Final Summary Journal Entry

Ethical Issues in My Profession
In the companies that we visited and were given an opportunity to observe, I did not see much differences in their ways of dealing with safety, environmental, or employee issues. I am sure the Vietnamese government has some way of regulating these things, as well. Most of the professionals we talked with have ties to America, and so they seem to have dealt with diversity issues the same in Vietnam as they would here in the United States. Since many of the Vietnamese own their own businesses, they are able to run them and treat their employees in a way that they feel is fair. The female students I met while studying at the University of Economics and Finance were all very determined to make it in the working world, so I believe that gender roles or expectations in Vietnam may be fading with the younger generations, specifically. I believe we are also finding this in the United States.

Educational Breadth as Professional Development
A broad education is definitely necessary and important in understanding the need of engineering and business solutions in a global and societal context. I think there were plenty of differences between the Vietnamese culture and that of which we have in the United States. In fact, there are enough that would make me encourage other students to study these differences. Personally, I knew some cultural differences before we traveled to Vietnam, but only those I thought we would encounter in a business setting. It has definitely made me realize that I should do more research about the culture of a place before I go there, and I would encourage other students studying abroad to do the same, no matter how long or short their trip is. I also wish I had known more about the economy of Vietnam and their position in the global market before going on our trip. Yes, it was beneficial to learn about it at UEF or during a site visit, but I think that I would have looked at the country in a different light had I known more before arriving in Ho Chi Minh City. I think courses like international economics or introduction to developmental economics would help prepare me for a global economy, even after experiencing it firsthand.

Lifelong Learning, Continuous Education as Professional Development
It is clear that all the professionals we met have benefited in some way from life-long learning. Specifically, those who were not Vietnamese have had to adjust many different aspects of their lives in order to find success as a foreigner in Vietnam. They were all educated in a field relating to their current profession; however they have all learned to adapt what they learned to the way things are done in Vietnam. One even went so far as to say that all he had learned in business school was done the opposite way in Vietnam. As for technology, it played an important role in all the businesses we visited throughout the trip. It is used not only for the basic purposes of the companies, but even for communicating with employees and clients. Clearly, everyone is affected by technology, and so everyone must be open to learning and using it as an important part of the companies they work for or have started. Technology is just one thing that people have to continue to learn in order to be successful in the business world. I think that the professionals we met while in Vietnam have all had to adjust to and learn about their surroundings in order to achieve the success they have found.

The Social Environment of Professional Life
I definitely saw a connection between peoples’ social and professional lives. Much of this I believe had to do with the fact that many of the companies had younger employees. For example, at Glass Egg Digital Media or Ascenx, most of the staff in the offices were fresh out of college or art school. I did not really discuss any of America’s social or political issues, and did not feel comfortable or educated enough to ask much about Vietnam’s social and political issues. However, I think that each company did a thorough job at explaining the politics involved in their businesses. For example, Phu My Hung Corporation is funded by the government, yet their engineers and architects seem to have been given free reign over the design of South Saigon, contrary to what I think would have been the case. Because I did not really know many of the current events or issues going on in Vietnam while I was there, I have achieved the understanding of why it is important to have knowledge of contemporary issues related to the global economy before traveling in a business capacity. Upon learning about some issues in Vietnam from those we met on site visits, some of the things I noticed around the country and in Ho Chi Minh City began to make sense. For example, I wondered for about the first week of our trip why there were so many stores selling safes. Then when I learned that most Vietnamese do not have bank accounts and therefore keep their money in US Dollars or gold, this made sense.

Functioning on Multi-Disciplinary Teams
Before and during our trip, I think that I handled being a member of a multi-disciplinary team fairly well. Working with engineering students made me realize how different the educational experiences are between the College of Business Administration and the School of Engineering. In CBA, a lot of focus is put on working with teams, and some of our most important and challenging classes have group projects as a big component of the final grade. For this reason, especially being a year ahead of my fellow Plus 3 students, I felt prepared to work effectively as a team on our pre-departure report and throughout the trip. Despite the fact that our first meeting was not very productive and we were unprepared to produce our project, the next time we met everyone had done their part and had also done a very thorough job. I was impressed by the slides the engineering students put together, and even more impressed at how well they understood and were able to explain engineering concepts in our presentation. It goes to show how much they are learning, and I think that our industry analysis was also very thorough and showed the knowledge we are beginning to accumulate in CBA. Sometimes, communication was an issue, but we eventually overcame it by appointing a ‘team leader’ of sorts, who made sure we were always on the same page.