Career Videos

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What is your career? What kind of work do you do?

Hello everyone or zǎoshang hǎo for the Mandarin speakers out there. My name is Austin Babb and I am a global talent acquisition partner at Tencent. So, what is a global talent acquisition partner? It's just a fancy term for global recruiter. Before I start this video I'd like to invite everyone to smash and like that subscribe button as well as give me a thumbs up, follow me on LinkedIn and all that fancy stuff you do before the start of a video. So, what do I do as a global recruiter? Well I do what's called full cycle recruiting and that is starting with sourcing, going all the way to screening calls, setting up interviews with hiring managers and helping candidates through our process to eventually get to an offer. After the offer is issued, I also handle the onboarding for our studio based here in Irvine, California called Lightspeed LA. With being a Mandarin and Chinese speaker, I also assist with some translation documents whether it be for marketing or internal use. I also work on the recruitment marketing for our studio here in Irvine, posting things on LinkedIn and other sites as well as handling and helping recruiting with other studios that are based in North America under the Tencent umbrella.

Why did you choose this career?

I chose a career at talent acquisition in Tencent mainly due to three reasons. Human resources, China and gaming. So for human resources, I did my undergraduate in human resource management at Indiana University and while I was there I was studying and learning more about not just companies' bottom lines but really who are the people that drive these bottom lines? And it's the people. It's the talent that you attract and that’s what really got me excited about human resources. With recruiting especially, while I was in the Chinese Flagship Program at Indiana University, I was abroad in Nanjing and got an internship at a video game art outsourcing company and there I was an international recruiter and really just recruiting their Chinese employees and being able to test their English capabilities as well as their foreign talent that would, you know, be able to test their Chinese abilities. And that’s what got me into my China journey as well. When I was in my freshman going into sophomore year, I had an internship in Wuhan, China teaching English and uh that, that journey changed my life and how I wanted to pursue careers in the future. I immediately joined the Chinese program at IU through the School of Global International Studies and then joined the Chinese Flagship Program after I learned more about what they did and in terms of sending students spending summers over to mainland China or Taiwan to improve their Chinese language abilities and then with their flagship capstone year of sending students to spots in mainland China to where they would be able to do their studies as well as do an internship at a company in China could be global could be local to interact and use your second language ability in a professional setting. And what really got me into Tencent and gaming is I am a huge gamer and you could look at my steam list and think how does this person have time for anything else. And it's one of those things that it wasn't a space that I thought that I'd be able to number one get into and number two I really didn't know how to get into it and it just this opportunity I got through convening connections while I was over in China they that whole big thing of guanxi is what they call it but it's you know making connections and networking and the value of that in your professional and personal relationships is really a big part of what got me here. So when I was choosing my career and that those were like really the three big things was HR, China and gaming all really intersected and just also the part that as a recruiter I get to talk to people all the time and that's something that I really like to do as well as be able to make a huge impact on someone’s lives of being able to give them an awesome opportunity whether it be an industry vet that's been in gaming for 20 years giving them something new and going to a brand new fresh studio in North America under Tencent or even to fresh grads or people that aren't in the gaming industry really getting to meet with them and potentially give them this life-changing opportunity to really join the gaming industry and get to work on a lot of things that they love. So that's how I got into this particular space.

Does your career have a global/international component?

Yes, absolutely my career has a global international component with our processes that we go through in talent acquisition we have to communicate with HQ over in Shenzhen and while there are people over there that do speak English, it is very cool and it does, it's a unique experience to be able to speak in their native language rather than having them speak in mine and it does make a lot of the processes go by easier and being able to understand local business culture as well as some of the norms over there even within in work and outside of work just helps navigate this huge space between us and Chinese business cultures and U.S. and Chinese relationships. We also have a lot of employees here in the United States that are from China and being able to speak with them in their native language and being able to build this bridge between U.S. and Chinese culture is an amazing tool to have. An amazing experience for anyone who wants to get into this space. So, highly recommend. 5 out of 5 stars. So the foreign language that I use is Mandarin Chinese that's the only other one that I know and we use it a lot when communicating with HQ as well as other offices in the United States where they also have Chinese admins. And really the skills that you know outside of languages I like to think of it of when you're learning a foreign language or you're learning a foreign culture you have like an iceberg right, and so the part that is very obvious the top of the iceberg outside of the water you could see is yes the language is obviously different so you start with there and then you start descending in the iceberg and you start learning about all these things that you miss on the surface that you wouldn't necessarily be able to grasp unless if you went in with the language. So I bought up guanxi here earlier with being a critical component. There's also mianzi which is this face and we do have this in the United States but it's there's several different components of face that are all kind of split up in the U.S. versus China. It kind of falls under this one umbrella. There’s also some things as far as we have high context and low context information where high context info is you know way that we communicate in China where it's not as much specific details are given about a certain assignment or certain things and leaves a lot of guesswork versus low context. You know that we say in the states would be you're saying things, you're giving a full explanation, you’re you're saying things much more clearly with a lot more detail and so you're navigating these two spaces and you have to think about the information you're getting, asking a lot of questions is this all the information that I need? There's also this concept of feedback where this goes a lot back into face where from my western counterparts, it's pretty easy to get feedback. Um almost a little too easy and with my Chinese. counterparts, asking for feedback, they they don’t want to offend and but it's this whole thing you know hey this is for my improvement I do want to know what I did wrong or what I did particularly well. So that's a really big one. And this isn’t just for Mandarin. This is for any language or international component that you go through there’s going to be this journey that you start with the language as the core and then you’re going to move deeper into the iceberg with all the different things with social cues. Things that come up through history and some of it might be more similar to the United States and with English, you might be able to to lean on that a little bit more. With Mandarin, it is the very first rule of learning Mandarin and learning about China is to forget everything that you know about the US and English.

What skills did you develop as a student that have benefited your career path?

I think I could split this up into what skills I developed and which skills that I wish I developed more in my studies. So when I was an undergrad I started my China journey and really learned Mandarin Chinese for about four years as well as developing my knowledge in the human resource space. With the human resources undergrad you learned a lot of generalist stuff. We had recruiting, we learned about compensation, we learned about law and it gave me a lot of like a 30,000 foot view of the HR space and then going in and specializing later in recruiting. For Chinese language as well, I did my master's degree at Johns Hopkins University and I did it in China and doing international economics really made me think of human resources especially recruiting in another way. Thinking about labor markets, thinking about how labor markets are affected by the overall economy, all these different macro and micro poles that are going on in different directions and thinking how well if all these accompany, these companies are going up or this new industry the the metaverse and all these things they're demanding programmers, it's going to be harder to get programmers. So thinking about those things it really helped the other huge thing was that my program was very unique, it required us to take 80 percent of our coursework in Mandarin as well as doing a master's level thesis and the thesis defense in Mandarin which doing it in English is already a daunting enough task. It really pushed me to my limit and really. my comfort zone was across the street, it was, it was a very fun and intense experience but I'm really thankful for it. In terms of what I would have liked to develop more while I was in school was organizational skills and really being able to juggle a lot of things at once. Really when you're a recruiter, you have several different people several different positions you're running. In my case, I am running for different studios as well and you have many many applicants at different stages of the process and you’re having them meet with different people from hiring managers to technical interviews to coding tests and having to keep track of all of those and make sure that everyone gets the updated info that they need at the appropriate time as well as keeping up to date with where people are is a bit you fully utilize your your Outlook calendar is what I'm saying and and don't be afraid to write things down. Write things. You get lots of notes. It really that, it's very helpful and that's I really wish that I focused on that more as undergrad because it's something I had to learn on the job and that's that's a huge component of I think in recruiting that you need to do is keeping track and having everything organized.

What advice would you give students who are interested in this career?

So for anyone that's interested in global recruiting or talent acquisition I I'd like to think about this like an economist you have what I like to call macro knowledge and micro knowledge. So macro knowledge is understanding the industry that you're going to be recruiting in so I'm in the games industry for example I'm following things like gdc.Gamescom was last week in Germany and following what what kind of new startups are coming up, what kind of genres are they really focusing on, so how will that affect the talent market that we're going to have to go out and fight for these candidates and so really understanding industry knowledge and this could apply really for any job that whether you're going into accounting or finance or you're going into cybersecurity knowing specifically what challenges your industry is facing will really help and it is something you need to pick up. Now on the micro scale, that's more of your specific function. So in my case with recruiting so keeping up to date with what are what are the recruiting platforms other than LinkedIn. Is github a good place to find to find engineering talent? There's art space that, there's different art places to use to find art artist portfolios that they may not be looking on LinkedIn and knowing more about your industry knowledge what are you know what are what are the things in cold calls or cold in mails that are really getting better responses when you're sourcing or what are some better ways to enhance the candidate experience while they're in the pipeline? These are all things that you have to keep up with as well and I think this could apply not only for recruiting but for other crews as well. Learning your your industry that you're in as well as learning more about your specific function. And don't let these words, these terms macro and micro fool you. They not macro is not important the micro they they're both important in their own way but macro is much more, is much more broad of a scope and then micro is where you get really into the weeds with your specific function. Thank you everyone for listening to my TED talk on global talent acquisition in the gaming industry. I appreciate everyone for listening. If you want to learn more or just want to connect and chat feel free to add me on LinkedIn. I'm always happy to connect with students and help them out in this industry. Thank you everyone. Zaijian.

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Hi. My name is Jewela Alapag and I am a lead coordinator for the spoken language department at Luna Language Services. As a lead coordinator, my role is to schedule all foreign language requests, assist with training coordinators, educating clients and contractors, and collaborating with the operations accounting marketing and American sign language department.

How did you learn about LUNA

I actually learned about Luna when I met a Luna interpreter through a Beyond Me initiative which is a non-profit organization and when I heard about Luna, I decided to apply right away and became a medical interpreter for Tagalog in October of 2017 and short after I was offered a full-time staff position as a foreign language coordinator. I am happy to say that I recently earned a promotion as a lead coordinator and in this role I really love the fact that I get to be more active on training our new coordinators and working with the compliance team and that's something that I have not done before and of course helping our coordinators and our team to be successful in their jobs at Luna.

What do you love about your job?

One of the things i love about my job is getting to meet a lot of people with vastly different cultures from all over the world. I work with people from Mexico, France, Afghanistan, Burma and also have worked with interpreters from all over the world. It's crazy because before I worked for Luna, I probably only knew about maybe 20 languages and now I get to learn about a new language almost every month and that goes to show that people are moving to Indiana and not just Indiana but we also offer virtual and remote interpreting. So we also get requests from other states as well. 

What do you like about your job?

As a lead coordinator, I feel that it's important to be an active listener since we are answering calls, emails and talking to a lot of people every single day and it's also good to be able to adapt to a new environment and to new people and to make sure that you're mindful of different cultures. I am originally from the Philippines so it's great to be able to use my language skills when working with interpreters contractors and potential clients.

What are you working on right now?

Right now I'm still very young in my career and I'm still working on developing my professional skills and my writing skills and I have been working with my amazing mentor Tiffany to help with my writing and public speaking skills. This is why I'm very excited to do this video. I was born and raised in the Philippines so when I moved to the US, I experienced culture shock and had to learn to adjust to new language and to understand and communicate with the new language. 

Advice to students with multiple language skills?

My advice to students that have multiple language skills is that you can really design your own career pathways and leverage your language skills. Whether it would be working full-time as an interpreter or contractor or translator um. Or even working in a position where those skills make you more valuable to the company. Multilingualism can be a big benefit for you to secure better job opportunities and you also get to help people communicate at the same time. At Luna, our mission is to provide language access to limited English speakers and I'm so proud and very happy to be part of this family. Thank you for watching.

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My name is Noah Roberts and I work in international business development for Ford Meter Box which is a manufacturer right here in Wabash, Indiana of products for water distribution piping systems. I work with local partners and in countries around the world to assist engineers and water utility directors in best practices and using high quality products in their water distribution systems. I actually worked at Ford Meter Box in the foundry here during my summers in college and I knew that I wanted to have a career with an international component, and it just happened to work out upon graduation that there was an opportunity for me here and I couldn't be any happier. I think I enjoy working in international business because of the multitude of things that you can experience in a day. Working with people from all different backgrounds and beliefs around the world that it always keeps you on your toes and very entertained if nothing else. So although today's technology makes instant communication with anyone around the world very easy, we still very much believe in meeting in person whether that's traveling to the country of interest to have meetings there or hosting groups of international visitors here in Indiana. My study abroad experiences through Indiana University not only helped to develop my language skills but also international awareness and travel skills that are a huge part of my job today. I would say that studying abroad was the big component that prepared me for the international component of my career and also of course studying Spanish and Portuguese languages. I wish that I would have put more emphasis on partaking in the multicultural groups that are at IU. That's something that I think as a student you have the opportunity to immerse yourself in in those groups on campus and then once you're out of school and working you really don't have nearly as much time or opportunity to put yourself into those situations so I really wish I would have done that more when I was there. The study abroad experiences, the two that I had through Indiana University were a great component in preparing me for this career but I think that nothing rivals continuing to learn on a on a daily basis from the people that we interact with, the study abroad experiences uh set a great foundation for being able to continue to learn each and every day from the people who we work with. My advice for people who want to get into a career with an international component is to soak up as much knowledge and experience as you can from people that are different than you and come from different backgrounds. I find that the more people I meet from different places in the world, the more I see our similarities instead of our differences.

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[Music] Hey everyone. My name is Ethan Clendening and I'm a senior finance manager on Microsoft's cloud computing team. So my job really falls into kind of two categories one of them is looking at the performance of Microsoft's cloud business, the revenue, the number of customers, all those sorts of metrics that eventually get reported out to Wall Street to help drive our company's stock price, I kind of helped craft that story. And the other part of my job is really focused more  on strategic investments so what's thinking through what sorts of programs we might want to launch, what sort of incentives we want to offer our sales teams to drive the behavior that we want to see in the cloud. All those kinds of ROI resource allocation discussions are things that I play a role in as well.

Why did you choose Microsoft?

So I wound up in this job for a whole number of reasons but one of the main reasons I decided to pursue a career at Microsoft was my passion for foreign language and for building bridges internationally and across cultures. That's actually a journey that I started way back in high school. I participated in IUHPFL's summer study abroad program in Oviedo, Spain after my junior year, which was a fantastic experience, learned a ton made a ton of friends, and it really sparked my passion for Spanish specifically at that time. But more generally, just for building relationships internationally and seeing what the world is besides just beyond my little slice that I see on a day-to-day basis. That was so exciting for me and opened up all these new perspectives and so I knew that I wanted to kind of continue on with that passion through college and hopefully in my future career.

How did you land at Microsoft?

So when I got to college, I decided I was going to study Chinese and economics so those were my two majors. All with the goal of eventually landing a role at a big multinational tech company. So I studied abroad in Beijing in college. I did some internships and through you know a lot of twists and turns I eventually landed here at Microsoft where I've been now for about five years. And really my background in foreign language, my previous experience studying abroad, living abroad, those played a direct result in my time thus far here at the company.

First job at Microsoft?

So my very first job here at Microsoft was on our supply chain team where I was working with our Xbox and Surface factories and as you might imagine, a lot of our products are made in China and so because I was a Chinese major in school, I was spending a lot of time talking with our teams in China. I got to go visit our factories in China and help interpret for some of the executives that traveled there with me from Seattle which is a very cool experience. And then more recently, I actually returned from an expat assignment in Spain, so I was based at Microsoft Madrid. I was working with our central and eastern European sales teams at that time but I was living and working in Madrid, getting to go to the Spanish office every day, speaking Spanish at work every day. It was a very, very cool experience and frankly one that would not have been offered to me had I not already had that background in Spanish and lived there in the past In fact, a lot of the hiring decisions that Microsoft makes in general are impacted by someone's prior experience living, traveling, working internationally or even just on a more basic level having studied a foreign language. A good data point is that there were 40 business analysts that came in with me to Microsoft in the year I started and 35 spoke at least two languages. So 35 out of 40 Microsoft hired bilingual business analysts and the reason for that is that you know the company knows they have offices all over the world um we're working with teams, international teams all the time so having that background and being able to, you know, communicate effectively and build those bridges is absolutely critical in this day and age and so it's not just personally rewarding when you get to travel and study and learn different languages, it can also really impact your future career opportunities and open a lot of doors for you as well. 

Career tips?

So along those lines, if you are interested um in a career in tech be that on the you know more engineering software development side or more on the business side like kind of what i do i have a few sort of tips that might be helpful as you start thinking through that. The first one is just keeping up with the trends and technology so keep keep tabs on you know what Apple's doing what i guess it was Facebook now it's Meta is doing, uh what TikTok is doing. Try to predict where technology is going to wind up in a few years and that'll help you start to plan out your path so that you sort of intersect it at the right time. So when you're ready to jump into the tech world, you have the skills the tech world is looking for at that point. My second tip would be to just start talking to people who do jobs that you're interested in. So if you think that you know someone who's a software developer and you think that's a really cool job to pursue, don't hesitate to reach out to them. See what they have to say. If your parents know people, that's a really good resource. It's a great way to get sort of an honest opinion of whether you might like a role or might not. And then finally uh what just kind of ties back to everything we've been talking about thus far. Continue on with your language study, travel when you get the chance, study abroad in college if you get the chance. Again all those things make life super, super fun from a very selfish perspective but on a larger scale they're opening so many doors for you, both in terms of the relationships you get to build, the perspectives you get to gain and then frankly for the career opportunities down the line as well. You know it's not just these big companies like Microsoft who are looking for well-rounded multi-culturally adept employees. All companies are starting to become international companies whether they actually have offices internationally or not chances are you're going to be working with clients from different cultural backgrounds. People on your team will be from different cultural backgrounds so these are critical skills that are really going to build the workforce of the 21st century so I really encourage everyone to continue pursuing those opportunities when they become  available. So with that I guess I will leave you. I hope this was helpful. If you guys have any questions about, you know, working at Microsoft in general or tech or you know anything, don't hesitate to reach out. I would love to chat with you. In the meantime, good luck, keep up your international studies and I'll see you out here.

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What is your career? What kind of work do you do?

Hi everybody. My name is Svitlana Ramer and I am the VP of Development and External Affairs with the International Center. In my role, I oversee two large areas within our organization. One is development, also known as fundraising so it's the philanthropic revenue side of the house and in addition to that our marketing work. So that external affairs piece really has to do with marketing, public relations, being out and about in the community, greeting people who come from foreign countries and really making sure that people in the community here in Indiana as well as outside of Indiana know about the International Center and know about the work that we do.

Why did you choose this career?

I chose this career actually very naturally so I was born and raised in Ukraine and I finished my four-year degree at the university in Kiev focusing on international tourism so I've always been really interested about international affairs. I had dreams of helping foreign visitors come to Ukraine and discover this country as well as helping Ukrainians travel abroad because I really believed in the power of international connections. So when I came to the United States for graduate school, I also did my research on in within the area of international travel such as destination image and how people perceive different places, why do they want to go to different places? After my master's degree, I moved on to a PhD program at Penn State and I got a little bit deeper into the cultural aspects. I studied diaspora and in transnational travel and how people who moved to foreign countries then come back to their native countries and the cultural experiences that I had, that they have the acculturation of these people in their host country so this has been a very natural path for me. I spent several years in academia after my PhD. After I got my degree, I was teaching in international tourism and travel arena then I also worked for local governments for a local city administration helping with community engagement and so this job at the International Center is now this perfect combination of all of those competencies and all of those skills that I've been practicing my entire life. So this career really chose me and I chose this career and I feel like it is the absolute perfect fit for the past 12 to 14 years of my life.

Does your career have a global/international component?

So I really love this question does your career have an international component because my entire work with the International Center is all about international relations. So our organization, the International Center, is Indiana's premier non-profit in the international affairs arena and we do so many different things. We are the only organization in the state of Indiana that is certified by the Department of State to receive international visitor leadership program participants through the Global Ties US program. We also have the only in the state of Indiana a protocol officer who knows how to set up flags and how to set up meetings according to protocol with all the different international visitors such as delegations from overseas, ambassadors, consuls, you name it. We also have a program that we offer James Morris, named named after James Morris. Global Leadership Development Program which brings in a cohort of emerging global leaders in every year to learn about different aspects of global leadership, of international business and so we train them this cohort in the course of five months. In addition to that, we provide a lot of connecting of individuals around the international affairs so we have a series of panels called the international connections where we bring in speakers and we allow people to join for a free webinar so they can learn about some burning issues. So we had a panel on Afghan refugees when those were coming into the United States. We just wrapped up a panel about the grassroots efforts in Indiana to help with the crisis in Ukraine and all the different organizations that are working here so literally every aspect of what we do. Our CEO is the honorary consul of France in Indiana, one of our board members is an honorary council of Portugal in Indiana, one of the good friends of the center is the honorary council of Latvia in Indiana. So every aspect of the work that we do here is international in its nature. There is a variety of skills that come in handy with this position like I said, I am in charge of both the philanthropic revenue side of the house and our marketing public relations and external affairs. It really helps that I'm fluent in Ukrainian, Russian and English and I dabbled a little bit. I did a study abroad for a semester in Germany so I know a few introductory phrases in German and then throughout my middle and high school, I studied French so I can at least say, "I'm sorry I don't speak French a whole lot. Do you speak English?" which people normally really, really appreciate and then they are more much more willing to switch to English. So those linguistic skills are of course, of course really helpful and whenever we receive international visitor leadership program participants from Russian or Ukrainian-speaking countries I'm always really happy to meet with them and give them that sense of comfort by being able to speak to them in a language that they understand. And then of course really working with a lot of the donors and a lot of the audiences and constituents that we have because for the International Center those audiences are truly international. The people we have attending our panels, the people that we have visiting our state, being able to speak to them and address them in a way that is very respectful is absolutely crucial and that is why we are so, so fortunate with the center to have our Officer of Protocol because we go to him to help us understand whenever we have a visitor coming in how do we speak to this person? How do we receive their business card? Is it with one hand or with it two hands? Is it a handshake? Is it a hug? Is it a kiss on the cheek? What is the appropriate greeting? Is it a bow? Every culture has a different way of approaching that and so we are very fortunate to have a person who can prepare us to do that and even the office, the Governor's office and Indiana Economic Development Corporation, they reach out to the International Center to our office of protocol whenever they travel overseas which our Governor does quite a bit. Huge kudos to him. And when they have international visitors coming to Indiana they can reach out to us and Peter can explain to them the culture of a delegation that they're about to receive or a country that they're about to visit. So those are really crucial competencies and components that we have within the International Center that really help position Indiana as a well-cultured state on the global stage.

What skills did you develop (or wish you had developed) as a student that have benefited your career path?

There is a number of skills that I would say are very crucial in order to succeed in this type of career if you want to work in the realm of international affairs. Of course a second language, third language you know sky's the limit really competency would be really, really helpful when you can enter the sphere of international affairs and the International Center is just one of the examples. You could work for a governor's office in in your respective state, you could work for the local economic development corporation, in the city government and so in any of these positions you will be encountering people of different cultures. So a foreign language competency is really great. Having had some sort of experience interacting with other cultures is also very valuable so it doesn't mean that you have to spend the money to travel abroad. You can work with different cultural organizations and clubs and go to various festivals. It just takes a little bit of desire to get yourself exposed to other cultures. There's all sorts of international film festivals that you can go to to really learn about the art and cinematography of other cultures and maybe listen to the language a little bit. One of the trainings that we offer here through the center is a cultural competency training, it's called the CQ. I'm sure you've heard about IQ, EQ but now we are really starting to talk as the world is becoming more global, we are starting to talk about the CQ, the cultural competency, the ability to collaborate and understand people from other places around the world. So that is a really, really good skill to have. Um, in addition to that, I would say um really having a genuine interest and a keen desire to get to know people of other cultures. When I was in my undergraduate program at Kiev National University, I joined the Kiev entity of European Geographic Association. And so what we did, we arranged student exchanges for students from Kiev University with students from all over Europe so we got to travel to the Netherlands, we got to travel to Germany, to Poland, to Greece and so those were some of the most valuable experiences that I developed that have steered me onto the path that ended up in me being with the International Center. So getting that exposure, getting that interest in international affairs, understanding the world politics. One of the things when I was teaching at the university and I was teaching international tourism class, one of the tasks ongoing tasks that students had was to review current international news and present news reports to the rest of the class to say this is what's happening in the world right now. There's a really famous quote of I believe from Winston Churchill where one of his people who are responsible for you know giving him reports came in and said you know oh not much is happening in the world today, it's it's kind of a quiet day, not much is happening in the world. When st.. Winston Churchill frowned and said well let's make something happen. Something is happening in the world at any time and so staying abreast of all that information and being proactive so that when somebody from a foreign country or just somebody from um a business environment is having a conversation with you and is asking you about some some sort of current world issue that you don't come off as a person who doesn't know what's going on outside the four walls of your home or of your state. So really staying keen and staying on top of what's going on in the world would be a really big recommendation.

What advice would you give students who are interested in this career?

One of the recommendations that I would have for students looking to land career in international affairs is to also be very open-minded. The International Center and I'm very fortunate to be here like I've mentioned before is a very obvious place to land. uh but really think broadly, think about different positions within embassies, consulates and that doesn't mean you need to get a ticket to DC tomorrow there are representations, like I said there's um in for example in Indiana the only true consulate is a consulate of Mexico everybody else is an honorary consul but um you know they're consulates in Chicago and a lot of other large cities. You could also be working for a mayor's office or a governor's office or an equivalent of Indiana Economic Development Corporation. There's also a number of non-profits. Just here in Indiana, there's us, there's Immigrant Welcome Center, there's Exodus Refugee so there's a number of non-profit organizations that work with assisting people from other countries to find their way in America and call America home. So I would just really encourage you to, as you're looking for internships, internships, you're looking for job opportunities in the general realm of international affairs to really be very open-minded and cast a wide net of opportunities and applications.

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My name is Scott Massey. I'm from Evansville, Indiana and I'm a graduate from Purdue University where I studied mechanical engineering technology. While at Purdue University, I worked on a NASA funded research study which used a hydroponic controlled environmental chamber to develop a research system that identified the optimal wavelength of light using LEDs to grow plants in space. As NASA is looking to expand the reach of human colonizations into Mars and the lunar colonies that will happen in the next few decades, we must find innovative ways to grow plants. And at the same time, as we find ways to grow food and plants, more energy and more sustainably, efficiently uh here uh, these same concepts are directly applicable to the problems that we're encountering here on earth. Our goal at Heliponics is to become the world's largest farming company without using a single acre of land. As we move forward into this brave new area of expansionist agriculture, we must first ask ourselves what are these limits because we have found them already. The environment is already suffering from some of the constraints limited by agriculture and we are identifying more energy and space efficient systems that are able to grow food at a localized household basis by eliminating the supply chain entirely and growing food in a manner that prioritizes the consumer, their health and the overall taste food experience, we've developed a food platform that can learn from the individuals feedback and will constantly improve the more we learn from them. My biggest regret from my university undergraduates experience at Purdue University was not having more emphasis on business accounting skills. I think that my business acumen took some learning before I was able to really have an independent and confident guidance on the company. My other regret is to not have a foreign lingual skill throughout my collegiate career. uh Some of the markets I've gone into that our supply chain is reliant on, particularly Asia, it's been difficult to communicate with some of these areas due to lingual barriers. On the other hand, we've been very fortunate to have been awarded several reciprocal exchange grants to build low-cost hydroponic farms in food insecure regions in west and central Africa. Many of these regions are primarily French-speaking which again as a single English-speaking individual that has been difficult to navigate some of those markets which have required some sort of lingual interpretation to be able to speak to audiences with clarity. Being able to speak with clarity is oftentimes as I've observed, the deciding factor on the success of the company. Are you able to speak with consistency to your investors, your customers, your employees because if there is a disconnect in any one of these groups, oftentimes a business cannot survive.I would recommend that all college students find ways to become involved in groups on campus that would force them to be in a public speaking scenario. I often times that when I speak to individuals who may self-label themselves as an individual who cannot speak publicly, oftentimes possesses all the skills that they needed to do so. It's simply their fear of failure that must be resolved and the only way to truly overcome this is to put yourself in that situation and overcome it as soon as possible. Growing up I had my own difficulties. I had a speech impediment and even had to attend speech therapy classes as a child to try and overcome these problems that to this day I mispronounced things very frequently but as you can see here I've competed in a number of business plan competitions and have been able to win hundreds of thousands of dollars for my business that has allowed me to create not just an employment opportunity for myself but several people that work for me and with me in our company as we move forward in our common goal of eliminating food insecurity and increasing food quality for humanity as a whole. So above all else communication is critically important in how you communicate to yourself, your team, your investors, your customers, your supply chain. There must be consistency. If there is not consistency then your messaging will oftentimes have a disconnect and that is frequently where businesses fail. I recommend that all students pursue an art class, at the very least, an introductory drawing class. I think art at its most basic element is about minimalistic design being able to have absolute clear communication to the viewer regardless of their language, socioeconomic situation but to deliver a clear message through some sort of visual or optical uh illustration presented to them. I have found that in mechanical engineering and patent drawing and sophomore development, these concepts are very similar. There is beauty and simplicity being able to achieve an outcome with the least amount of resources and I find that especially when someone is from a different domain than that of the art college they can possibly gain the most from learning from these insights because being able to eliminate any sort of redundancy in operation is critically important for any small business which you cannot afford to be wasteful in its most early foundational development stages. As humanity grows and we expand the limits of agricultural expansionism, we have found there's a limited amount of space water and other resources available in the world in order to grow the food that's needed for the growing human population. Going forward it is now our generational's duty and obligation to develop more robust food systems that will not only feed and resolve the current problems we're facing today but feed our children and their children's children's generations for many to come.