FROM BACKPACK TO BRIEFCASE MALLORY WEDEKING: Attitude Is Everything! 84 GET THAT JOB! Mallory Wedeking has studied and worked in Uganda and Rwanda. When asked to give advice to students studying international business on career development and breaking into the field, she had some helpful observations. Here are her comments: My concentration in school is entrepreneurship and my career goals are to pursue a career in business in the context of international development. I became interested in international business when I first traveled, in Europe, after high school. Interacting with different cultures and lifestyles inspired in me creativity and a desire to learn. I liked the added texture of doing business in an international context. My most influential time abroad was the four months I studied in Uganda and Rwanda, where I was also able to do an internship through the nonprofit Food for the Hungry, working with a rural village to help foster economic development and financial responsibility. I was nervous about the transition. I had familiarized myself with the culture, but most of my cultural awareness I learned along the way. My valuable early lesson was that mistakes were unavoidable, and the attitude with which you deal with them is what matters. Learning another culture is a humbling experience. My advice about working abroad is to realize that attitude is everything. Cultural miscommunications will happen no matter how much you prepare. Getting back up on my feet after a mistake, to keep moving forward, helped me learn. You need also to understand the phases of culture shock so you’ll be able to identify where you are in order to deal with your feelings and emotions. There is a tendency at certain points of culture shock to retreat from the culture and surround yourself with only things familiar and comfortable. I experienced this feeling two months into my stay abroad, and retreated with other American students to watch American movies. I had to force myself to continue interacting with the Ugandan people. Wedeking in East Africa Returning to the United States was a much more difficult cultural adjustment than arriving in East Africa. I had not expected that my home could feel overwhelming and unfamiliar. It took six months to completely feel comfortable again. I learned that the process cannot be rushed. You need to take time to absorb everything you learned while abroad. I would highly recommend working internationally, beginning with volunteer work or an internship. The daily surprises keep things interesting and teach you invaluable qualities and skills. Even traveling for pleasure or studying abroad teaches you skills such as being adaptable, thinking and making decisions quickly, learning on the go, and developing advanced communication skills, all of which are extremely desirable to employers. effective interacting with foreign clients and colleagues. The following six rules of thumb are helpful:33 1. Be prepared. Approach a foreign market having done your homework. A mentor is most desirable, complemented by lots of reading on social and business etiquette, history and folklore, current affairs (including relations between the countries), the culture’s values, geography, sources of pride (artists, musicians, sports), religion, political structure, and practical matters such as currency and hours of business. Read local newspapers. A good site for international newspaper links is onlinenewspapers.com.
Geringer_InternationalBusiness
To see the actual publication please follow the link above