Established professionals in the international business world spoke to students about their desire to work abroad at a panel discussion Wednesday night.
These four speakers were Lorraine McCord, who works in the International Trade Center, Fred Flores, who works for Mary Kay Inc, Nina Flournoy, an SMU senior lecturer and professor linked with the study abroad program, and Matthew Day, who will begin working at consulting firm McKinsey and Company this summer.
In the hour question and answer session, questions ranged from how to get connected overseas to how to stand out in an interview.
McCord gave advice that focused on the idea of starting life after graduation right here in Dallas. If one wants to work toward world peace and ending poverty, there is a community for every country that one might think of going to and to use this city as a springboard to the ultimate destination.
She referenced to Web sites such as dfwinternational.org to start looking at organizations in the metroplex that spread all over the globe. Referencing her first experience in working abroad in Japan, McCord explained that, “50 percent of success is understanding the culture and how people view work.”
Both McCord and Flournoy referenced how important time is and what exactly it means in different cultures. Both agreed that work is not everything to other cultures, like it is to Americans. Others might put their family, their faith and friends before work and that is not seen as unusual. Flournoy reminisced on how people would come to work at 10 a.m. and leave at 3 p.m. in Europe and how they thought that she did not enjoy life enough since she would come in at 9 a.m. and leave at 5 p.m..
Flores focused on telling the students to leave their judgment at the door because he said, you’ll learn a lot of strange things that will be hard to understand for you. They may have different life experiences from you, it doesn’t make it wrong it just makes it different.
Day, fluent in Mandarin, spoke about the time commitment to traveling depending upon the consulting industry, whether it be media and entertainment or leadership development and business strategy.
Students who attended this panel ranged from sophomores to graduate students. Leela Harpur, a junior CCPA and Spanish double major, said “I am doing an internship with the U.S. embassy in Rome this summer so I came to the panel to get advice in working abroad for the first time. I learned that networking and doing my homework before I go to Italy is key.”
Steven Aitkenhead, senior and international student from Guatemala is a double finance and economics with financial applications major who was interested in the panel’s insight.
“I would like to work here in the states or in another country,” he said. “This panel helped because you don’t really think about the research as much. This made me realize that ideally, I need to start with the embassies and where there’s a need in certain areas because I am not going to just get a job because I want it.”
Each panelist ended the hour with final points.
Lorraine McCord said, “Do not give up, it does not happen over night.”
Fred Flores, stressed, “focus on being interested in their company and not interesting yourself.”
Nina Flournoy, explained that being an aggressive American puts people off but not to be afraid to “be yourself and follow your passions.”
Matthew Day expressed his belief in “going abroad as soon as you can to make the connections you need so doors will open.”
