MBA Students from USA, Iceland and China Discussing Career Development
Apr 18-2013
By KOU Bo
On June 7th, the MBA students from the Graduate School of Business of Bentley College of the United States and the Reykjavik University School of Business of Iceland met BiMBA 06Full-time students, to share the MBA features of the three different countries as well as their colorful campus life and career experiences at Langrunyuan. This US-Iceland joint delegation consisted of 39 members. They planned to stay at BiMBA for two weeks, in which they would attend the lectures given by the professors from China Center for Economy Research and BiMBA on Chinese economy as well as related business courses. Afterwards, they would visit Xi’an, Shanghai and Suzhou for investigation and study. The organizer of this program meant to enhance the mutual understanding among the students from the three business schools through the face-to-face communication. CUI Zhenhai, a student from BiMBA, said, “The exchange has broadened our international perspective and provided us with more options.”
Professor ZHENG Shiping from Bentley’s Graduate School of Business looked very gentle, and when it came to his workplace, he was full of passion. He introduced that Bentley was more than a college with exclusive focus on business. The college currently had 4000 undergraduates and 1300 MBA students. For undergraduates, there are four majors: business & IT, liberal studies, ethics & social responsibility, and business & culture of global commerce. Bentley did not only cultivating business leaders; it also took a step further to improve the quality of their students’ life.
Joseph from Bentley made an introduction of their experiences in internship and job-hunting from the students’ perspectives. Faced with fierce competition in the United States and under globalization, they have to seek continuous self-improvement and in the meantime look for a position that really suited them through internship. He made a special reference to the Career Development Service at Bentley, which had provided lots of information and created many opportunities for the students.
Iceland is a mysterious country. Professor Leifsson from Reykjavik University did not rush to introduce the business school where he worked. Instead, he chose to make an overall introduction of Iceland in the first place. Iceland is a country of ice and fire, with glaciers and volcanoes. Its population is currently about 270,000 people. The urbanization level is quite high, of which 60% living in the Reykjavik region. In this welfare state, people live a quiet and safe life and are close to each other. The degree of social trust in this country is very high, and the crime rate is almost zero. From time to time, Professor Leifsson would also mention some anecdotes about the country. For instance, not only had Iceland imported white sands to pave its beach, it had also tapped geothermal energy to heat the beach. Out of curiosity, a friend from the United States could not help asking, “Could you please talk a little bit about the drawbacks of Iceland?” That was the question all of us wanted to ask, and all the friends from Iceland answered unanimously, “Weather”. Finally, Professor Leifsson talked about the economy and business in Iceland. As a member of the European Union, Iceland has experienced rapid economic development in recent years. Due to the lack of labor force, this country has adopted a lenient policy toward the labor inflow from other EU members. He expressed his warm welcome to U.S. and Chinese business elites who are ready to seek career development in Iceland.
Karitas and Trausti, students from the Business School of Reykjavik University, made a brief introduction of their internship and working experiences. In their school, the MBA study lasted for 2 years. Contrary to the fierce competition in Chinese and U.S. business schools, MBA students could find a decent job quite easily. Thanks to the economic prosperity of Iceland in recent years, the financial sector now played the same role as fishing industry in terms of contribution to the GDP, and was already one of the leading industries for the nation. It not only played a vital role for domestic economy, but also helped the flourishing companies to develop international markets. More and more well-educated people worked in the financial sector, and the average income in this sector grew faster than that in other sectors.
It is said that one’s personality is ultimately rooted in the natural environment where he was brought up. As for these friends from the country of ice and fire, the “ice” spirit was embodied in their modesty and politeness, while the “fire” passion was expressed in the chorus by all of their 12 members.
At last, as the host, the BiMBA students introduced the history and current situation of BiMBA. QI Zheng, a 06 student especially alluded to the high-quality cooperation programs of BiMBA. All such programs, no matter with prestigious foreign business schools or leading business groups of the world, had brought a lot of benefits to the students.
As requested, LIU Qian, Director of BiMBA’s Department of External Relations and International Programs, as well as the organizer of this activity introduced the situation of BiMBA’s alumni associations in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Shandong, and emphasized BiMBA’s concept of cultivating “entrepreneurs with a sense of social responsibility”.
The lovely weather and the beautiful natural view in June seemed to predict happiness. It turned out that 4 of the 40 visitors were to celebrate their birthdays in this short period. The BiMBA teachers were considerate and prepared a big birthday cake for them. Singing the world’s unanimous song to celebrate a “Happy Birthday” and tasting the tea-tinged cakes, the MBA students from different backgrounds exchanged freely about their thoughts and future plans. They already had a successful life, and their inspiration and hard-working would enable them to fly higher and further.
