Have Skills Will Travel
Going abroad for a job can be a daunting experience. But for some McCombs alumni it is a can't-miss opportunity. Living and working in a foreign culture, they learn new ideas, change old perceptions and gain a refined international perspective–key advantages in the global business arena.
by Pam Losefsky 1 |
2
Even though he’s lived in Japan for more than six years,
he says there are still daily frustrations. “Sometimes I
wonder, ‘Why can’t you make an alteration to the lunch
special and substitute this for that?’ But at times like
this, I just try to relax, take a deep breath and
remember that I’m not in the U.S. with its
customer-service-oriented culture.” On the other hand,
there are a lot of things to appreciate about Japan—its
efficient trains, overall cleanliness, politeness of the
people, and the food are all things that Foley
thoroughly enjoys.
Rosanna Picillo, MBA ’03, also spent time in Japan, arriving by a completely different route. Following her undergraduate experience, she satisfied a whim to do some service work before starting a career and joined the volunteer corps, teaching English in Kyoto and Yokohama. Her service stint eventually segued into a marketing position with National Instruments in Tokyo.
She immediately focused on immersing herself in the culture. “I took intensive Japanese language classes and the government-issued language proficiency exams to really get into the language, which essentially is the culture,” she says.
When Picillo returned to the U.S. to go to graduate school, she found there was still more to learn. “Doggett’s class on global strategy was a great help to me, as well as studying among a lot of international students,” Picillo says. She points to classes in global management and marketing, taught by Associate Professor of Marketing Kate Gillespie and Senior Marketing Lecturer Kapil Jain, as additional eye-openers, as well as a Global Connections trip to Chile and Brazil.
Now back in her home country in a corporate position, Picillo says she continues to keep another overseas post in mind. “My job is still global, and I get to travel, but that doesn’t keep me from being interested in living abroad again.”
One thing Picillo was faced with while managing employees in Japan was the differences in expectations of management. “The level of direction expected from a manager is completely different from what is expected in the United States,” she notes. “The Japanese tend to need to know exactly what their role is, exactly what they are expected to do, while Americans tend to expect less direction and glean from the spirit of the project what they are supposed to do to accomplish it.”
In Japan, Picillo says she felt incompetent if she didn’t micromanage her employees, and she has had to step back from that upon returning to the U.S.
Another cultural difference that manifested itself in the work environment was the Japanese concepts of uchi and soto. “Uchi is ‘inside’ and soto is ‘outside,’” Picillo explains. “If you can become a member of the inside, everything is open and interaction is free-flowing. But if you’re on the outside, there is a huge protective layer and you can’t learn anything.” Picillo found herself working very hard to earn the trust of her staff and nurturing relationships in ways she was not accustomed to in the U.S. in order to move from soto to uchi.
Her experiences in Japan have helped Picillo develop a greater cultural sensitivity overall. “I feel like I can easily blend into an environment that is predominantly non-American,” she says, which is a skill that can be a huge competitive advantage to a U.S. multinational corporation.
Loud and Ignorant No More
While European cultures are closer than Asian cultures to American sensibilities, there is still a lot for an American to adjust to and learn when working in Europe. Brandon Sitz, BBA ’04, took his Bank of America career from New York to London—two large, English-speaking, cosmopolitan cities with much in common—and still found remarkable differences.
“I think the biggest difference between New York and London is the quality of life and the work-life balance,” he notes. “Everyone in the U.K. seems to manage that much better than we do in the U.S.” Sitz says that he has much more time to travel and concentrate on hobbies outside of work than he did in New York. “Employees still work very hard,” he’s quick to point out. “But they don’t seem to work as late during the week or on the weekends.”
Perhaps this is one of the contributing factors to another aspect of the culture he found surprising. “It’s really amazing to me whenever I travel around Europe and people here show interest in and ask questions about all sorts of events that occur in the U.S.” Sitz found that Europeans are very interested in American politics and economic events as well as pop culture.
But that’s not surprising to either Leah Miller or John Doggett. “People in other cultures often know more about our political structure and politics than Americans do,” Miller says. “Part of that is the stifling isolation of the U.S. Our news is very slanted, and we tend to only care about how events in other countries will affect us. And then our educational system does not include a lot of learning about other countries’ governments.”
“What often hits home for students going abroad for the first time is how ignorant our press is,” Doggett adds. “There is a revolution going on in emerging markets that we have absolutely ignored. America needs to start looking at the world as a place where important things happen—not just disasters.”
Sitz has caught on. Halfway through his two-year assignment to London, he’s already eyeing new opportunities Bank of America has in Hong Kong and Australia. “I can already see how my experience abroad is benefiting me,” he says. “I have the ability to understand and respect clients and co-workers based in other countries when working on business transactions.” Sitz says his immediate team is comprised of people from all over the world—Lebanon, France, India, Romania and the Ivory Coast.
“And as for leisure time, I definitely feel that my time abroad will help me to create a better work-life balance upon my return to the U.S.,” he says. “Just taking a few trips during the past year in Europe gave me time to take a break, and each time I have felt like I’m starting fresh when I return to work.”
Jessyca Gonzalez, BBA ’06, and Jill Reilly, live in Spain and Germany, respectively. Gonzalez, who is originally from Venezuela, had the typical epiphany when she studied in Belgium during her sophomore year; but Reilly ended up in Germany because she married a German citizen. Both have some home-court advantages: Gonzalez speaks Spanish fluently and had a friend in Barcelona with whom she started a business. Reilly had a built-in network of her husband’s family and friends when they moved to the German state of Bavaria.
Even so, both encountered some obstacles. Gonzalez had studied in Barcelona, knew the city well and had many friends there. But as an entrepreneur in a foreign country, she faced more than the usual hardships that accompany startup businesses. “It was no easy task—the paperwork, market differences, cultural differences, EU finances and accounting, the legal issues!”
Reilly says she was lucky to find a job with an English-speaking company, but that didn’t keep her from sticking her foot in her mouth.
“I’ve accidentally repeated a racial slur in German and been naïve about European attitudes toward American politics,” Reilly admits. “I learned after a few awkward situations that sometimes it’s better to listen first and think about where the person who is speaking comes from before answering.”
And that can go both ways. “When I tell people I’m from Texas, they immediately assume I’m George Bush’s best friend, I ride a horse to work, own cattle and oil wells, and carry a gun,” she says. “It’s annoying, but stereotypes are everywhere.”
ow, Reilly works for Hewlett-Packard’s European, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) Organization and has the opportunity to work not only with Germans, but with people from almost every other country in the region. “My boss is Hungarian, and on our team we have a few Scots, an Englishman, some Germans and a woman from Taiwan. This intense multicultural environment presents both benefits and challenges,” she says. “It’s challenging to navigate the various manners, communication styles and language barriers.”
She offers this anecdote to illustrate a typical cultural minefield: “Once I was a presenter at a sales training in France, and I had to give a series of workshops. After the first day, we had an evening dinner event, and I met one of my French colleagues. We began talking about the fact that I’m American, and he let loose a very important cultural clue. He said the French don’t trust somebody who smiles a lot because they think that he or she is trying to trick them or will stab them in the back later. How I wished he had told me that before my first day of presentations! (I am by nature a person who smiles a lot.) Needless to say, I toned down the smiles on the second day. I don’t want to change who I am, but sometimes I find that by adapting to a culture, you gain acceptance faster.”
So what to do about the stereotype of the loud, ignorant American? As McCombs alumni living and working overseas have demonstrated, a little humility, a little empathy, and that unflagging American appreciation for innovation and opportunity wherever it occurs will take them a long way to uchi.
Rosanna Picillo, MBA ’03, also spent time in Japan, arriving by a completely different route. Following her undergraduate experience, she satisfied a whim to do some service work before starting a career and joined the volunteer corps, teaching English in Kyoto and Yokohama. Her service stint eventually segued into a marketing position with National Instruments in Tokyo.
She immediately focused on immersing herself in the culture. “I took intensive Japanese language classes and the government-issued language proficiency exams to really get into the language, which essentially is the culture,” she says.
When Picillo returned to the U.S. to go to graduate school, she found there was still more to learn. “Doggett’s class on global strategy was a great help to me, as well as studying among a lot of international students,” Picillo says. She points to classes in global management and marketing, taught by Associate Professor of Marketing Kate Gillespie and Senior Marketing Lecturer Kapil Jain, as additional eye-openers, as well as a Global Connections trip to Chile and Brazil.
Now back in her home country in a corporate position, Picillo says she continues to keep another overseas post in mind. “My job is still global, and I get to travel, but that doesn’t keep me from being interested in living abroad again.”
One thing Picillo was faced with while managing employees in Japan was the differences in expectations of management. “The level of direction expected from a manager is completely different from what is expected in the United States,” she notes. “The Japanese tend to need to know exactly what their role is, exactly what they are expected to do, while Americans tend to expect less direction and glean from the spirit of the project what they are supposed to do to accomplish it.”
In Japan, Picillo says she felt incompetent if she didn’t micromanage her employees, and she has had to step back from that upon returning to the U.S.
Another cultural difference that manifested itself in the work environment was the Japanese concepts of uchi and soto. “Uchi is ‘inside’ and soto is ‘outside,’” Picillo explains. “If you can become a member of the inside, everything is open and interaction is free-flowing. But if you’re on the outside, there is a huge protective layer and you can’t learn anything.” Picillo found herself working very hard to earn the trust of her staff and nurturing relationships in ways she was not accustomed to in the U.S. in order to move from soto to uchi.
Her experiences in Japan have helped Picillo develop a greater cultural sensitivity overall. “I feel like I can easily blend into an environment that is predominantly non-American,” she says, which is a skill that can be a huge competitive advantage to a U.S. multinational corporation.
Loud and Ignorant No More
While European cultures are closer than Asian cultures to American sensibilities, there is still a lot for an American to adjust to and learn when working in Europe. Brandon Sitz, BBA ’04, took his Bank of America career from New York to London—two large, English-speaking, cosmopolitan cities with much in common—and still found remarkable differences.
“I think the biggest difference between New York and London is the quality of life and the work-life balance,” he notes. “Everyone in the U.K. seems to manage that much better than we do in the U.S.” Sitz says that he has much more time to travel and concentrate on hobbies outside of work than he did in New York. “Employees still work very hard,” he’s quick to point out. “But they don’t seem to work as late during the week or on the weekends.”
Perhaps this is one of the contributing factors to another aspect of the culture he found surprising. “It’s really amazing to me whenever I travel around Europe and people here show interest in and ask questions about all sorts of events that occur in the U.S.” Sitz found that Europeans are very interested in American politics and economic events as well as pop culture.
But that’s not surprising to either Leah Miller or John Doggett. “People in other cultures often know more about our political structure and politics than Americans do,” Miller says. “Part of that is the stifling isolation of the U.S. Our news is very slanted, and we tend to only care about how events in other countries will affect us. And then our educational system does not include a lot of learning about other countries’ governments.”
“What often hits home for students going abroad for the first time is how ignorant our press is,” Doggett adds. “There is a revolution going on in emerging markets that we have absolutely ignored. America needs to start looking at the world as a place where important things happen—not just disasters.”
Sitz has caught on. Halfway through his two-year assignment to London, he’s already eyeing new opportunities Bank of America has in Hong Kong and Australia. “I can already see how my experience abroad is benefiting me,” he says. “I have the ability to understand and respect clients and co-workers based in other countries when working on business transactions.” Sitz says his immediate team is comprised of people from all over the world—Lebanon, France, India, Romania and the Ivory Coast.
“And as for leisure time, I definitely feel that my time abroad will help me to create a better work-life balance upon my return to the U.S.,” he says. “Just taking a few trips during the past year in Europe gave me time to take a break, and each time I have felt like I’m starting fresh when I return to work.”
Jessyca Gonzalez, BBA ’06, and Jill Reilly, live in Spain and Germany, respectively. Gonzalez, who is originally from Venezuela, had the typical epiphany when she studied in Belgium during her sophomore year; but Reilly ended up in Germany because she married a German citizen. Both have some home-court advantages: Gonzalez speaks Spanish fluently and had a friend in Barcelona with whom she started a business. Reilly had a built-in network of her husband’s family and friends when they moved to the German state of Bavaria.
Even so, both encountered some obstacles. Gonzalez had studied in Barcelona, knew the city well and had many friends there. But as an entrepreneur in a foreign country, she faced more than the usual hardships that accompany startup businesses. “It was no easy task—the paperwork, market differences, cultural differences, EU finances and accounting, the legal issues!”
Reilly says she was lucky to find a job with an English-speaking company, but that didn’t keep her from sticking her foot in her mouth.
“I’ve accidentally repeated a racial slur in German and been naïve about European attitudes toward American politics,” Reilly admits. “I learned after a few awkward situations that sometimes it’s better to listen first and think about where the person who is speaking comes from before answering.”
And that can go both ways. “When I tell people I’m from Texas, they immediately assume I’m George Bush’s best friend, I ride a horse to work, own cattle and oil wells, and carry a gun,” she says. “It’s annoying, but stereotypes are everywhere.”
ow, Reilly works for Hewlett-Packard’s European, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) Organization and has the opportunity to work not only with Germans, but with people from almost every other country in the region. “My boss is Hungarian, and on our team we have a few Scots, an Englishman, some Germans and a woman from Taiwan. This intense multicultural environment presents both benefits and challenges,” she says. “It’s challenging to navigate the various manners, communication styles and language barriers.”
She offers this anecdote to illustrate a typical cultural minefield: “Once I was a presenter at a sales training in France, and I had to give a series of workshops. After the first day, we had an evening dinner event, and I met one of my French colleagues. We began talking about the fact that I’m American, and he let loose a very important cultural clue. He said the French don’t trust somebody who smiles a lot because they think that he or she is trying to trick them or will stab them in the back later. How I wished he had told me that before my first day of presentations! (I am by nature a person who smiles a lot.) Needless to say, I toned down the smiles on the second day. I don’t want to change who I am, but sometimes I find that by adapting to a culture, you gain acceptance faster.”
So what to do about the stereotype of the loud, ignorant American? As McCombs alumni living and working overseas have demonstrated, a little humility, a little empathy, and that unflagging American appreciation for innovation and opportunity wherever it occurs will take them a long way to uchi.
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