Interning with a Logistics Company in Barcelona

My name is Donovan Miller, a finance and international studies major at the University of Pennsylvania. I participated in CIS Abroad's Intern in Barcelona program in Summer 2024. I chose CIS Abroad because of the opportunity to gain career experience while learning about a new and exciting culture.

I was excited from the moment I found out that I would have the opportunity to work in Barcelona. Before I met my fellow program participants, before I joined the program group chat, before I even received my work placement, I knew that I would have a fun, exciting, and informative summer.

After having experienced the day-to-day life of an intern in Barcelona, I am happy to say that my suspicions were correct. This summer, I was working as a sales and research intern at Across Logistics, an international freight forwarding company. This company is relatively young, having existed for only about 15 years, but has already grown to a considerable size, handling large shipment quantities and having offices all over the world.

While being based in Spain and already having established offices in the Netherlands, Dubai, China, and more, Across is currently looking to establish an office in the United States and expand into the market for shipments to and from the US. The bulk of the work that I did during my time there involved preparing my supervisor, the one who was leading this expansion, for his arrival to the US.

Beyond the actual tasks that I performed during my time at Across, one of the most enlightening aspects of working there was observing Spanish work culture, which is much different than that of the United States. Firstly, there is a more relaxed atmosphere, with emojis used in emails and t-shirts and jeans being common in the office. I engaged in casual conversation with my supervisor about personal thoughts and details about my life in a way that would undoubtedly be out of the ordinary back home.

Another difference was lunch. In Spain, lunch typically starts between 1:30 and 2:00 PM, and business hours resume around 3:00. Though I had to adjust to these changes, the process of doing so was easy and pleasant, not at all dampening the work experience. I was able to learn something new and practice new habits while being immersed in the wonderful city of Barcelona and working in an interesting field.

Now that my experience is concluded, I can only recommend that anyone who is interested in increasing their cross-cultural competency while gaining professional experience that can relate to their future career take advantage of the opportunity to do so provided by CIS Abroad.

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