Tag Archives: school

in english

Career advice for freshmen

Every once in a while I get asked by friends (or friends of friends) if I have any advice to give to young people about to start university. Some points below:

  • Be honest with yourself in deciding what you want to study.  If you don’t like it, don’t sacrifice 4-5 years on it.
  • Even then, understand what is the labour market like for your chosen field.
  • A diploma might be a requirement, but extra-curricular activities, other skills or even social connections migth very well be what opens the door for when you get a job.
  • Keep a good relationship with your teachers if you can.  If you earn their trust, they might help you later on in your career.
  • Be aware that as corny as it might sound we do live in a globalised economy.  Your competitors (and your partners ) might not be in/from the same city, country or continent as you.
  • With that in mind, evaluate whether you need to have a good understanding of languages, cultures and physical challenges (such as timezones).  Studying abroad (as an exchange or full degree student) will give you first-hand experience in all those things, but if you do not have the chance, try to engage with the exchange students at your university and sign in to foreign-language courses.
  • Understand that globalisation doesn’t mean Americanization.  While the US is still very important, so are Europe, China, India, Latin America, Africa…
  • Regarding your career choice, be assured that in many cases it won’t last forever.  Market and workplace conditions change really fast.  According to some studies, the average graduate will have 5 different careers before he retires.  I can tell you I have already had 3 very distinct phases in my working life (from engineering to sales to marketing) and I’m not yet 30.  Furthermore, my current professional field didn’t even exist 7 years ago when I finished my bachelors degree.
  • As such, the most important ability you will graduate with is that to unlearn and relearn.  Never lose that flexibility.
  • Be open, be brave, try new things (even if they’re not related to each other or your current field).  You never know when that knowledge of space exploration, basketball or Latin American rock might help you (those are real examples from my career).

Any thoughts or additions?

in english

Globalisation & my high school class

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This week I learned that two of my classmates from high school in northern Greater Mexico City are also in a relationship with Finnish girls and both are also living abroad.  That got me thinking about how many of the guys and gals I used to go to school with back then are also overseas, and the sample is quite broad.

I’m not particularly surprised of this development given that we were educated as the so-called NAFTA generation learning English (and sometimes other languages) from childhood, and given a broader view of the world than people before us (I remember attending lessons on economics, global affairs, the stock market and compared history of North America at that time).

What sets us apart from those before us I think, is not that some of us would go abroad, but that we would not concentrate in the United States as before.  In my sister’s high school class (she is only a few years older than me) most of those who are working abroad are doing so in the US (a couple here and there in Europe, but it’s a minority), whereas with us the geographic dispersion is much broader: I have classmates in Mexico, and all over the US, true, but also in Canada, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Australia, France, Brazil, UK and I believe even a couple in China.  Moreover, many of them who are back in Mexico also have international experience, either as students or during their careers.

I’m sure that this is partly due to American immigration regulations after 9/11, but I believe it also has something to do with many of us wanting to see what else was out there.  I wonder if the Institute for Mexicans Abroad will start tapping this kind of talent network too, as many of us are working for institutions like e.g.  Shell, Nokia, Microsoft, ESA or Volvo or studying at recognised institutions all over the place.  Maybe we should learn something from what the Indians and the Chinese are doing by taking advantage of their expatriates, instead of complaining about the brain drain?

Regardless, it’s good to see that most of them in Mexico or wherever they may be are doing well.

in english

What a difference…

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When I moved to Finland to study in the summer of 2000, 8.35 Mexican pesos used to buy one euro (the Finnish markka, still legal tender, was already pegged to the euro, and transition to banknotes would happen one and a half years later).  A non-EU student like me needed to show he had 30,000 markka (5,045 euro or 42,000 pesos of August 2000) for his living expenses for the year in order to be granted a residence permit.  I had to sell my car and got some help from my parents to reach that sum, but it seemed a better proposition than continuing studying at a private university where the tuition per half year cost 50,000 pesos (5,990 euro or 35,600 markka of August 2000).  Furthermore, I didn’t need to pay tuition in Finland.

Today’s rate is 19.1 pesos per euro.  Furthermore, a non-EU student now has to demonstrate that he/she has 6,000 euro every year in order to be given a residence permit, so my present-day equivalent would need to get 114,000 pesos every year to be allowed to come to Finland to study (a 271% increase in almost 9 years!).  The Finnish Parliament is also evaluating the possibility of adding tuition fees for non-EU students.

I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t expect many Mexican students coming here anytime soon.  I guess it was a matter of timing.

en español, en français, in english

The last 10 metres

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Tomorrow is my last school day at the master’s degree. After that, we have two weeks of examinations and three months of internship (stage) including my thesis before graduation in July. Needless to be said, I have already resigned myself to not sleeping much (if at all), especially since besides exams we need to deliver quite a few projects.

God, this year’s going fast!

Al menos aún no llego al grado Mafaldesco de “Párenle al mundo que me quiero bajar”… 😉