Cross Cultural Communication. It's a phrase a lot of people are familiar with. It's thrown around board rooms and training seminars all over the world, every day, in a maelstrom of theory and stereotypes. Given that I have three years of a joint MA in Management and International Relations under my belt, I felt I was pretty well versed on the topic and the challenges it presented. I could happily quote Hofstede, produce a critical analysis of the perceptions model and wax lyrical about the common challenges of high versus low context cultures. I was armed for every challenge working within a multinational corporation could throw at me. Unsurprisingly perhaps, my first few days at IBM happily shattered this illusion. 'How to explain to an Indian supplier what a 'subtier' is whilst interpreting his heavily accented questions' was not a topic we had covered in my international business module. Nor had I been equipped with best practice to follow when the person you have called with an urgent question enquires, in perfect English, whether you speak Hindi and on receiving a negative response, simply hangs up the phone. I should have seen this coming- IBM does after all employ over 400,000 people in 170 countries, so fitting into this communication and coordination over such an expanse was never going to be straightforward. I guess it's easy to fall into the classic 'I've read the textbook so I’m well-informed' trap during a university degree. Everything can seem horrendously simple when classified within a pleasing diagram or summarized in neat little paragraphs. I'll save you the clichés regarding steep learning curves and avoid the inclusion of copious metaphors to joyfully illustrate how much I have learned at IBM so far as I get the feeling that's not really the point. I think that the attitude and outlook this experience has reinforced is far more valuable than the specific facts or roles that I have digested and mastered. In reality I could learn as much IBM jargon as I wanted (believe me I'd be here a while!) but unless the company decides to map out my entire future career path it’s really just a tiny fraction of the 'growing process' I have been afforded here. For starters I was assigned to the supplier on-boarding team to relieve some of their work load, undertake process analysis and identify and eliminate pain points. It reads like a fairly average set of internship tasks until you realize that the team in question is based 2000 km away in Chengdu and that in order to understand the processes I was to seamlessly mesh into and critique, I had to undergo intensive training over the phone with a colleague for whom English is at least a 2nd language. This in itself is impressive. I, for example, speak Spanish at a fairly competent level and have a basic knowledge of Swahili from my NGO work. The prospect of employing either language however, to explain to a native speaker, in technical and corporate jargon, how to undertake tasks completely alien to them would certainly be a challenge. To do so remotely is all the more remarkable. Of course there are still little issues here and there- as is to be expected in a company whose main language of operation is English in a non-native speaking country. I spent quite a few of my early days here redrafting communication notes in order to eliminate what is fondly known in these parts as 'Chinglish', or Chinese that didn't quite translate properly. Happily these efforts seem to have increased supplier comprehension and the number of suppliers seeking assistance with the process has fallen substantially. Despite all of this, a couple of weeks ago I received a timely reminder of the fabled 'smallness' of the world. It was the biennial 'all hands' meeting, an occasion taken seriously by all staff. We were to be addressed by the head of IBM global procurement who would invite questions from the audience following his presentation. Plenty of rumors had reached me but I still had to smile as the unmistakable accent reached my ears. This was John Patterson, IBM Global Scot, who despite residing in the USA for a good number of years, had retained his unmistakable 'twang' and even managed to slip the compulsory joke about Scottish weather into his report. Once he had finished speaking I asked him if he had any career advice for me as a soon-to-be final year undergraduate. Unsurprisingly when faced with a loyal IBM audience he advised me send my application off to the company asap- certainly a crowd pleaser! He also reinforced something which I am seeing evidenced more and more here in Shanghai; that a willingness to be geographically flexible, not pigeonhole yourself into a defined role and an ability to adapt, will all serve will well in the current globalized marketplace. To go back to my original point of attitude over facts- you could sit in a library for several years, reading every book you liked on a named topic however I would be willing to bet a fair few Yuan that it would not prepare you for any number of the scenarios that you will find yourself in during your first week of employment. It's an old cliché but there really is no substitute for the knowledge you gain 'on the job'. Whilst this fact may catch the unwitting graduate off guard, it is certainly no revelation to graduate employers. The demand for relevant, real-world experience is high- having a degree often just ticks a box and gets you admitted to the first round of screening. I have come to the belief that understanding this aspect of the graduate market and harboring a positive attitude which drives you to grab hold of opportunities, blaze a trail and make connections will get you much further than simply being ‘book smart’. Yes, it helps to know what you are talking about, but a recognition of the limitations of this approach is invaluable. Interestingly, when telling people I planned to head out to China to live and work alone this summer, some looked at me as though I had gone a little mental. I think though, that having enough confidence in yourself and your abilities that you are not fazed by those with such an outlook is particularly important. Yes, being the only western IBM'er in the Shanghai Procurement Center has been a challenge, but an exciting one, and one that has proved to be among the most fulfilling and exciting experiences of my life to date.