Maura Jarvis, a senior involved in the Custom-Designed Major program, recently returned to Drexel from her co-op in Hong Kong, China SAR. As part of the Custom-Designed Major program Maura created her own major, which is called sustainable product development and is a combination of environmental policy, product design, and supply chain management.
Maura’s found her Corporate Responsibility and Inclusion co-op at Thomson Reuters with the help of the international co-op coordinators at the Steinbright Career Development Center (SCDC). “Finding a job abroad works differently for almost every country,” she said, “But Drexel is working with an internship agency called the Academic Internship Council (AIC), which places students with jobs in the UK and Asia.” She went on to mention that Drexel and AIC offer co-ops located in Hong Kong and Singapore, but there are also opportunities in China, Malaysia, Vietnam, and more! Maura said she only searched for jobs in Asia. After studying abroad in Tokyo, Japan, as a pre-junior, she became “fascinated” with working in Asia.
Maura’s co-op involved planning a conference with a goal of raising awareness and fighting against human rights injustices in Asia. “Some major issues we tackled were human trafficking (a $150 billion industry), child labor, and illegal domestic servitude,” she said. She usually acted as the company liaison between sponsors, speakers, and attendees. On a typical day she created electronic and print promotions, facilitated an international fundraising campaign, and conducted research into the issues in order to gain more insight into her company’s cause. There were some days where she traveled to different areas in Hong Kong to attend lectures or meetings, and other days she “had conference calls with colleagues in at least five different countries, coordinating the event as a team.”
Thomson Reuters, a major media firm known for providing information to numerous industries, including financial, legal, and science, with the help of Reuters, a highly trusted news source. She worked between two divisions: Corporate Responsibility and Inclusion and Corporate Affairs. “Reuters is well known for bringing light to under-reported stories around the world,” Maura said, “This is where the subject matter for our conference came into play; many of the stories of slavery or trafficking victims in Asia are not told in mainstream news outlets.”
Her favorite part of her co-op was the time she was able to spend outside of the office. Since she was in a different country, she always “found something new to explore, whether it was dim sum, hidden cliff-jumping locations, or even other countries!” Maura also had the opportunity to travel during her six months in Asia. “I went to Singapore, Beijing, Macau, and Japan…twice,” she said.
Her first co-op was in Philadelphia, which is her hometown, so she took the opportunity to see new places on her co-op abroad. This opportunity to co-op abroad gave Maura more of a sense of what she wants to do after graduation. After she studied abroad in Japan as a pre-junior, she knew she wanted a job in Asia once she graduated. “However, working in Hong Kong has made me realize that while Asia is a truly beautiful place, every country is different and I need to do a lot of research before packing my bags and heading for the first company that offers me a job on that side of the world,” she said. Before she arrived in Hong Kong, she didn’t know much about the location and as a result experienced culture shock. Her advice? “The more you know about yourself and the kind of environment best suited to you, the more successful you’ll be at choosing a job (and location!) that makes you happy,” she said.
For anyone heading into interviews, Maura has some helpful advice. When it comes to interviewing, she says it’s important to be confident. “In my eyes, I am the celebrity guest during an interview,” she said, “Don’t sweat the interview because that is your time to shine and show [the company] that they chose correctly when they picked your resume out of a stack of hundreds.” Maura also let us know her go-to place to shop for work clothes. “H&M never fails me when it comes to affordable work attire,” she said.
After graduation, Maura would like to go abroad again, but in a more educational sense. “I’d like to return to Japan as a Fulbright fellow, conducting research on sustainability in Japanese culture,” she said. She is considering other opportunities such as the Peace Corps, but she would rather become involved in a job that solves issues concerning sustainability. Good luck, Maura!