Thank you letter

To my supervisor:

I wanted to thank you for taking me on in the role of trade specialist intern for the
Summer of 2014. Five years since the last intern anywhere in the embassy meant it was far from a given that someone would occupy that role and the ease you made it with transitioning into the office made it a memorable experience. You trusted me to take on projects that I would only have dreamed about before I arrived and made the internship so much more valuable than simply shadowing and making coffee. You aided me in understanding a system that I was not at all familiar with and created a potential career path I had not previously considered. On top of all that you opened up your personal life and your friends to me to make my stay all the more enjoyable. Hopefully one day I'll find myself back in South Africa, for business or pleasure and we can catch up.

Best Regards,
Thomas

Most Important thing I learned

I think my biggest takeaway from the internship looking back was the exposure to federal government, especially while in a foreign country. I have job shadowed and had various other internships and each brings with it the exposure to the practices and standards presents in each industry and field. In a sense then, I gained the insight that I could completely make a career out of working for The U.S. Department of Commerce in many different capacities. 

free write 2

Interviewing for a job in a different state or country? Does anyone else feel like it is nearly impossible to give a good impression and account of yourself via a telephone or Skype interview? Perhaps its just me but I feel far more confident and connected in person and I believe it shows up in the interview process.

There is an obvious lack of personal communication that is absent in those two forms of interviewing and I never walk away feeling confident of my chances, regardless of my experience level. I have read online about reactions similar to mine that come from the hiring manager as well. They talk about feeling awkward talking about the position and completing numerous interviews online, and often don't feel like the person they select is always the same person who walks in the door on the first day to sign paperwork.

Is there a better way to do online interviews? Should they follow a different style than the interviews done in person to compensate for the lack of human interaction?

free write 1

I was wondering how valuable internships were in various sectors. Sure the internship has proven success for both the intern and the company in standard industries such as field research, business, and the arts, but for some industries I'm not sure what the intern gains. To be sure its hard to find a reason that any company, regardless of the industry shouldn't look to get a few interns in, as they represent (generally) cheaper labor options that are paired with individuals eager to impress. So what does an intern in, lets say the IT industry or retail industry, gain by completing an internship? Sure experience is an easy answer, but to be worth more than a position where you can gain experience and be paid in the same process with the chance to receive more benefits, the internship has to provide a different type of experience. Simply making coffee for administrative officials at Macy's headquarters wont net you any more valuable experience than being hired to be the clerk at a similar location. My two cents.

career services

I attended a career services conference in Seattle about a month ago. It was put on by numerous colleges in the Seattle area including but not limited to: The University of Washington (all three campuses), Seattle University, and Saint Martins University. Of interest were a few the speakers, all former professors and long time local government officials. In between speeches there was information settings and time to chat with others who attended.

Unlike other conferences of this type that I have attended, the demographics of the conference were mostly of college aged young adults and not career individuals. It provided that chance to gauge how others in similar situations were going about making themselves known in their careers, a series of chats that was worth nearly as much as the conference itself.

Overall it was a conference well worth attending.

organizational strength

I think The U.S. Department of Commerce as an organization would be described by most as a strong organization. The branch I worked for in particular was small but successful in what they were tasked to do. Clients thought so as well, rating each of their interactions with the office as meeting or exceeding expectations.

I'm not sure anything stood out as things I would change. If pressed I would perhaps look for a better office space. The physical appearance and style of The U.S. Department of Commerce's offices in the embassy were very plain and basic. It always felt like a outside location would make a better impression on clients, but as our job was to create meetings and act as an intermediary for the client and their potential partners, our office's appearance does not represent a huge area of concern.

Free Write: Challenges of an Internship during the World Cup

Laugh if you must but I found it tough to stay focused during the World Cup this summer. To some like myself, The World Cup represents the highest of all sporting events, easily beating out The Super Bowl, Olympics, and The World Series. During the most recent incarnation, which happens every four years, I was living and working in South Africa, a country who love soccer and get World Cup Crazy ever since they hosted it in 2010. Thanks to the time zone changes between South Africa and Brazil, the games were live after 7:00 pm to midnight, ideal for those who were working 9-5. I'd meet up with friends on Long Street (Cape Town's version of Bourbon Avenue in New Orleans) for drinks and to watch the games. Much later on I'd taxi home and prepare for the next day of work but after four weeks of games it began to take a toll. Not that I'm complaining, I love the World Cup and can't wait for the next one in 2018 in Russia.

Free Write: Americans and Gap Years

I spend as much time as I can living in new locations; experiencing new cultures, opening up myself to new things and avoiding complacency, and expanding my comfort zone. In high school and as an undergraduate I kept up part time jobs to save money to get away and take on these "gap years". However, while it is completely normal to live such a life in Europe, it is far less acceptable here in The States. Why is that? In Europe, a gap in your resume is acceptable if filled with a reasonable explanation. Employers look for individuals who have gap years that were filled with travel, experiences, and growth. Obviously merely taking a year off to sit around your house won't win you any credit, but here in America gap years are derided as displays of apathy, laziness, and a lack of desire to get ahead. Should this be the case? Should those who look to enjoy their younger years and take a year of their retirement early and explore the world be criticized for it?

Public Service

I believe that working for The U.S. Department of Commerce in South Africa displayed public service in numerous ways. First, by assisting American companies find contacts in the local region to connect with and create trade agreements, we displayed public service qualities by being a channel by which American companies found avenues to expand and grow back home. In the local community we volunteered time and resources to helping out in underprivileged areas. Finally, by maintaining a presence in a foreign country we were part of a group that represented a location of safety for Americans traveling if ever anything should happen. 

Finishing up in South Africa

This post about my internship covers the last few weeks as it began to wind down. I spent a lot of time traveling around Western South Africa exploring all of the places I promised myself I'd visit before heading back. Boulder Beach to lay on the ocean surrounded by penguins, The Cape of Good Hope to see the bottom of the world, Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, Table Mountain, Kirstenbosch Gardens, and so many others. I attempted to find time to travel up to Kruger National Park to see the amazing game reserve but sadly that was a bit too far and costly. My final days at the Embassy were filled with meetings, debriefings, and filling out paperwork to turn in badges. 

Leadership

I suppose what leadership represents most in my internship in Cape Town at the U.S. embassy was that it came in so many forms. Direct leadership, knowledge based leadership, project leads, and in this setting, protection. The beauty of working for the government overseas is they embrace a hierarchy of direction on nearly every level and require you to be aware of it. For me personally, the leadership areas where I was allowed to thrive was taking the lead on projects, as well as outside the gates during our Mandela Day volunteer work. By organizing, instructing, and afterwards, informing, others on what I was doing, I was able to showcase leadership qualities to my supervisors on multiple occasions. I imagine it would be hard to find a setting and organization where leadership was less evident than an American Embassy, so I have been fortunate to see it in action.

Profile: Lisa Takata

When asked to interview someone who held a position that you aspire to, I was fortunate enough to schedule some time with Lisa Takata, Deputy City Manager of Phoenix. Initially scheduled for a brief 30 minute interview, we spoke in some detail for the better part of two hours. Discussing her career path, major accomplishments, the key variances in council-manager form of city government as well as many other topics, I found the interview to be most engaging and very informative. Lisa could not have been a better interviewee, allowing me to steer the questions in a variety of directions for far longer than the agreed upon time slot with no objection. While her opinions and insight on the position were of great value, I think what I'll take away from the meeting most was what kind of city official I hope to be: open, helpful, and after 20 years, still in love with my job.

week 7: Client #2

Unfortunately the strike didn't subside over the weekend and we were forced to confront delaying the trip once again. The strike was now at 250,000 people and was impacting the national economy. Reports were coming in that this strike might last longer than the last big one this country saw which involved the platinum mining industry and lasted 5 months. With that insight we discussed our options with the client and decided to delay the trip until October which meant I wouldn't be involved. It was disappointing but unforeseen circumstances like that take the decision out of your hands. I instead began my work on updating the commerce departments databases on sustainable energy contracts in the country. That project would go on for a few weeks as part of a series of things I was tasked with completing before my internship ended.

week 6: The Strike

Week 6 was supposed to be about preparing for my next big client coming into town: a hydraulic and pneumatic tool company from Pennsylvania, however a strike had started in Johannesburg by the NUMSA group which consists of unionized members of industries that my client was looking to target. The strike was primarily over wages and paid time off, but by Wednesday it seemed like it might drag on for quite awhile. The contacts I was making with companies the client wished to have meetings with was not gong smoothly; some didn't want to preform any new business with the strike going on, others couldn't afford to do business with so much money being lost, and others simply closed their doors and were waiting for a deal to be struck. The main reaction I was getting from the CEOs and CAOs of these companies was that the union was asking for more than the companies could possibly afford and were stuck at a deadlock. This was proving to be a major obstacle for me and so I went to my supervisor and filled him in on the developments. We has a meeting with the CEO of the client company and discussed our options. We agreed to delay the trip a week and see how the strike shook out, hopefully with an agreement being met and then meetings could be made. 

week 5: 4th of July celebrations

Week 5 was all about the 4th of July. When working in an American Embassy you can imagine how big the 4th of July holiday is. Everyone from the embassy as well as local luminaries and members of the South African congress were attending a celebration party at the Consulate General's estate in the northern suburbs of Cape Town. This was to be my first interaction with members of the South African Congress as well as any notable important figures from Cape Town. The only task I was assigned by the senior official of the Department of Commerce back in Johannesburg was to mingle with members of the various local trade delegations and to be able to give an update on what they were looking into at the weekly meeting the upcoming week. I was able to listen to the speeches by both the Consulate General and Ambassador Gaspard who had made the trip down from Pretoria for the event. Afterwards I had a few moments with the Ambassador to ask him a few questions on his career and to take advantage of the special situation I found myself in. Overall, I was pleased and honored to be a part of the festivities.  

week 4: Arrival

As stated earlier week 4 was destined to be the busiest work week so far with my first major client coming in to town. I arranged a local chauffeur service to pick them up from the airport and meet me at the consulate. Upon arrival I got them all checked through security and we set up in the conference room to make last minute notes to the itinerary I had established for them. Their party consisted of the CEO of the company and her COO. The first day of meetings went well and most of the meetings were around the harbor area. I had the chauffeur drop them off at the hotel later that night and headed back home. Day 2 was pretty similar but day 3 was centered around their participation in a convention for maritime companies at the Cape Town International Convention Center. After the convention they did a bit of sight seeing and took a personal day. On Thursday we met back up at the consulate and discussed the trip to see if it met their needs. They were beyond satisfied and had a lot of inroads into establishing a distributor in Cape Town. I have to say, excluding one minor setback with the need to reschedule a later meeting, I was overjoyed how well the week went and received a lot of praise from my supervisor on how well the week went. Definitely one of the high points of the entire internship.

Career Services

Back in April I had the chance to attend GoGreen 2014 in Seattle, WA. Its a national annual conference on the newest methods and delivery systems being incorporated across both private and public sectors but is mainly housed with different metropolitan leaders and officials. A 3-day event, I had attempted to attend the 2013 conference but couldn't make the scheduling work so I was overjoyed that my last final was finished the day before the conference began in late April. 

Focusing on sustainability and reducing the distance of logistical and transportation networks to focus more on local abilities, GoGreen 2014 brought leaders from all the major cities and businesses in the area (Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, and Darigold in particular) into the same conference showcasing their most recent advancements in those areas. Along with lectures and Q&As, there was workshops, booths, and theoretical presentations on what might be in the pipeline. 

Overall, I had looked forward to attending GoGreen for a few years now and was not disappointed in what I picked up from the 3 day event. I was able to create new network contacts in a region of America I would love to get my career started in and picked up new skills to bring with me to any new position I hold in the future. I would recommend the next incarnation of GoGreen to anybody interested in advancements in sustainability, especially when it pertains to what is being done in the public sector. 

Week 3: Learning on the fly

Hi all,

Picking up where I left off, I had just got handed a huge project to take point on a company attempting to enter the South African market. I began by searching already established databases for prior contacts in the marine industry. Then I began searching for ideal targets, including some of the world players in the industry that had headquarters in the Cape Town area. Those two searches led me to about 25 names which I spent the whole week tracking down CEOs and COOs who would be interested in meeting with my clients. It took some time to formulate a solid itinerary for the client but after some email chains with the owner, we created a schedule that worked for them and created 13 separate new business meetings to potentially create long term trade agreements. They were scheduled to arrive in town the following week so I'll let you guys know what happens in the upcoming posts.

Typical Day

Hi all,

So to describe my typical day I should begin with this admission: I was incredibly fortunate to be able to get diplomatic housing in Cape Town thanks to the embassy. It meant that I lived about five minutes from the embassy. I normally arrived at the gates of the embassy around 730am and then made it through security and into the right wing of the building by 8am for the start. Emails, returning calls, and a daily meetings usually ate up the hours till lunch which was around noon. The afternoon was more of the same as well as contacting new companies and creating contacts with various associations to get at their members lists. We generally finished up and went home between 430 and 5pm. Thanks to the World Cup being on at the same time, after work I had plans nearly every night. That about wraps up the average day at my summer internship.

Cheers,
Thomas

Week 2: Diving In

Hi all,

The first weeks of the internship were fairly hectic. As you might imagine working out of an Embassy has a few more security checks and paperwork that needs to be accomplished before you can get into the actual work. I spent the first two days in numerous security meetings and learning all about working as a liaison of the U.S. Government in a foreign country. By the time I actually settled in and got to working with my team of Senior Trade Specialists it was nearly the end of week 1. When I came back on Monday I was handed a huge project, an American Marine netting company (for reasons that deal with proprietary information I can't disclose the name of the company) based in Nevada. The project was far more hands on then I thought I would get to do during the internship but I dived in, full of enthusiasm. I had two weeks to set up 12 meetings with companies in the Cape Town area and fill a three day itinerary that also featured a trade convention at the Cape Town Convention Center for The Marine Industry. It meant I had very little time to do anything else. I'll pick this up in later posts.

Cheers,
Thomas

The U.S. Department of Commerce

Hi all,

So like I said I spent the summer working for the U.S. Department of Commerce in Cape Town, South Africa working at the U.S. Embassy in the International Trade Department. Do to the complicated nature of the South African Government when it comes to importing and selling products in the country, American companies often find it easier to find a complimentary company already created and operating within South Africa with all the proper paperwork and then create an agreement to sell the products through them. Finding these companies and creating a database falls to trade specialists within the country and  that was the main job I was given. Along with that I worked to create a larger database on sustainable businesses in the country, what percentage of renewable energy projects were picked up by American companies in the last 5 years, and reaching out to local CEO's of companies who might be looking to do business in America and would be willing to be part of a trade expedition. More information about those things to come in the following weeks.

Week 1: Settling In

Hello,

My name is Thomas Rush. I am entering my 2nd year of Graduate School at Arizona State University where I am looking to complete my M.P.A. with a focus in Urban Management. Over the previous summer I spent 12 weeks working for The U.S. Department of Commerce in Cape Town, South Africa as a Trade Specialist. The goals I had before setting out were to soak up as much experience in various projects as possible, jump at any opportunity to be part of a new project whenever they came up, enjoy living in Cape Town on a personal level, and embrace the new position I found myself in.  If by the end of this internship I can claim to better understand the nature of the position I was in, created high levels of good will with my peers and supervisors as to be asked to stay on in some capacity, and to feel that the internship provided me with a solid supplemental foundation to my academic structure then I will view it as a beneficial summer.