Liliana Echeverri-Ocampo takes an MBA at TSM Business School. She lives on campus, in a house with all international students. A tidy room, with computer, a TV high on her wardrobe and books orderly on their shelves. At the moment she works as an intern in Internet Provider A1 and Eager Telecom company in Enschede. And working in a Dutch company, she ran into the Dutch working-life. 'In Colombia, lunch is the most important meal of the day. We take two hours, go back home, talk with our families, and watch TV. Here at my office people just have a sandwich with some juice or fruit.' But she took up national customs surprisingly rapid. She now even prepares sandwiches to eat at her office. More Dutch is hardly possible.
When she came to Holland she did not know that she had to look for the internship all by herself. Like most of her classmates she thought it had been arranged previously by TSM. That posed quite a big challenge for the Colombian girl. 'I did not know any people here, I cannot read the newspapers, I did not know how to approach companies for it.' Yet she took the challenge and started. And it was educational. 'I learnt that here you need to write a motivation letter to accompany your CV. To say what you want to do and what you can do. Then some days after sending it, call the right person and ask for an interview. Or take the career fairs here. You talk with recruiters and they actually call you back! In Colombia it is more important to know people. Just sending a CV to a company? They wouldn't take it seriously. It would end up in the trash.'
Liliana is 90% happy in Holland, she says. The only thing she misses is being with her family. She has not seen them for one and a half year now. The photos in her campus room speak for themselves. But fortunately she has nice flat mates. Liliana: 'They are like my family now. We care for each other. We are all in the same situation and we all miss our families. I hate to say goodbye when one of them leaves, for I know there's little chance we will meet again.'
