Jonas Meyer is a 23 year old Norwegian national with a Bachelor´s degree in Business Administration from BI Norwegian Business School, who is also studying for a MSc in Financial Economics. After working within Private Equity and the oil and gas sector, and doing an exchange in Singapore, Jonas wanted to get more international experience, and took up the opportunity of an Internship with Southpartner in São Paulo, Brazil.

 

 

JM - Because of my hunger for international work experience, I started to look for the opportunities to go abroad on an internship. Since I already started to learn Portuguese, Brazil was the natural choice for me. The country also has an interesting economic development. I got in contact with the Director at Southpartner, Peter Munck, through the Norwegian consulate in São Paulo. After an interview we decided that I was a good fit for the company and we agreed on an internship.

 

JM - As a student of financial markets, I always strive to learn more and develop myself. Thus I was hoping to get insight into the Brazilian business market through working in consultancy for Southpartner. I have been in São Paulo a few times earlier, so I was also expecting a chaotic city, especially under the world cup.

 

 

JM - The city was pretty much as expected, big chaotic and full of life. I was positively surprised about how welcoming my colleagues were, and I got to do more interesting tasks than I expected.

 

JM - Today I work with a project within the ICT sector. My main responsibility is to create investment teasers that we will use to contact potential investors later on. This evening I am going to meet our client, and it will be exiting to get his opinion on the teasers.

 

 

JM - Yes. Brazil has its positive and negative aspects. Compared to Norway it is harder to get around without a car and you do not get far with only speaking English. However, with basic Portuguese and some weeks to get used to the way of living, Brazil is a beautiful country. You go out to interact with colleagues and friends more than in Scandinavia and it is cheaper to do so.

 

JM - Working with Southpartner is helping me to develop professionally and give me a taste of the working life in Brazil. The work tasks is what I appreciate the most because it let me apply the valuation techniques that I learned during my education. To have a boss with a lot of experience is great because he passes a lot of his experience on, which helps me learn more about the businesses.