France Trip 2015: Blog Entry 7 - Lyon, Paris; Day 3

EMLyon, here we go!

Today we went to EmLyon for the first time and our class was “Negotiating with Europeans”, by Hans Schielierer (I might have gotten the last name wrong). We also met Ricky and something I found funny was that while Ricky was doing the introduction for us Hans was sort of doing a puzzle in the back (or reading a newspaper, I couldn’t really tell). Although I found this amusing, it not something you see every day as some people might take it as a lack of respect. I learn there are not as many job opportunities in France as there are in America. This is one of the reasons why EMLyon emphasizes teaching students entrepreneur skills. Once the class started I realized how used I am the american classes; back in Dallas I could eat in class, go outside or even talk to other students in class without really bothering the professor. Personally I'm very used to stepping inside and outside of the class many times so I feel like I had to adjust myself to being quite and really try to pay attention to the class in order to fit into the French way of learning. Hans taught us about how European people can be either task or people oriented, and how they sometimes struggle by not realizing this. He mentioned how a lot of negotiations don’t work out because people don’t realize they have different styles and he pointed out particular differences between Germany and France. He had a lot of funny stories and they all made sense. It’s funny how there are some things which have always been there and you just needed someone to point them out to you so you could realize them. After the class we had an awesome lunch provided by EMLyon. It was the first time in my life I go thru a four course lunch and cannot complain about it, the food was really something else. We had the evening off to work on our street projects, as we chose to speak to students, we walked all over EMLyon and also went thru some street looking for them. All of the students we met were really friendly and had no issues with us not being able to speak French, actually most of them were excited to have the opportunity to practice their English. It truly surprised me to listen how little job opportunities students have in France, it is one thing to hear it from a professor but it's completely different to hear it from students. I was shocked since France has always been a country which I thought had a great economy and I assumed anyone would many different opportunities in here. In America after receiving an MBA there are a lot opportunities for students, but in here a lot of students want an MBA to try to get a middle level job and maybe escalate their way up, I was truly shocked to hear this. The students also told us about them and also explained how EMLyon is one if the best schools in France and how hard it is to get in. They have to prepare for many years and it’s a really rough competition, but once you get in it all gets easier. We met a student named Omar, who could speak fluently 5 different languages (Spanish, and very decent Chinese included) He was getting a dual degree in school and already had an internship. For him it was easy because of all the previous experience and knowledge he has, but he told us although EMLyon was one of the most important and respected schools in France, it is not that easy for everyone to get an internship or job.