Final Blog

For the most part, the professional businesses we visited seemed similar to those in the United States.  The businesses we visited seemed to be made up of the wealthiest people in Vietnam.  For example, everyone was dressed professionally while at work.  The businesses all gave off a wealthy feel.  On the other hand, the stores we would shop at in our everyday routine had very bad working conditions.  They were all dirty and just unpleasant to walk into.  I didn’t notice much discrimination in the workplace though.  It caught my eye that Navibank only had female tellers working and the people giving the presentation were all females too.  Also, there was one part of the factories in II VI that had only females working.  Other than that, I noticed no racial or other types of discrimination.  A few of the businesses informed us about their employee benefits that stuck out to me.  Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park had some outstanding pluses to working there.  There’s like a whole, little town inside the industrial park!  Aside from the housing offered to employees, there are all sorts of recreational facilities, such as, restaurants, shops, a bank, and a postal office and police station right outside the park.  Such benefits make businesses more attractive to employees.

Having a broad education is crucial to understanding engineering and business on a global scale.  In this day and age, more and more businesses are expanding internationally.  Therefore, knowledge in certain areas, such as foreign language and culture, are important to have.  When communicating with branches in other countries, you will need such skills in order to be as successful as possible.  One thing I noticed about the UEF curriculum was how English classes were required for all students.  Being able to speak fluent English as a Vietnamese native will set you aside from those who cannot.  Since there are many countries around that world that speak English over Vietnamese, these English-speaking students will not suffer from the language barrier.  Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park prepares students in the Eastern International University with necessary skills to succeed in business in Vietnam.  VSIP is the location of an array of different businesses that require certain skills.  Since EIU is located within VSIP, there is more knowledge of which skills in particular are most valued in being successful in the business world.  Just like UEF, every student is required to take English.  It is apparent that the more knowledgeable students are more prosperous.

Some aspects of people’s jobs are learned prior to employment, whereas other skills are learned on the job.  There are general studies that everyone is required to take in school, such as English, which are used in their everyday endeavors.  Other, more field specific, abilities are learned at the time of employment during training sessions.  For example, the factory workers at II VI probably learned their most used skills when they were hired.  Each person has a different task that they just repeat over and over again countless times each day.  Tasks such as how to use certain machines or how to assemble small objects together are not taught in school.  Also, many Vietnamese cannot afford to go to school so they do not have the type of knowledge necessary for some higher ranked jobs.  These people must find jobs that will teach you everything you need to know in order to work there.  Just like in the United States, some people find jobs that have nothing to do with their major.  For example, my father was an accounting major but ended up working for a commodities company.  He had the basic knowledge needed to work for Louis Dreyfus, but all the schooling he went through to get to this place was irrelevant.  This will happen in Vietnam too.  With the economy we have today, people will take any job they can get.

In my opinion, I saw that people kept their social life separate from their professional life.  For example, one of the professionals from II VI had kept in touch with one of the Pitt students and asked if we wanted him to show us around the city a little bit.  When we went out with him it was strictly social.  We didn’t talk about business, it was all about what’s going on around the city and it was on a more personal level.  On the other hand, while he was giving us a presentation and tour of his company it was all business.  As for their knowledge of the United States, they seemed sort of informed.  They weren’t really aware of some of the current events going on today, but for the most part they knew the United States geographically.  Students would ask what part of America I was from and when I replied with Connecticut, quite a few of them knew where that was.  I was very surprised by that since Connecticut seems like sort of a pointless state to most.  Before I knew I was coming to Vietnam I had no knowledge whatsoever of the country.  I couldn’t even tell you the capital.  Vietnamese students seem to be more informed of the United States than I am of Vietnam. 

I think combining business and engineering students in this trip was a clever idea.  I saw it as an opportunity broaden my knowledge of different disciplines.  If it were just business students, it would have been a trip learning only things that I’m familiar with.  Adding engineering into the mix allowed me to be informed of topics I know nothing about.  I had no background in engineering whatsoever.  I didn’t even know there were different types of engineering until the first pre-departure meeting we had.  Visiting companies, such as II VI, that focused mainly on engineering would have been pointless if it were just business students.  We wouldn’t have been able to generate such relevant questions to ask, which the engineering students took care of.  Also, when visiting business oriented companies, sometimes the engineering students would look at it from a different perspective and it opened my mind to new things I wouldn’t have thought of on my own.  Even the business students helped to do that.  For example, at Navibank, a lot of the business students are more knowledgeable than I am so I had learned a lot just by the questions that they had asked.  Working in a team of different interests has helped to open my eyes to different things and made the experience of traveling abroad an overall more rewarding experience.