Ethical Issues in my Profession:
While in China, I noticed many differences between the working conditions and situations than here in the United States. After talking with some of the assistants and doing some preliminary research, the first thing that I noticed while in China was the large population of people doing random nonexistent jobs along the streets. Even just at our hotel, we saw like 4 different people just sweeping the driveway, things you would never see at a hotel in the United States, as if it needed to be done a hotel clerk would do this job, instead of a separate job. I guess this is the result of overpopulation. The next difference I noticed is the lack of a minimum wage. Almost fifty-percent of the population of China lives on less than fifty dollars a month, whereas in the states this would not even pay for food for a month. This is a large ethical issue, and although the standard of living is much lower in China, their overpopulation is proving to cause new jobs not found in the United States.
In terms of ethical issues, although I have not seen firsthand in the United States, it seems as though the large companies we visited all have a strong connection to a moral code, and adhere to that strictly. The best example of this would be Capital Bio. Being a biomedical engineering firm, most of their products have some sort of moral or ethical discussion or controversy, and if they do not setup and adhere to a strict form of guidelines in terms of values and ethical codes, their firm would come under fire for being unethical. And in a biomedical engineering field, this could prove detrimental to the company.
Educational Breadth as Professional Development:
Based on my experiences in China, I have found many reasons to expand student’s classroom learning to bring in other cultures. Before this experience, my international experience was basically nonexistent, and I had not thought of taking any course pertaining to another culture. I had just wanted to get my degree done and move on into the work force. However; after this experience, I see that things are not that simple anymore. China’s economy is poised to take over the world’s largest economy in less than 30 years. This will be while I am in the work force, and working in the business field, it is impossible to say where I will be working in that time frame. For me, international business has now entered into the realm of possibility, and the ability to learn about other cultures, through classes or even outside the classroom on a field study such as this, will give me a leg up when competing for jobs down the line, and even internships within the next couple of years.
This experience has expanded my educational breadth, and has opened my eyes to seeing the bigger picture, that no longer is business just about the United States, but it involves a complicated weave of countries that play a large part in our economy. This global economy can be summarized in courses throughout Pitt, especially in international courses, such as an international trade course I will be taking second semester of sophomore year.
Lifelong Learning:
As we are all currently doing at the University of Pittsburgh, learning about the different professions available to us and choosing to learn about one or two fields specifically is setting us up for a lifelong career in that field of choice. However; with the ever changing economy both domestically and internationally as well as the rapid expansion of technology, things we are learning today may turn obsolete within the next few years. This is the biggest argument for continuing, lifelong learning and professional development, the fact that not only the business or engineering fields are constantly changing, but society as a whole as well is continually changing.
When visiting the companies in China, it was easy to see that these companies firmly believed in the continuing education. Whether it be a solar company, biomedical engineering firm, or computer company, all of these types of fields rapidly develop and experience what I spoke of in the previous paragraph. For these reasons, all of these companies firmly believe in continuing education, and the representative of Tsinghua Solar even told us about the continuous education their employees do in the form of conferences and seminars that showcase the newest technologies and changing aspects of their respective fields.
Social Environment:
The social environment of China’s professional life has both many similarities and differences than in the United States. The best way we were able to identify this was by the meeting we had with the Tsinghua University students. This gave us the ability to compare our lives at home with their student’s lives in China. For the most part, it seemed as though their life revolved more around schooling and studying whereas ours, although includes this as a large aspect, also focuses on the social aspect, networking being one of the most important things in the United States.
In terms of the local news and the television, for the most part we watched their version of CNN. It was very different than the United States, and was interesting to see another country’s opinion on actions taken by our country and our leaders. We are so used to democrats and republicans arguing about issues that happen domestically and internationally, it was a very different experience to see another country’s government approved commentating on things happening in our country. One of the biggest stories happening while we were there was the violence in Thailand. This was something that was a huge deal to them, whereas in the United States, the coverage was not nearly as much. This is an example of why we need to have an understanding of global issues. What is important in China versus what is important in the United States are two different things, and when working in a global economy and international business, it is important to know what is going on in the world around us.
Functioning on a Multi-Disciplinary Team:
Functioning on a team that has a variety of majors and professional consultants can pose as a problem for those who are unable to understand points of view coming from other sources, as well as for those who are unable to succumb to the fact that other disciplines may just have more experience or a better knowledge of the subject at hand. For example, my group for this trip is made up of me, an Accounting and Economics major, and three Engineering majors. If there is not a mutual understanding between us that I am just not going to be able to understand some of the scientific happenings behind our company, Capital Bio, and that they are not going to understand the market and financial workings as well as I am able to, then our group will not work effectively to deliver a finished product.
This is an important concept that applies not only to college students, but to business professionals as well. When the ability to work in a team and accept your strengths and weaknesses is lacking, it will be difficult to accomplish tasks in an everyday situation. With the interweaving and connecting worlds of science and business, I see this ability to be a necessity as you enter into the work field.