The truth about internationality

Daily, undergraduate students are told about the importance of internationality. It’s a sort of motto for us: you simply don’t stay in a single country for your whole life anymore. Globalization, for good or for bad, is slowly softening the borders between countries, so that travelling has gone from being a luxury to a necessity. However, you don’t have to take our word for it, for we have launched ourselves to find the truth about internationality.

We have interviewed two professionals on the topic of working and studying abroad, two professionals who have never met and have no way of influencing one another, in order to find out if internationality really is as important as they make it seem.

Our first interviewee is Carmen Gonzalez Alemany, industrial engineer specialized in electronics and automatism. 

Interviewer: We understand you work in the company Bombardier in Spain as a Director CRO and Parts Business Unit. Could you tell us a bit more about your role in this company and about the company itself?

Carmen Gonzalez: Well, Bombardier is centered in two main areas. You have the aerospace area, which is manufacturing planes and maintaining them, and the railway area, which is manufacturing trains and maintaining them, as well as working in railway signaling systems, among others. Within my company, I work in the division of railway services, and inside that division I run the business unit for the repair and overhaul of train components and the sale of spare parts for trains.

Int.: Right, we understand this is not the only company in which you have worked, but that you have worked as well in other companies both inside and outside of Spain. Could you expand on this experience?

Gonzalez:  Yes, I began my career in Germany in the company Siemens, and in this company I worked in the railway area as well, and specifically began working as director of a railway project for Spain from Germany. After this I had an international experience in the US, where I studied a Master of Business Administration and I had the chance to get to know the American culture. Afterwards, I moved to Spain, and was working in a company in the aerospace sector, in particular in the sale of electronic components for satellites. Following this, I had the chance to work in Siemens again, in Spain, in the project of the high speed train that today runs between Madrid and Barcelona. And that’s pretty much my experience.

Int.: So you’ve worked abroad, but also studied abroad. Tell us, what do you find is the difference between studying and working internationally when it comes to the experience you acquire and the abilities needed beforehand?

Gonzalez: Well, working abroad, in particular in my case, was a tough task in that there was quite a cultural shock. It requires a much greater command of the language, in my case of German, and being able to adapt well the the local culture, which, really, as a first job experience, is greatly beneficial, because everything is new, not just the job itself, but you’re also exposed to other cultures and to working in a different language than your own. I’d say a good knowledge of the language and the culture is more important when it comes to working than when it comes to studying, specially in engineering where you deal with technology, which requires technical vocabulary that makes the whole job harder. As for studying, well, in my case I spoke quite good English when I went to the United States, so the language wasn’t really a problem, and you could say that, in the end, the requirements when studying outside are not as demanding as the requirements when working abroad. Probably, the country in which you work or study makes a difference in the experience, if it is more or less different to your home country, but finally, studying is something you already know how to do, so it doesn’t really pose a completely new and surprising challenge like working does.

Int.: So really, nowadays, internationality is something absolutely necessary, because as a company you can’t limit yourself to a single country, right? However, internationality is not just working abroad, but also working with people who are abroad. How do you manage to achieve cooperation between people from different countries and different cultures?

Gonzalez: Right, well the key is what I mentioned about open-mindedness. In each country there is a different culture and a different way of doing things. Companies today are getting progressively more and more international, so that even companies that were initially national are gradually feeling the need to expand internationally, so it is important to be able to adapt to your client’s culture, to your colleague’s culture, to the culture in the departments with which you have to work closely. You can have, for example, in the case of my company’s projects for arabia, arabic clients with the islamic culture, providers from all over Europe, from the US or any other place, so it is important the moment you go abroad or even work with people from other cultures, to have your mind open enough that you can adapt to what each person or culture requires. You have to know that there are things that can’t be treated in the same way with some people as with others, particularly religious matters like islam, or cultural matters like the Japanese with their culture of hierarchy. So it can happen that you get to a country or you have to work with a colleague or a company, and because you don’t know their culture you can have serious problems that can make a project fail. That’s why exposure to other cultures is so important, and it can come on an academic level or, ideally, with an international work experience that allows you to meet all those people in a working environment that is the one you later will need to apply.

Int.: That international experience and exposure includes, of course, being able to speak different languages, because you can’t develop and sell a product if you can’t communicate with your colleagues and your client. Which languages would you consider most important for an engineer nowadays?

Gonzalez: What I always says is that nowadays English is a given, that is, speaking English is no longer a competitive advantage, because it is a requirement, like studying the career itself, so you really have a true advantage the moment you speak other languages like German, because a lot of the technological companies are based in Germany. German is quite a tough language to learn but it really makes a difference when you are searching for a job. French, too, could be considered important because there are quite a few French companies, but fundamentally German. Another language that is also very valued nowadays, but that is extremely hard to learn, at least for most Europeans, is Chinese, because of the technological power that China is, but, really, to acquire a level of Chinese in which you can actually develop a job is extremely hard. What I always say, though, is that, whenever I have had to hire people I have always valued the matter of languages, speaking various languages and having lived abroad, because I find it requires maturity to, of your own free-will, leave your country for the unknown.

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Our second interviewee is Julio Casla, civil engineer that works in many countries like Peru or Spain.

Interviewer: You work for the company FFC. What exactly is your company dedicated to?

Julio Casla: We do public and private construction, of both building and civil works, with operations in Europe, Asia and America.

Int.: And what is your job within this company?

Casla: I’m the General Director of the Delegation in Central America, with its headquarters in Panama.

Int.: As General Director, what’s the sort of training or studies that you demand from your employees?

Casla: We ask for graduates and highly qualified specialists. Due to the high cost of expatriation of foreign personnel, sending unqualified personnel to work outside is not worth it, because we can afford the same qualified workers in the country in which we are operating.

Int.: What are the qualities needed for an employee to be chosen to work in a foreign country?

Casla: We ask for someone that has at least three years of being part of the company. It is also very important the mastering of Spanish and English, because with these two languages you can basically work anywhere in the world. Furthermore, it is very important to analyze his or her personal situation. For example, the separation from family or not adapting to their new situation influences the emotional stability of the employee and sometimes we have cases in which the employee has to go back to his country for those reasons. Also, from my point of view, a good professional is someone with experience that can add value to the company in a country that is not theirs. To sum it up, it is very important to have someone with the ability to adapt to new situations, who is able to work in group and to be extroverted.

Int.: But why is internationality important?

Casla: Nowadays working outside your country has become a normal situation in any medium sized company. Any company must be able to work in a foreign country when this situation arises for whatever reason. The world has no borders, no distances. The language, the political and economical systems are no longer obstacles. Globalization and internationalization go together, and the exchange of knowledge, experience and professionalism will become increasingly common and become part of everyday life in the world of medium and large enterprises.

Int.: What has been your most rewarding international experience?

Casla: There are many positive things about working outside and I cannot focus on only one good experience, it’s a cumulus of things: working in different national markets, getting to know different working procedures that we are not used to, learning to think, negotiate, trade, work and develop projects with companies from other countries different from ours. Also dealing with people of great knowledge and professional worth. It is very rewarding at a personal level. At a family level, it is very interesting since my kids have been educated in an environment of tolerance and pluralism, having direct contact with people of other ethnicities and cultures. It is an experience that has opened my mind and my family’s in every way. 

Int.: Do you find there’s a big difference between studying abroad or in your home country in terms of experiences needed?

Casla: In any developed country there is a high probability of having a good education, either in a public or private educational system. This education serves to lay the bases of what will be your future as an engineer; however I don’t consider a key factor the fact of studying in one university or another. Nevertheless, it is very important to have a postgraduate degree and to have a good mastering of English and Spanish.

Int.: So working abroad is quite important, but can you work in more than one place at a time?

Casla: It is possible. It’s not easy but you can. Plus you never really work in one place, because for one reason or another you always create professional relationships with other places. What I mean is that it’s very difficult to stay in one place when working in a medium size company. Since the moment I was asked to work in Central America, I have travelled every month at least three times to different countries to work with different companies. It’s like working in two companies and places at the same time.

Int.: It is said that internationality is not only working outside, but also working with people from outside. What can you say about that idea?

Casla: It is a fundamental aspect. The person must always adapt to the environment and not the environment to the person. As said before, the expatriate worker will always work with staff of the country to which they arrive, and he or she must be able to integrate into their world, endorsing their livelihoods and even their habits.

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That was the opinion of our chosen professionals. It’s clear that they are simply opinions and not everybody will agree with them, but the one thing that was made crystal clear is that internationality is no longer an option, it’s an obligation that must be attended to if one wishes to become a highly valued professional. So get up and start looking for an international experience; you have the whole planet to choose from.

References:

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