6点.m. and some people even choose to eat their lunch at their desks to continue working. Another contrast to the slow pace of life outside of work is that when people are walking to work on the metro or down the street they are speed walking. I find myself wanting to keep up with their speed and end up out of breath by the time I get to my internship. I’ve found myself enjoying the fast pace of business here as it's similar to what I've experienced in the U.S.

灵活性

尽管商业的步伐可能很快, I still find that the overall structure for my internship is much more flexible than what I’m used to. 在家里, 根据我的经验, there’s more of an emphasis placed on arriving at the office at exactly 9 a.m. 一直待到下午5点.m. 准时地. There also tends to be more structure when it comes to working specific days of the week remotely. 在我的宝博体育中，我发现人们在9点到6点之间上班.m. 10 a.m. each day and stay until their work is done, whatever time that may be. I also can decide which days of the week I work remotely as late as the morning of, 只要我和我的上司说清楚就行. This flexibility gives me more free time to grow closer with the other students on my program and explore 巴塞罗那. 现在，这只是我在我的公司的经历，所以 其他的宝博体育生 可能会有不同的经历.

协作

在美国.S.在美国，小隔间曾经是工作场所非常常见的景象. In many places, people would go into the office and work independently for a majority of their time. 然而最近, 我注意到许多公司正在转向更加开放, 联合办公空间，而不是小隔间. At my internship, they use this type of open floor plan because it allows for more collaboration. 不管是什么时候, the office is filled with the chatter of people sharing different ideas for their projects. Every assignment that I’ve received so far hasn’t just been mine or my supervisor’s, 而是更大合作的一部分. I’ve really enjoyed getting to meet so many different people and seeing different perspectives through working this way.

创业公司

The last thing that I noticed about the business culture here in 巴塞罗那 in contrast to what I’m accustomed to in the U.S. 是我们所服务的企业的规模吗. My company has around 30 people in the 巴塞罗那 office which is considered large to some of my friends in the program whose companies only have 10 employees. 当然, I am keeping in mind that these are just the size of the companies that we have been placed in through this CEA CAPA全球宝博体育项目 and may not be representative of 巴塞罗那 as whole; this is just my experience. 然而, 巴塞罗那以创业公司而闻名, so it's really fascinating to see how small companies started and continue to grow over time.

艾比·斯潘根伯格是23年夏季的官方博主, 经常在我们的博客上分享她的故事. 在俄亥俄州立大学主修化学工程, 她这学期在巴塞罗那留学宝博体育. All views expressed are her own and may or may not reflect the experiences of other students.