ISSUE ONE VOLUME TWO
OCTOBER , 2007
A BMES STUDENT PUBLICATION FOR THE COMMUNITY OF BME
A Candid Look at Working Abroad Melody Keith ‘09
Living and working in France for the summer was like living in a fairy tale. Each and every day I enjoyed something chocolate; and each and every day I came home to a view overlooking a river that flowed beneath a cathedral. There are decided differences between American and French architecture, culture, and technology. French infrastructure is decidedly more romantic; however the cynicists would claim space deprivation as opposed to intimacy. There is a beautiful simplicity in French life. No one seemed to own a dryer, probably due to energy costs, but I had never seen a group of college students own a more technologically advanced washing machine. Likewise, I saw more push-start ignitions in vehicles, although the French drive less. It seemed that less was more, and newer, more convenient technologies were integrated with the public: an intriguing,
yet stylish, combination of old and modern. From the beginning… After intensely studying and practicing foreign language since about 13, I was eager to find work experience abroad. Pressed and proper, I doled resumes out at Georgia Tech’s Work Abroad Fair. Despite my assumptions that my efforts were fruitless, a few months later I received a telephone call from a company called ERAI, a French Intermediary Company. They found my resume “interesting.” I have limited work experience (most of it, family employment) and the
technical skills of your average GT student. Aside from my foreign language, I’m not that special. However, from this I can speak a profound universal truth: showing up is half the battle. So I began my entrance into the workforce in France, employed by Medel'Pharm to work in marketing. It is a mechanical engineering company that produces a compression simulator, the Stylcam, whose main purpose is to foretell the behavior of a compressed powder in industrial rotary production. While my superiors did give me some exposure to the machines, and to learn the mechanics, I primarily did uncoordinated research and data entry: a sore combination of stupidly easy and boring. I often felt confused and almost resentful concerning my lack of duties. I found it hard to stay focused and work productively when I was aimlessly attempting to teach myself compression mechanics. The most difficult task was spending all day in front of a computer, scanning and editing business cards, all while trying