Wireless Facilities Inc.

International Employee Assistant

Introduction to the Corporate World at WFI

I. Temp World of the 21st Century

In my experience together with knowing from the parents about what it was like to work a decade or two ago, I see that working environment has been changing drastically. Pace of work, internal and external relationships of the workplace, means of communication, level of flexibility and much more are now different from the business atmosphere at the end of the twentieth century.

In order to see the professional outlook on these changes and to become equipped with the knowledge about the new nature of the workplace, I chose to read a book by Barbara Moses “The Good News about Careers. How You’ll Be Working in the Next Decade” written just before the turn of the century. A Ph.D. with international educational background and a career guru, she has done extensive work in consulting for more than 2000 organizations worldwide in every sector of the economy, including education, financial services, government, health care, high technology, mass media, public accounting, telecommunications, travel and many others. I find the book very interesting and helpful because it gives an easy to grasp insight on WHAT is different today in the workplace and WHY it is like this. Most importantly, Barbara Moses gives professional advice on HOW to adapt to the new environment (if we knew something different in the recent past) and to make the working experience productive, meaningful and fun.

The major implication from the book for me is that the so-called by Barbara Moses Temp World, or today’s working atmosphere, although very unpredictable at first, has many advantages to the person who will understand it and go in pace with it. It is true that nowadays NO position or field can be as stable and conventional, but the good news is that the new workplace now offers much greater flexibility to meet the individual needs of workers. Besides, work today is done with more individualistic expression, and creativity and unique personal identity are not suppressed in the modern corporate world. (Moses, p. 42). On the contrary, quite often invention of creative strategies is welcomed in order to get ahead in the competitive world of today. Interesting enough, this also implies that one does not necessarily concentrate on one particular field, but the combination of different skills and interests enhance the portfolio and therefore marketability of a person. For example, if one studied a certain field in engineering in college and later in the first couple of years of the career development realizes that the engagement in the Research & Development does not quite fit the personality, he/she can get into a managerial or marketing position of high tech products or services. That does not limit the potential either. The individual might later decide to become an independent consultant and work on a contractual basis with large or small companies. This type of alternative gives workers many more options and unlimited flexibility in defining career path and modifying it constantly.

The outline of differences and implications of the Temp World in the work of Barbara Moses in my recent experience have proven to be right, and I would suggest everyone to take a look at the research and especially examples from real life. They let us explore different outcomes given the situation and look within ourselves for the answer. After all, we are the ones who shape this Temp World, and each of us affects the changing environment on a daily basis.

Learning about the profile of Wireless Facilities Inc., I was happy to find out about the diversity of the company. Headquartered here, in San Diego, WFI has subsidiaries and offices all over the world: in United Kingdom, Brazil, India, Spain, Sweden, Mexico and different parts of the United States. No wonder that the company’s internal environment is multicultural. As I was to do a lot of work with the people from all over the world, I picked up a book by Collin Randelsome “Business Cultures in Europe” and found it very helpful in learning about some international business environment differences. In order to understand better the conduct of people form the Middle and Far East (as we had many engineers form that continent), I was lucky to have had an every day interaction with my friends from the area and thus got better familiar with some differences of those cultures. With the time, as I started working at WFI, it has offered the best learning about multiple cultures.

II. Wireless Facilities Business Scope and My Responsibilities as an Intern

To give an overview of the business engagement of Wireless Facilities, it is a full-service infrastructure development company that provides design and construction solutions for wireless, cable, and fiber telecommunication systems. Founded in 1994, WFI has been very successful in its business with such telecom giants as SIEMENS, Ericsson, Nortel, At&T, Metricom, Telcel, to name a few, who outsource network design and deployment to WFI. Thus, the Company provides an array of services to wireless mobility carriers, broadband wireless carriers, equipment vendors and satellite services providers. WFI profession profiles in the field range from business and market planning to RF engineering, fixed network engineering, IP and data engineering, site acquisition and development, installation, optimization, maintenance and network operations center service specialization. As the company is a service provider, its power is in its people, the engineers with extensive technical background, experience, and not less important, multicultural diversity.

The specifics of the headquarters are that the main business administration work is allocated here and then extends to the offices of other sites. In respect to subsidiaries which operate more independently than branches, headquarters’ role is to carry on the corporate leadership and guide the overall performance of all members of the corporation. Therefore, my interning in the San Diego facility was a very insightful experience about the administrative aspects of a large company. I worked in the Human Resources department which is rather extensive as it combines the recruiting team for the worldwide operations and HR personnel which manages the relations of the whole WFI family. WFI does call itself a family as it emphasizes the desired friendly and dependable working relationships and environment. We indeed interacted with the group of the whole facility and the visitors from the other locations and maintained a warm atmosphere as much as it is possible in high-paced nature of WFI business.

My responsibilities were congruent with the work of International Employee Specialist Jennifer Farace who managed the employment status and immigration process of foreign force of WFI. Needless to say, these activities are very complex and extensive, especially considering the load as more than two thirds of WFI engineers employed in the United States come from foreign countries (as mentioned before, engineers present the main workforce of WFI). Internship programmes of the kind that I had requested were not common at Wireless Facilities, and therefore with the start Jennifer came up with the project that needed to be developed but was not much researched at the time. Throughout my four months work, among the other daily activities I also conducted research on international hiring requirements for the company as WFI considered expanding in this field given the great demand for the intellectual potential of professionals worldwide.

International hiring requirements differ from country to country due to the laws and regulations as of the State Department of the United States, so of the foreign countries. Therefore, we needed to contact different departments of the governments and inquire of these regulations and procedures. This topic is not commonly well researched by many companies, and, as a result, at times I have had difficult time finding the right contact organization, division or employee. When getting in contact, many of them had to conduct research in this relation themselves. This is in part due to the continuing modifications of laws and additions. This was not an easy task to get everything in order so that we could proceed with the establishment of international recruitment relations with overseas companies. As introduction, I arranged packages with relevant information to be sent out to U.S. foreign consulates and embassies as well as to the Ministries of the countries themselves in order to represent Wireless Facilities. Later Jennifer and I contacted the consulates and discussed the opportunities for our hiring of the engineers of those countries. In most countries we did not incur many specific regulations; however, for the Philippines, for example, the paperwork and routine of labor procedures were quite complicated. Once we found out the details, we could proceed with the arrangements for the international relations.

As WFI has a need for having an outsourcing company in a country to find the best manpower, international recruitment relations with overseas companies was the desired state. Thus, I have helped the department find credible potential partners and supported in the negotiations of the relations and the contracts with the agencies. Some of these agencies were American based or had international presence; the others were local but quite professional. It was very interesting to study the market for such a need of WFI, and I have gained relevant skills in research. The negotiations aspect of relations and contracts was also of a desired acquisition.

Establishing communication with potential and current foreign employees was another part of my responsibilities because we had a large number of WFI employees-to-be with pending case at the Immigration & Naturalization Service and Consulates. I collected the needed documents and certifications from the foreigners and arranged them in relevance to individual case. We had also paperwork for the current WFI employees who were working with the status of the working visa but had their cases filed with the Immigration & Naturalization service for getting a Green Card. It is a very detailed work but taught me to be extremely patient, detail-oriented and particular about the subject, as one little mistake could have been changing the person's situation in regards to the status and work authorization. Besides, I am quite particular about details and therefore was good at doing the process.

Processing immigration paperwork of international employees also required creating a number of the company documents in order to support the employees' case when it is filed with the INS. The support documents are several pages long and consist of descriptions of the relevance of the professional's expertise and the company's business. By helping Jennifer in matching the qualifications and designing the documents, I have learned the new to me technical vocabulary of the telecommunications and gained the knowledge on the subject itself. Overall, it has spurred my interest in the field and pushed me in the direction of the telecom and high tech innovations in pursuit of the filed of my choice in international business and marketing career.

III. International Business Major Application

Working at Wireless Facilities definitely applies to the major of International Business. It is a multinational company with global business presence as it deploys networks all over the world. The types of technology in which WFI has expertise supports different markets, and, as a result, the knowledge that one has to have for the business development is diverse and covers multiple culture specifications. The relations in the company are by all means intercultural and require the feel for the multinational organization, tolerance and common understanding, but at the same time assertion of the cultural diversity and respect to the differences of individuals.

In my workload specifically I have had the opportunity to apply my International Business learning as well. When communicating with the potential and current employees as well as with those presenting foreign consulates and companies, I faced cultural distinctiveness and made sure I treat the people and the subjects with respect and according to the international standards. The same applies to dealing with the foreign documents and other paperwork. For example, when I designed support documents and processed foreign papers for a Pakistani employee, whose case was to be sent to the Immigration & Naturalization Service, I worked with the marriage certificate of tens of pages' content. It contains the marriage contract according to Islam and the traditions of that type of religious group. The contract requirements and suggestions were very new to me and, to say it mildly, quite uncommon, but I understand that this is the way the relations are handled in the particular society, and I were to be very sensitive about communication about it with the employee. In my opinion, the most applied learning at WFI for me was the understanding of the cultural diversity and intercultural communications within the corporate world.

IV. Would You Be Interested and Would You Fit Well in the Role of International Employee Affairs Intern?

I believe that everyone who has an open mind and flexible character would like the atmosphere at Wireless Facilities Inc. Working in the Human Resources department requires an especially tolerant and diplomatic personality, and hard work and being busy here are common words as well. A dynamic person with the international or international studies background would be a good match for such an internship.

As the responsibilities of the International Employee Affairs intern are multiple, the person needs to be ready to work in the fast pace environment with often tasks that need to be done "just-in-time" or, in other words, as required. Patience is another key aspect of the intern's personality of which I actually do not have much. I have worked on it, and perhaps the fact, that I am very detail-oriented contributed to my abilities to stay on the phone line making calls to different organizations for hours at times. The person would do a lot of research on-line, and the skills or enthusiasm to learn and the curious and knowledge-seeking character would have fun in doing so. I would suggest that people who would like to pursue the career in the a large company in the future apply for such an internship because the environment is just what it will be in a full time position in corporate world.

V. Career Potential in Telecommunications

The possibilities of being engaged in the company like Wireless Facilities are good; however, in the present situation of 2001-beginning of 2002 telecommunication industry is not at its peak. The predictions are that the business will pick up greatly later in 2002, but for now many companies are not hiring. The internships are available, to my understanding, but many of them are unpaid. This position was unpaid too; however, I received a small scholarship at the end, for which I was thankful. The main reason, I think, in this respect is that Wireless Facilities in fact do not have an established programme of such and therefore do not reserve in the budget for it. I believe that companies get an adequate help and actually gain tremendously form having interns because they are usually hard-working, responsible, aspired and fast learners.

I am not positive about the possibility of being an intern at the present at Wireless Facilities, but an inquiry about it and research will be helpful. As for the full time positions, there is a lot of work at the company, but I believe that at the moment the position in Human Resources are filled. However, other department might need the workforce. Again, the present does not look very bright for International Business major recent graduates unless they have specific knowledge in the industry, certifications or relevant experience. It is a very interesting, intense and rewarding field, and I suggest looking into it and acquiring the needed credentials in the career field.

Bibliography

Moses, Barbara. The Good News about Careers. How You’ll Be Working in the Next Decade. Jossye-Bass Publishers: San Francisco, USA, 1999.

Randelsome, Collin. Business Cultures in Europe. Heinemann Professional Publishing Ltd.: Oxford, Great Britain, 1990.