Hello, my name is Bob Singer and

I'm a second year student at Empire State College.

The faculty at Empire State has developed an open online course for

foreign born students that will hopefully allow them to transition

from their academic careers into a professional situation more easily.

As part of this program I have been asked to answer a few questions

associated with that transition that may be able to help you.

The first question I was asked was,

what can students do to better transition to a professional US working environment?

And some of the things associated with that that I'd like to talk to, fall under,

essentially three general categories.

First of them being professional hygiene.

The second one, general behavior guidelines.

And the third, essentially, using your own experience.

If we start out on professional hygiene and

I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this.

I want to be very clear in that, the expectations when you enter your

professional career are going to be that you look the part. And when I'm talking

about this I'm talking about, you know, your personal overall appearances.

Obviously you're going to want to have an appropriate suit or

clothing to wear to your job, depending on your profession.

Basically you're going to want to dress the part.

The old adage applies here, "dressing for success" so

let's get that out of the way first.

And then we're going to talk a little bit about general behavior guidelines.

Timeliness is going to be important.

Obviously I think that goes without saying.

But I do have to mention it.

Being on time is important.

If you're not on time people are going to notice and

you don't want to be noticed for not being on time.

Along with that for a salaried position, or even an hourly position

clock watching isn't going to be something that's looked on kindly

in the professional part of the United States.

Don't jump out the door right at five o'clock when you're job ends.

You know, there are times when you can leave directly at five,

there are times that you'll probably be able to leave a little bit before that.

But overall, you're going to want to commit to your career.

This is your job, this is going to be your livelihood.

And you want to represent that you you understand that.

And you're committed to the company that you're working for.

It's going to be noticed by,

not only your superiors, but it's going to be noticed by your coworkers.

The amount of time that you're putting in

and how dedicated you are to your position.

In addition to that, there's another piece that's important, and that's

sharing your downtime with coworkers.

And I'm not talking about you know,

spending every, every second of every day with your coworkers.

I'm talking about water cooler time and what that refers to is basically

the downtime, lunches, breaks, the beginning and

ending of meetings. Where people are waiting around for things to happen.

There is more of that than you would necessarily think that goes on

in an office in a daily basis. And sharing your,

sharing yourself with your co-workers is going to be very important.

It's going to be important for you to understand American culture in that

context in the sense that you're going to need to be able to

have a conversation about you know, sports or entertainment.

Even what's going on in the news locally.

You know, for instance, right now, weather would be a big subject,

especially in the Northeast of the United States.

If you're dealing with people in the Boston area,

that subject's going to come up.

So it's important that you familiarize yourself with the culture and

are able to have a discussion about that.

it's going to help you interface with professionals in the United States no

matter where you're at is if you can keep up with the with the culture, with what's

being talked about in popular entertainiment, sporting, and the news.

Another thing associated with your behavior, and this particularly

applies to meetings, and you'll be part of quite a few meetings in the United States.

I used to really enjoy, in my experience, people that did a lot of listening.

And when they did have something to say

that they brought a lot of what I used to refer to as pop.

And what that was, essentially to me, was someone that had a strong impact on

a meeting after listening to a variety of the aspects associated with what

was being discussed, and brought up a, an element, or a solution, or a topic

that was, applicable to the meeting. And that really made the entire group have to

think or assess a new direction, depending on what was being discussed.

So, it's important to develop your listening skills and to understand

and get a better feel as to when to speak in a meeting.

You'll be requested to speak during certain sessions, and

I'm sure you'll be fine with that.

You've shown initiative to being a student in the United States, so

I think you're not going to have any problems

demonstrating that within the context of a work environment.

But listening is going to be a big deal.

The last piece using your experience.

Again, you have an advantage in this situation.

Utilize your inherent diversity and you know, not only as

an individual yourself and the diversity you bring as an individual,

but think about your background, where you've come from and

things that might go on in your native land.

That would have a positive impact or you know,

just a change of course or, or subject for a meeting or a,

a topic at work that would shed different type of light on any given subject.

That's valuable, valuable stuff.

Whether you think it is or not.

And it will be interesting for for you as well as the others in your

work group to understand your perspective and pay good,

good mind to some of the things that you may bring up in that case.

Lastly I guess what I would say to make the transition easier,

treat others as you'd like to be treated yourself.

That's going to be a notion that's going to get you through a variety of different

circumstances and allow you to be successful.

On a personal level, and a professional level, as well.

So I hope that helps, and best of luck to you.

How can you better transition to a U.S.-based professional environment

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