Chinese government’s
firewall. I
remember
standing
in
front
of a big
map of the city
full of Chinese
symbols, thinking 'this module will be hard’. Eventually, by a lot of hand gestures and my map reading skills from the boy scout, I managed to take the 430 km/h bullet train to the city center. Arriving in Shanghai didn’t feel like arriving in a new country, but rather arriving on new planet. The culture shock is significant. An example is that personal space seems to be non-existent in this city. Shanghai has got a population of 24 million people and that changes the way you live and behave. People pushing their
way in the subway and
crowds on the streets
being guided by
hundreds of police
officers is an
everyday sight.
Patience is
often key.
Further, less
than 1% of the
Chinese
population
speaks English,
so getting
around in the
city is nearly
impossible
without a good
translator app.
In general,
Chinese people
will be a
bit shy when you
approach them, but
they are extremely
friendly. They’re happy
to show you their rich
culture and they often ask for pictures with you. Once adapted, China gave me a really welcoming feeling.
The shanghai campus is super pretty and there’s plenty of space. During one of my courses, I was in a team with three Chinese students. This helped me a lot in understanding Chinese habits and becoming familiar with Chinese business practices. For example, they’re very focused, show less emotion during meetings and only hand over documents with both hands as a sign of respect. In addition, one of my teammates took me out for dinner and introduced me to his friends. We listened to Chinese music and ate scorpion. We had a blast!
Finally, studying in these three global cities over the past year was incredibly enriching and stimulating. It gave me valuable insights about business and life, it gave me experience in dealing with different cultures and I got to meet the most inspiring people coming from all over the world. I’m grateful for the opportunities I was given and I’m immensely proud to be part of the Hult Global Generation!
So what’s next? On a personal note, all of this prepared me to land a job as Business Analyst at ExxonMobil in their EMEA Headquarters Brussels, Belgium. I aim to leverage my education as Master in Bioscience Engineering with my Master in International Business at Hult. What is important is that Hult International Business School definitely gave me a solid background during my application, both on a personal level and on business acumen. To end, my advice to students looking for a job would be to really reflect on all kinds of situations at Hult where you solved problems, interacted with others and learned about yourself. It’s a massive plus to give that some thought before a recruiter would ask you about it on the spot.
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