Hey everyone,
The advice I have received in this thread is very detailed and I greatly appreciate it. I just graduated on Sunday so I haven't had a chance to reply until now.
I will talking to the HR representative for the company tomorrow and am preparing questions based on my research and the info in this thread. I would like to reply to a few responses as well, but before I do that I'd like to clarify a few things based on what I've read.
I'm not looking to necessarily stay several years here. I can't imagine it would be more than 3, and much more likely 1-2 years, because I don't want to go too long without significant savings. The company would require a one year contract as terms of the offer.
My father grew up in Buenos Aires from 3 to 18. He is Italian and has lived in the US since his mid 20's.
I see a few benefits of doing this. The first would be cultural and language immersion that would continue to develop my Spanish interests and abilities. I likely would not have an opportunity like this again for that.
I majored in engineering but have recently been drawn to the business world and the consulting industry. This job would allow to me to explore that type of career, gain work experience and get away from school for a bit.
Lastly, I think it would be a tremendous growth expiring living in a foreign country on a continent I've never been, managing my own budget for the first time and having to make an entirely new set of friends and acquaintances.
Now to reply some comments,
However, you won't be going out to the expensive luxury places foreigners go to, you won't be saving any money either.
Are you talking mostly about dining? I'm not a very luxurious dining person but I want to eat healthy - not pizza and empanadas all of the time as someone mentioned. I'd try to cook a decent amount of the time.
While a few things are cheaper, most are on par with, or more expensive than, groceries in the States.
How much would you budget a week/month on groceries?
And to those who said it wouldn't help the OPs career - personally, I would be *very* impressed with a candidate who started working right after school, had the cojones to move to a foreign country and learn a language. It shows a desire to work, strong initiative, an ability to take risks but plan and if the OP comes back fluent in Spanish - even better.
This is exactly why I would want to go.
When I commented that this job might not enchance your resume I had two things in mind: Will a future employer wonder how soon you will again be bitten by the international travel bug and, if he knows how little compensation you worked for in Argentina, will he be willing to offer you a decent salary in the first place? Perhaps you can get around both "objections" by saying you had a "paid internship" in Buenos Aires. I think they would buy that, especially if you go to grad or business school immediately after retruning to the States.
In a sense it is like an internship. I don't see any reason I would have to disclose my salary with a prospective employer. I would be returning to the US to apply to similar quality jobs to what I am looking at now, but with a year or two of abroad living and work experience. I don't really think a worry of wanting to leave the country again would be an issue, and if I stay in consulting there is plenty of travel. One idea would even be to specialize in a sector of a company that deals with Spanish speaking or Latin American markets.
and to live NOT in Palermo (Villa Crespo, or Almagro, anything outside the bubble).
Where would you say are the best areas for young expats looking for cultural immersion to live? I did say I wanted to live in the center of the city but I wasn't talking about downtown necessarily, just close enough to the job to make travel easy enough. The job is in San Nicolas from what I can tell of maps of the city.
