Mac Caputi is a second-year Darden MBA student (Class of ’25). During the summer, Mac worked as a Summer Associate at Bain & Company in Santiago, Chile. Prior to Darden, he spent six years as a Marine infantry officer and a year and a half working with a vineyard management company in California. After graduating, Mac plans to return to Bain in Santiago. Recently, he shared more about his summer abroad with CGI.
1. Tell us about yourself, Mac!
I was born in New England and grew up most of my life on the coast of Maine. I am the favorite brother of my three younger sisters and my parents’ favorite son. In elementary school, my sister, Maggie and I were the first sibling duo to be finalists in the school geography bee — I ended up winning, and the answer to the winning question was Argentina. Thus, I owed that seminal academic achievement at nine years old to South America and was perhaps destined to end up there.
I’ve also been interested in languages from a young age. I tried teaching myself Italian as a sixth grader, and Latin was my favorite subject in high school. Although I studied political science at Bowdoin as an undergrad, I continued taking Latin courses as an elective. At the time, I thought I might have learned an unnecessary amount of obscure grammatical rules and verb conjugations in a dead language. Fortunately, Latin has proved to be a reliable foundation for Spanish and Portuguese!
After college, I spent six years as a Marine infantry officer. Deploying overseas with the Marines and training with foreign militaries provided very rewarding experiences — I loved the cross-cultural interactions and things I learned through those experiences. I spent two years living and working at an American consulate in South Africa, and when I left the Marines, I worked two harvests farming wine grapes in California. Before starting at Darden, I spent a few months hiking in the south of Chile, traveling through Argentina, and learning Portuguese in Brazil.
2. What motivated you to apply for an internship abroad?
I loved the experience of living abroad in South Africa with the Marines and the time I spent traveling in South America. Coming to Darden, some of the closest friends that I made in my first few weeks were from Latin America. Every week, I get together with friends to drink yerba mate tea (I am the best “cebador” or mate brewer in the class of 2025) or have an asado, or cookout. Thus, as I explored internship opportunities, I was drawn to South America because, beyond the experience of living abroad and my affinity for the culture, I’d also be able to experience the challenge of living and working in another language and culture. I was interested in consulting because of its fast pace, the chance to work with intelligent, ambitious colleagues, and the exposure to various functions and industries. As I went through the recruiting process and spoke to the Bain on-campus recruiter and team from the Argentina, Brazil, and Chile offices, I felt most authentic talking about my interests and passions.
3. How did you find living and working in Chile? What was your favorite aspect of the local culture or lifestyle?
One of the best aspects was the familial culture of the Santiago office. For instance, when you come to work, you greet all your colleagues with a handshake. Sometimes, that can be up to 30 or 40 people you’re making the rounds and saying hi to in the morning. It’s a small gesture, but being new to the city and Bain, I appreciated the routine. Within a few weeks, I met most of the office, enabling me to get to know my colleagues and the city. Inevitably, that leads to more trust with your peers, managers, and partners in the office, creating a more horizontal culture. The partners on my case teams expected the consultants and associates to participate and challenge them in problem-solving. I don’t think that’s unique to Bain Santiago, but I’d argue that the more personalized interactions in the office and expectations of checking in and greeting coworkers made our teams that much more effective.
A fun aspect was adapting my Spanish to Chilean — perhaps an equivalent comparison would be the difference between American and Australian English. I copied the tactic of one of my Darden learning team members, who was an international student. He had kept a list of American slang overheard around Darden on his Apple Notes app, and I did the same as I picked up different words and sayings unique to Chile. I coupled that with reading books and short stories by Chilean authors (my favorite was The MANIAC by Benjamin Labatut, which is about mathematician John von Neumann and a history of artificial intelligence). Incorporating “chilensis” (Chilean Spanish) when talking with friends and colleagues helped demonstrate a curiosity for Chile and its culture.
I was also lucky that one of my closest friends from Darden is from Santiago. He and his wife helped me settle in the city and introduced me to their friends and family. I spent a weekend at their family’s home, an hour outside of Santiago, horseback-riding and enjoying a Sunday asado. Two days before flying back to Charlottesville in the summer, I went skiing with friends in the Andes. Throughout the nine weeks, their friends and family also invited me to birthdays and dinners to help me fully experience Chile and Santiago. At the end of the internship, I felt like I’d made friends both in and out of Bain — if classes hadn’t started the Monday after my internship, I’d have spent another week in Chile!
Lastly, I’d be dishonest if I didn’t acknowledge my sweet tooth for manjar (dulce de leche). For better or worse, my case teammates supported this. They pointed out whenever the office had homemade alfajores (dulce de leche cookies) or, during team dinners, when the dessert menu had a dish with manjar. On the last day of the internship, one of my teammates gave me a “gallinita de manjar” (little manjar chicken) as a going-away gift.
4. How did the experience in Chile contribute to your professional development? Did you gain any specific skills or insights?
The experience reinforced my strengths and revealed opportunities to improve. Consulting is a fast-paced environment that requires precise and structured communication. To adapt to this (and adapt to it in Spanish), I had to develop habits of structuring my talking points in meetings and reviewing notes to ensure I could communicate in the most concise language possible. Had I done the internship in English, I’m not sure I’d have been as worried about how effectively I communicated. However, having been more self-conscious given that I was communicating in Spanish, I felt I progressed significantly over the nine weeks and developed habits that helped me be a better communicator, no matter the language. Additionally, it makes me more impressed by my international classmates who have done this throughout the core curriculum, recruiting, and during summer internships. I was fortunate to fall into a supportive environment with leaders and teammates in Santiago who gave constructive feedback and created conditions for me to succeed. Recognizing how the culture of Bain helped me grow through those challenges encourages me to reciprocate that here at Darden with my peers and replicate it in the future when I’m ideally leading an international, multicultural, multilingual team.
5. In what ways do you believe international professional experiences benefit MBA candidates?
The most significant benefit is that the experience broadened my perspective, personally and professionally. To fully appreciate that benefit, I had to have an open mind and ensure I brought my best self every day. I had to be willing to say yes to new opportunities and be excited to adapt and immerse myself in the experience. Additionally, I had to be conscious of taking care of myself — making time to go for a run during the week, hike on the weekend, go for dinner with friends, read a few minutes before bed, or make sure I had a good night’s sleep — so that I showed up with a positive attitude and transmitted good energy. Fortunately, I’d lived abroad before with the Marines, so I knew what to expect. But starting from scratch in a new city and country, meeting new people, and living in a language that isn’t your mother tongue has a lot of challenges. But with the right mindset, many of those are the most gratifying and energizing challenges. They helped bring out some of my best qualities and helped me appreciate things big and small: the support of my family; the quality of the friendships I’ve made at Darden; and allowing my curiosities to motivate me and my career decisions.
