That being said, time for the nitty-gritty, need to do to get credit stuff.
Professionalism and Ethics:
From visiting the companies it was clear
that there was a difference between how American and Vietnamese companies run;
however, it does vary depending on the type of company. As far as professionalism
is concerned there was little difference between the ways the two countries
handle themselves. It is customary to shake hands and have involved
discussions. Though, in American culture it is common to be more direct while
in Vietnam it is customary to wait for the other party is finished before
speaking. As far as professionalism is concerned, it is more important for
Vietnamese to be polite than firm as it is in American businesses. The hiring
process also varies. In Vietnam, hiring for lower level jobs can be as simple
as posting a sign on a fence, while in the States there is usually a more
stringent process.
In day to day business customs the average
work day tends to be longer for the Vietnamese. The majority of the work force
in the country is lower class so they have to travel and be away from their
families for sometimes months while in America this is not as common. Also employee
turnover rate in these types of jobs is much higher in Vietnam than in the
United States. Also since much of the
population is desperate for employment, Vietnamese companies can ask more of
their employees and not pay them what American workers would consider fair
compensation. There is also a custom for people to nap at times during their
shifts in Vietnam which is something American workers do not have but would
probably love.
International Education:
As far as engineering is concerned there
does not appear be a need for international education. From the Vietnamese
companies we visited there did not seem to be any international influence on
the work they were doing. In these businesses it did not seem as important for
their engineers to more about international engineering, rather they would take
the time to educate their engineers about what they will specifically need to
do for their job. It was not as important that they be hired having a broad
range of engineering knowledge since usually the company they went to planned to
teach them everything they needed to be successful, and in some cases safe
after they were hired.
Engineering is very practical and since it
is mostly mathematics and physics, it can be translated easily across cultures
and countries. Business was a little bit of a different story. Of course the
basics of economies and the mathematics that goes along with business can be
learned easily, but it can be hard to teach students about the cultural nuances
that affect business depending on the country. For example, when visiting the technical
design company Glass Egg, we learned that the Japanese clients of the company
would only do business with people born Japanese, which changed the company’s
business practices that they used with other international clients. Thus, if
students wish to work with an international client base or work in a country
other than their native one, it is important for them to be up to date on the
other countries business practices.
Continuing Education:
As mentioned in the previous section, much
of the specific education needed for the technical jobs done by the employees
is learned after they are hired. Usually they require a basic education before entering
the job and then once they are hired the company will educate them in what they
want them to be able to do. This was demonstrated in two different companies in
two different types of work settings. At the technology driven Glass Egg the
team looked for artists and then taught them technical engineering, saying that
for their business it was more important for someone to have artistic ability
since that, unlike technical engineering skills, could not be taught. The other
company was the Saigon Newport Corporation, in which they hired employees with
a basic education background and then sent them to school so they could learn
how to properly operate and fix the machinery so that they could perform their
jobs safely.
Since Vietnam is a continually expanding
country the knowledge gained by these employees is very important for their
futures in the working world. Though some of the skills they learn are very
specific they can be easily expanded upon and apply to other jobs in different
companies in the nation. Since the turnover rate for the average Vietnamese
country is rather high compared to other global powers, these skills can be
very useful in getting these employees work if they let go or leave a position.
Social Environment:
For the average worker, their working and
personal lives are usually separate. The Vietnamese culture and people place a
heavy emphasis on family, thus much of the peoples’ personal lives have a heavy
familial influence. Since many people have to travel far for employment they go
to work to work and focus on little else. Many of the population that have
lower paying blue collar jobs they spend much of their time during the day is
centered around their job and have little energy to do anything else when
outside of their jobs.
Vietnam is currently situated in a delicate
situation with its surrounding nations, and therefore global news, or at least
that in their area of the world is very important to the people. The people
have a strong sense of patriotism and therefore have a vested interest in what
is happening to their country in relation to nations. They do report global
news from many regions, but in times like they are experiencing now, with the
anti-china riots that were occurring in the country during our plus 3 trip,
they do tend to focus on domestic news.
On a different note, the youth and younger
citizens of the country are very involved with global entertainment, music
especially. Much of the popular music in the nation is the same as it is in the
western hemisphere, so it made it very easy to connect to the Vietnamese people
that I met on the trip that were similar to me in age.
Functioning in Teams:
For me, communication is very important
when working with a team. Much of my work experience involves working with lots
of people with different opinions at the same time. From this trip I learned
that dealing with this type of difference in a professional conflict is no
different. At times it can be difficult to connect to people with different
people since they place a higher importance on or like to talk about things
that you may not understand or find relatively interesting, to illustrate, many
of the engineers on the trip loved to talk about physics in their free time and
to be honest science gives me hives, but it is important to try and relate to
their interests or at least listen to what they have to say so in the end
everyone is happy.
The most important aspect of being a part
of a team is communication and the best way to communicate is to listen to what
your other group members have to say. Often people are talking to loud to hear
the ideas of others and not only does this create annoyance in the group but it
prevents them from hearing potentially great ideas. Especially in groups that
come from different backgrounds it is important to listen to group members
because odds are they know more about a certain topic than you do and it can
greatly help in an endeavor. Also, what I learned from this trip is that people
that can have wildly different backgrounds or interests than you can make the
best of friends.
