Work and Learn Abroad

email: leonardo.martin@pm.me

listen at:

Transcript
welcome to these new podcasts about people who ask for who are working abroad today I will address the manager and she is going to tell us about his story working abroad so I’m doing really great um it’s funny we’re in Dublin Ireland right now it’s a half five and it’s already pitch black which is very different from where ya from home certainly yourself yeah sure um so I am originally from Texas I don’t have much of an accent no southern drawl cuz Houston is a pretty metropolitan but I do say y’all a lot uh yeah my catchphrase and I grew up in Texas for about 22 years of my life and then I’ve lived in Chicago Illinois Ohio Berlin Germany California and now I live in Dublin Ireland yeah all of them have been very temporary moves though this is the first time I’ve sort of bought the one-way ticket right yeah when I was in my first international experience was in Berlin Germany and I it was only for six months it was during school I was just studying there I wasn’t planning to move there so what I think that for me it was it was based in the fact that I wanted to get a different perspective of the world especially having been in the US for the majority of my life and then with everything that’s going on politically and in the news like it’s it’s overwhelming how much information is thrown at you every day and it’s all very to me us-centric and i thought you know there’s just there’s so much I’m not hearing about and that I don’t know about and I’m up for an adventure as well as to be uncomfortable and have my perspective changed and so you know moving abroad would give me the chance to you know you can in the u.s. obviously you can find other news sources you can do your research but actually you know up and moving to another country it’s such a different experience and the news is different and it’s also really interesting to hear about the news the news of the u.s. from say an Irish perspective or a European perspective you know and it’s it’s helped me see things differently and I can go into detail more in a little bit and it’s also helped me I would say like ask different questions now then I then I would have before and then do you want to know a little bit of kind of how I got here Oh a good question I think having moved around quite a bit I was always used to the idea of you know sort of packing up and going somewhere new and I’d gone to different states I used to joke that I would only pack what would fit in my car because I drove everywhere with the exception of Germany in here you know and you run into some oceans getting away exactly my boat on the other hand no exactly no but I would always I would always sort of pack up everything I owned and anything that didn’t fit I donate it and so it was my way of kind of like keeping things minimal not having so much stuff and then I would go to the next place I was living and sort of start just almost like start over there and like it – no no scenery and new people I’d have to make you know new friends but what’s cool is I’ve been able to keep in touch with all my old friends so no matter what time zone I’m in I know people who are awake because I’ve lived so many different eating these guys four items before even doing this video okay actually I’m do you wait like a year then I start to save some money try to get in touch with people who like what’s your instructing you – I’m trying to go in my strategy well so part of it was definitely work-related right I yeah exactly right because I will tell you it’s possible to get visas to come to Ireland as a visitor or you know to live here but it’s a lot easier when you are going through your company and they’re applying on your behalf that’s like one less thing to worry about and so when I found out that the company I work for had an office in the in Ireland I thought you know what what projects could I work on that might translate on a global scale so it changed the focus of my work but honestly for me it also was something I was interested in I was really interested in like international projects anyway so it was kind of I honestly didn’t know I was actually going to get to go but the next best thing was kind of like living vicariously through my international projects which meant like working with people in other countries and building those relationships even though I hadn’t traveled there yet and it was something I hoped for probably probably for a year I was thinking about it and like having conversations with people I worked with like this is a goal that I’d like to set but then once it about six months into that it became a reality that I might get to go and I went for it went from being a goal to like a huge fear all right I thought oh my gosh this could actually happen did that happen back in the States oh when you were actually here because we all have these kind of process rights like yeah I’m going to do it and I’m doing it and yeah exactly exactly no um well so a little bit of background is that I first came to Ireland in what was going to be a temporary assignment and I truly thought that at the time I was going to come for six months to work on a project teach folks about like how to do the work and then you know leave them with instructions and then head out and what ended up happening is about three months into it I realized that I really liked being in Ireland and then just being away from what I was so familiar with and that is when it sort of turned really scary as I thought Oh what if I stayed here versus going back and so to initiate that process I had to spend a lot of time thinking about well what would that mean you know for my family and what is that going to mean for me and like I think what I realized is that this this opportunity wasn’t going to come up like probably like the it wasn’t something that happens a lot and I think I wouldn’t regret going but I would regret not going like honestly and I was like I thought you know even if these three months have been great and then I actually moved there and it’s awful like at least I can say I did it and I learned so much about myself right in the process but I think it definitely in the beginning I will just say my goal and sort of my dream was not I’m going to move permanently Ireland it was more like I’d like to go on an adventure and you know make a difference to my co-workers over there and see how it impacts me and then so you go through the process yep there’s a point where you actually feel like you’re not going back right right and so that day was probably I think it was the day actually so I got the offer and the offer actually I was I’m getting paid less than I did in the United States I’m losing my unlimited time off so I instead got a balance I’d lose that sort of you can take a day off you can be have time off from work any day you want and it was when I realized I didn’t care about those things right and that I was still going to do it and it does I mean and because he comes the way that you feel freedom right instead of exactly I wasn’t thinking about that I said I was thinking like you know my quality of life has changed so much in Ireland and that’s something that a higher salary or unlimited vacation couldn’t replace you know because I just I like well yeah I like feeling well exactly that’s exactly it so so well you sell or get rid of the card your stock and then you get the ticket and you are coming to Ireland so in the process of coming up also you you got that feeling I yes I’m here now yes do you got that feeling before getting into the plane in the plane or after you well so I in and when I was in the United States I was ready to go and what ended up happening what ended up happening is that I didn’t leave right away I left probably about six weeks after I was supposed to head to Ireland I actually had booked a flight and kept having to move it back and back and back because of the visa processing which took extra time and then Ireland had a snowstorm so that delayed my visa you know like they emailed me they said no one is working this week because it snowed and so at that point I had gotten rid of a lot of my stuff and was living with my parents but I just I felt like I was in limbo like I was in-between places like I just didn’t feel settled anywhere I felt it was chaotic and awful and I just wanted to get there already and even when I was on the plane it didn’t seem real I think it was in the airport when you come out and after you’ve gone through passport control and you’re just surrounded by all this noise of people milling about the airport but the accents right that Irish accent like the way that people sort of talk and you know even just like really silly conversations about oh grab my bag off the carousel you know it just I don’t know it was just so different and I thought I’m really here I’m really here I did it and it was like a big sigh of relief like okay alright I got here like can’t control what happens next but I made it in one piece and related to the mmm-hmm coming to Ireland and what could be a tip that you could provide pro fight to me they’re very nice to look into also yeah I would definitely say that some tips that were really helpful to me were don’t worry so much about the weather it’s not as bad as you think which because I thought is something I thought of too but what I learned was apply for the visa or have your company if you’re doing it through work to apply for the visa as like as early as you even think you’re going to go and don’t expect it to come back in the timeline that they’ve said they say I think two to three weeks and that’s not really the case in in Ireland you have to make an appointment with the Irish Naturalization and Immigration Service and those appointments are very very difficult to make they’re booked three months in advance so there’s a website but you can book your appointment from the United States you don’t have to be in Ireland I mean obviously to go to the appointment you do but people told me to start early because if I had waited until I got to Ireland then you only have a certain amount of time I think 90 days to get that appointment and it’s very stressful not to have it already in place and then I think one other tip that I would give to people when moving to Ireland is just get ready to learn some slang people make fun of you but that means they like you so get a thick skin and get ready to learn some slang so that you know what’s going on I think you are the first English speaker oh really I mean you should ask okay so how do you fit with the English oh yeah in your cases what is it what what do you do yeah oh well exactly know what I’ve learned that’s a funny question um apparently I talk very slowly compared to everyone else and then to end to me Irish people speak very fast and then before coming to Ireland I didn’t know all the different like sort of types of Irish accents there could be and so it’s funny like I can now kind of tell like what County people are from it’s that distinct to me I can hear it now and I mean it’s taken like about nine months for me to sort of really pick up the fine tuning of it but I can tell where people tend to be from and then certain like variations of the Irish accent are more difficult to understand than others and a lot of times its I hear you but I don’t understand you I think my untrained American ear but it’s getting trained yeah I’m getting better at it so well that’s an interesting question because I don’t know if it would have been different if if say I was from like Boston or places where there were a lot of like Irish influence from people who had emigrated I would say there’s not really a big Irish community in Texas so it was definitely different to come over here and a couple of things I think that really shocked me the public transportation just as an example I think people from most other countries are used to really good public transportation you don’t have to have a car but in the United States especially in Texas like I hadn’t had never liked either my parents or my friends were driving me around or I eventually bought my own car right like I you couldn’t you honestly couldn’t take the bus to work and here not only if it’s raining I can take the bus but if it’s not I can walk to work you know and I don’t live in the city center I live a bit out but there are enough public transportation options that I could do that and I absolutely love it and then I think another thing in terms of culture shock was probably the fact that jaywalking is not illegal in the u.s. you cannot you shouldn’t cross the street unless there’s a crosswalk and it’s not the norm either right like you wait at the crosswalk you cross but here you just if there are no cars coming it doesn’t matter what color the light is you just go to the point where like I saw one time I saw some guards actually some some policemen and I was going to cross the street and I thought no I’d better know I need watch and then I said no but it’s it’s okay here and so I went to cross and a couple of other people went with me you know and there were no cars but it wasn’t like the time to cross or whatever and one of the guards shouted at us right and he waved his hand and as it turns out we were not getting in trouble for jaywalking he knew one of the people I was crossing the street with saying hey my way and I just I can’t imagine what that would look like in the United States now it’s it feels very weird to think about like you just look both ways and then you go right but that wasn’t the way I used to feel nine months ago do you find I mean I will have I have to say people are very patient and very kind in terms of doing business like going to get like a coffee or something at the office yeah I mean I can talk about all kinds of experiences but and it kind of ties in with culture shock to like people know what you’re saying they’ll they’ll if I say I want like a coffee to go they know I mean take away and I learned that sort of thing as I go along and then in the office I think like honestly part of the reason why I love my job is is not because I’m you know particularly fascinated by what I’m doing but I really like the people I work with and yeah yeah and honestly the the Irish people especially I mean although where it’s a very diverse company we have diverse offices and in all of our different locations but especially here it is just people you know took me in on Christmas because I didn’t go home for the holidays it was incredibly kind and then just at the beginning of meetings this is different from the American work culture at the beginning of a meeting at work people would say like how are you or what’s the craic or how is it going or how you doing yeah we’re talking about work stuff and you know and I think that’s something that I could be more intentional about but the culture of work in my experience in the u.s. was used to town from the meeting you start talking about work it’s straight to business and it makes such a massive difference and it seems silly that I had to travel to another country to kind of like gain that experience but it’s really changed the way I approach work and like I said like my quality of life like taking this job here and moving here and going through the experience of moving here like I feel like I’ve achieved work/life balance that always I never felt like I could get it in the US and I don’t know if it’s cultural it’s I mean I was a little surprised because in my case where I didn’t know that much about Ireland ya know there they are so funny and so kind and I think like it’s so funny I think I feel like picked up some mannerisms you know like the way I structure my sentences or just I I say like ah in front of like things you know like we’re so I don’t worry about it you know I never used to do that but I’m around a lot of people that say aha it’s fine it’s grand do you know because my face being from Costa Rican exposure to English American you get bright and then when you start to get here and then you hear all the words slide and just a mess about words between in that case American British and Irish because that’s what you hear right around you and then and any other tip that you might give to someone who is hoping to have space oh I mean wherever you go I think absolutely go for it it’s it’s one of the scariest and most uncomfortable things I’ve ever done in my entire life and I don’t have time to go into it right now but like I was in hospital when I first moved here so I had to learn the Irish healthcare system very quickly things you think should be easy are very difficult and then things you think we’re gonna be difficult or surprisingly easy like the things you worry about aren’t really what tends to crop up as an issue that you have to solve but in my experience people are helpful and I’ve learned so much about myself even from you know they’re not so great experiences and I just think that if you get the chance to go see the world from a different spective you should absolutely go do it and come say hi if you’re ever in ireland or if you’re ever in texas and i happen to be there you know because it’s you could always go back that’s the other thing I’ll say is you can always go back if it’s not for you you can always go back so don’t put pressure on yourself to you’ve made this dramatic move and now you need to enjoy it there are hard days too you know and I get homesick but I’m over old overall I’m pretty glad I’m here thank you oh thank you for asking me leo well keep the beans with us we are going to have more people this year and subscribe to the usual ways that we have I choose 45 google play and let us know what you think if you had any questions for me or for actor I just write to Leonardo don’t nothing at the end of and B and thank you thanks again