Looking Back

• Ethical Issues in My Profession:

To be a successful company anymore, it's almost impossible to build up without dipping into the global market either for import or export of pieces and products or creating a factory or office abroad. The cost of production and labor are so high in the United States. To keep their costs to a minimum, companies are looking to countries like Vietnam to build their factories. In parks like VSIP and Phu My Hung, companies from around the globe are setting up various factories and offices in hopes of building their company much larger. I believe it's necessary for companies to do this. Not only does it help decrease costs, it provides jobs and a more stable life for many Vietnamese and it opens of the company's product more to the global markets. It is very important; though, for companies to understand the culture and regulations that these countries like Vietnam have. In order to build up a strong employee workforce, one needs to understand their employees. For example, in Vietnam, the regulations are different for a labor force than most countries. They have a given number of days each month or so that they can miss without getting fired. So if someone just didn't show up to work one day without a phone call or anyone, their boss isn't allowed to fire them. Also, employees get time off for their holidays. As a company needing a well trained workforce to successfully run their lines, II-VI would lose employees after these holiday breaks, because they just got paid all their wages and they were back home which could be hours away. To compensate for this issue, II-VI started only giving their employees part of the paycheck before break, so they would have to come back after to get their full wages. Understanding cultural differences like these is important to run an efficient, successful and legal company. I do think a company could make a lot more money doing these things in Vietnam. It's simply that there is such a large potential workforce willing to learn and do pretty much anything, while the cost is so much cheaper. Even with the cultural differences and such, I really don't think those would create a huge difference in labor. The only problem with Vietnam is that much of the labor pool is untrained and barely educated. 

• Educational Breadth as Professional Development:

As I stated previously, the one major thing that Vietnam is currently strongly lacking is a strong education system. Industrial parks and companies are funding things like EIU and UEF, which, hopefully, will be a good first step in improving the education of the Vietnamese people. These schools are teaching students things like English, banking and financial skills, and engineering skills. All these things make a strong, trained workforce someday. Though I think some emphasis needs to put on also training and educating the older generations as well, seeing as those are many of the people working in these factories. Some companies are doing a good job of this. Take II-VI for example. They have trained their employees to be completely successful at a leg of the production line so that someday they can take that skill and apply it to a different leg when necessary.  I think it's very important that the Vietnamese learn about different cultures, not just the culture of the United States. Companies are coming in from all over the world into these industrial parks. Being able to relate with the boss or even strike up a conversation that reminds them of home could land them a job or make their working experience that much more enjoyable. As for me, seeing that I do, one day, want to work internationally, I think it's important I take some international business classes. Even as an engineer, it's so important to understand the business side of things and how to successfully work abroad. Also I think it's important that I start to take an interest in learning new languages, at least the basics, so I can connect with people I hope to meet in my future and show them that I am interested in working with them. But there's no better way of learning about a culture than actually spending time in a country itself. After this trip to Vietnam, I almost never want to travel the tourist way again. Being immersed with the students really helped me see Vietnam through the eyes of a native. We went to places we never would have went to and ate things we never would have ate. And there is no education better than actually living something. So I do think it's important that if Vietnamese truly want to understand our culture, they spend some time in the US. 

• Lifelong Learning, Continuing Education as Professional Development:

There's no definite answer to describing this question. Lots of the employees at these companies, mostly the factory workers, have not had any kind of education or training. They come into their jobs completely unskilled and untrained. The company then teaches them the necessary things so they can be competent and efficient at their job. Then there's the other people. People like the lead engineers. Most of the time these people are from places other than Vietnam. They are generally employees hired by the company from some country where they've had a strong education and a great understanding of their field. Occasionally, there are people similar to this nature from Vietnam. I do think in the future, we are going to see more and more skilled Vietnamese workers coming into these companies and taking more of the technical, leadership roles. The problem is, education isn't a one and done kind of deal. The world is constantly changing and new technologies are constantly arising. Therefore, I believe it's important for these companies to encourage their employees to keep learning whether that be by hosting classes and information sessions themselves, or helping workers find and manage classes outside of the company. It's the same way in the United States. Many of the older generations of workers, for example my Dad, are becoming more and more outdated as these new technologies arise. But thanks to his companies push for lifelong education, my Dad has opportunities to learn about these new things so that he doesn't become completely irrelevant to his company. 

• The Social Environment of Professional Life:

There are some connections I discovered between peoples' social life and their professional life. For one, religion. A few companies would have little buddhas scattered around and stuff of that sort. Also, at Glass Egg, the employees had their own desks where they could put up pictures and stuff to make it their own and connect them with their life outside the office. Little things like that are ways I found the connections between social and professional life. As for the Vietnamese keeping up with the current happenings of the United States, I was very impressed. Lots of them would talk about President Obama and some even knew about things as recent as the tornadoes in Oklahoma. The Vietnamese clearly find it important or fascinating to have a knowledge of the US. I on the other hand am lacking in that department. I, unfortunately, know very little about the current events in Vietnam, which is such a shame. It's important to understand what a country is facing at present. Firstly, it's fascinating. Everywhere is different yet somehow many problems are global. Secondly, it's relevant to the professional aspect of life. Say I had a company and I wanted to build a factory somewhere, lets pick Vietnam. But lets say, that Vietnam is currently in the middle of labor riots and much of the workforce is unsatisfied with current conditions. It wouldn't be the best time for me to go build my factory and try to hire a bunch of workers, unless I am willing to meet their conditions. Now this is just a really dramatic example. Understanding what the people of a country are going through is really important for any business to have a successful company and workforce. 

• Functioning on Multi-Disciplinary Teams:

To answer this question I want to look at the group as a whole and discuss it on the trip. We were a group of 8 engineers and 6 business students. There were three sets of really good friends, five of us who had all lived together for a year and lots of strangers who didn't know anything about each other. Yet somehow we all came together in the end to form a solid group who got along really well. Things that helped us. 1. We were really honest with each other. After a year of college, we all seemed to realize there's no point in pretending to be something you're not. Life is more fun when you are who you are meant to be. With each other, everyone seemed to be him or herself. We were goofy, we had fun and we just talked about anything and everything. 2. We listened to each other. When we were at the company visits and such, we fed off each other. One question would lead into another and we would end up having great conversations. 3. We helped each other. Whether we were in class trying to utter these words that seemed near impossible or at a company visit where either something business related was going over my head or something engineering related was going over theirs, we all would help each other if possible.  Regardless what it was, it all came down to communication. We all talked with each other, a lot. Was it challenging, heck yes. From the first day when we were all at the airport to the last day when we were on the boat there were challenges. At the airport, we barely knew each other. It's not always easy opening yourself up to someone you barely know. In a team situation, you constantly have to work with new people and ideas are personal, sharing them makes you vulnerable. Sometimes it's just a matter of putting yourself out there, and that's what we all did. Other challenges were things like differences in opinion. Everyone has them. But you have to compromise and work through them. I guess an example from this would be trying to pick a restaurant that would satisfy a large group of people. I mean clearly we were not all gonna agree, but through communication and compromise we were able to pick somewhere. Things like these made us stronger as a group.