KRAFT FOOS LATIN AMERICA

I started working for Kraft in May 2005, as I said before, our office consolidates all the information from the countries of Latin America before reporting this information to Kraft International Commercial. Here we also develop most of the strategies that are used in the later on in the countries.
KRAFT Foods is a multinational food and beverages company, we are the leader company in that category in the US and the second largest worldwide. Our most famous brands are: Oreo, Royal, Tang, Milka, Club Social, Clight, Toblerone, Macaroni and Cheese, Philadelphia Crème Cheese, among others.
I’ve been doing all finance related activities for the Human Resources department, including budgeting, salary analysis and overhead costs for our employees. Most recently I’ve started coordinating the assignments of our expatriate personnel,

these are the employees coming from Kraft from another country for a short period of time to work in this office for a determine period.
The office environment is amazing, 120 + employees from all over the world, you Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala, Venezuela, Portugal, Spain, Hungary, Germany, UK and so on. People are very kind and opened minded, they are always able to help and support you in every way they can. It's amazing to hear diferent languages and diferent spanish accents while you are working.

My HR team is very nice, our boss is a great manager and leader, always teaching and supporting us. Our office ocuppies two floors in a nice building with all the appliances we can get, so every employee just focuses on his job. We work from 9am to 6pm, but sometimes we stay until 8pm tops. We get a lot of exposure to the international environment here, working with the countries in the Latin America region and also within our Headquarters in Chicago and other offices in San Antonio. I have had the opportunity to meet the top executives in Kraft Global HR, very smart people with strong commitment to the company.

WELCOME TO MIAMI, BIENVENIDO A MIAMI

What there is to know about Miami? very easy answer, everybody knows Miami! True, but not everyone knows this city in the eyes of an AIESEC Trainee. This city is located in South Florida, very close to the end of continental USA, the southernmost point of Florida is about 90 miles from Havana, Cuba. Because of the proximity to this country and the rest of Latin America this city is just as Latin as Santo Domingo, San Juan, Caracas, Lima or Buenos Aires. Is one of the most desired vacation places and also a target place to migrate for Hispanic background people, in fact 57% out of the 2 million people in Miami comes from a Hispanic background, but in my opinion I think is more, like 80%. You can find all latinamerican nationalities here for sure.
The language here is Spanish and sometimes English and sometimes both: SPANGLISH. You can spend your whole life without speaking English with no problems at all. I heard that in some restaurants and stores you can find signs stating: “We speak English”.
We are about 20 minutes away to the closest beach, which is Miami Beach where it all happens, the beach parties, the clubs, the fancy restaurants, etc. Miami without a doubt is a vacations town so it is a lot of fun.
Kraft Foods is located in a neighborhood called Coral Gables, which is very residential, calm and quite. All 15 trainees live 5 blocks away from the office, most of us have roommates.
The tough part of Miami is the heat, the Miami heat, it is really difficult coming from cloudy Lima and getting 35-39 degrees for 8 months with 100% humidity and lots of rain with a full 5 month Hurricane season.

ASI PASO, PASO EN MIAMI

Hola a todos, mi nombre es Miguel, soy de Lima, Perú. Soy egresado de la Facultad de Administración de Empresas de la PUCP. El objetivo de este blog es detalllar a traves de los ojos de un trainee algunas de las impresiones y/o experiencias durante estos 18 meses en las oficinas de Kraft en Miami, EEUU.
Estoy aqui desde Mayo del 2005. Un poco de historia, empece en AIESEC CLUC en Octubre 2001, estuve desarrollando mi comite en cargos de creciente responsabilidad desde el 2001 hasta el 2004, periodo en el cual fui miembro y VP del area de OGX y posteriormente Presidente de mi comite local, claro esta paralelo a los estudios de Administracion de Empresas en la Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Perú.
Llegado el momento de la ansiada internacionalizacion a traves del programa de pasantias de AIESEC no hubo mucho que pensar, pues el objetivo era claro: encontrar una pasantia de calidad donde pudiera desarrollar mis habilidades y poner en practica todo lo aprendido en la universidad, ademas de esto vivir en carne propia el intercambio y el entendimiento cultural.
Luego las debidas pruebas de rigor para entrar al programa empezo mi busqueda. Gracias a Dios no demore mucho, para ser exacto hice el match en 1 mes y unos dias.
-La empresa: KRAFT FOODS LATIN AMERICA, Management Traineeship en el area de Recursos Humanos.
-El lugar: Miami, EEUU donde se encuentran las oficinas regionales de Kraft Latin America, lugar donde se consolida toda informacion de America Latina antes de ser presentada a Kraft Internacional y es donde se desarrollar muchas de las estrategias que rigen para toda esta region.
-Duracion: 18 solidos meses.

Entonces ahi va, espero que les guste y de paso practican un poco de ingles.

Miguel
...life's a journey, not a destination...