miércoles, 15 de julio de 2009

My Interview in Murcia

One July afternoon, I received a call from the Spanish branch of Hero, a Swiss condiment company. I would have an interview with them in Murcia via Alicante. That morning, I woke up and flew to my first completely Spanish interview. This was a lucid indicator of how far I had come from my stay in Spain. Not only with my Spanish, but with my life.

The interview would last all day, and consist with a few interviews with Marketing Directors, and HR personnel, and hours of IQ and Psychological tests. Everything was in Spanish, and I although I found the personality tests interesting, it took a while to fully understand each of the 80 mini situations written in colloquial Spanish. The timed IQ tests consisted of Spanish word jumbles and spatial puzzles which I found mostly ridiculous and sometimes infuriating.

At the end of the interview, the driver took me on a tour of the city, but I had already made my decision. I would not be taking the job. Although the people were nice, and the company was respectful, it was not what I wanted. I learned that I would spend 1 year in a small Spanish town for an internship before moving to a permanent position in Albany, New York. And to be honest, I didn’t want to put another year of my life on hold. As I said before, I want roots. Neither Murcia nor Albany fit the bill. And I didn’t complete an MBA for the prospect of a fulltime offer after a 1 year internship. I wanted a commitment to a full time offer; I wanted security. I might even want a job back in Securities.