International Relations: a virtual roundtable at the Long Night of Careers

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Servizio relazioni internazionali e mobilità

16 Dicembre 2020

The Long Night of Careers is an event organized at USI by its Career Service and simultaneously held at 10 other Swiss universities and academic institutions. The 6th Edition at USI was splitted in two parts: a special edition online (held on 19 November 2020) and a second part that will take place on-campus on 25 March 2021.

The event, targeted to all students and Alumni of Bachelor's, Master's and Doctoral students, allowed participants to spend a whole evening focusing on their professional futures.

Over 400 students and Alumni were registered for Part I and the International Relations and Study Abroad Service was present with an interactive round table entitled “The importance of an international experience to make a career” moderated by Arianna Imberti Dosi, Heads of the International Relations and Study Abroad Service.

To animate the one-hour exchange of experience and ideas we invited three USI graduates who are currently employed in organizations with international outreach and who had participated in one mobility programmes during their studies at USI:

  • Antonio Genovese, Vice President- Product Management and Investment Advisory (Middle East), Deutsche Bank, Master in Finance Alumnus
  • Giulia Miglio, Senior International Marketing Manager, Henkel, Master in Marketing Alumna
  • Gianmaria Rizzuto, Central Planning Manager, Ferrero, Master in Management Alumnus

After a brief presentation of the speakers, we kicked off the night by asking them to share their personal experiences. In particular, how the mobility period has had an impact on their professional career and how it is valued within their organization.

Afterward, to ease the participation and to meet the participants’ expectations, we asked them to identify the most relevant topic thanks to a real-time sharing platform. The majority chose to focus the discussion on the important role of an experience abroad to acquire soft skills that are more and more valued in the workplace. The three speakers agreed that the most relevant are intercultural skills, flexibility & adaptability, and communication skills.

Here are the three main takeaways of the discussion.

Primarily it was very interesting to learn that there is a contextual difference in how organizations consider the experience abroad. For example, in Europe it is considered a must-have but does not put an applicant for a job in a position of advantage over competitors, as opposed to the US, as underlined by Gianmaria, where mobility is a real plus and makes one’s CV stand out among the many others.

Antonio then explained that his decision to spend a study semester at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg was very useful for his future career in the US because he was already acquainted with American culture and way of life. He suggested that this is an important attribute to take into consideration when choosing the destination for mobility.

In conclusion, Giulia also stressed the fact that being and staying open towards whatever lays outside our comfort zone is a fundamental quality not only to enjoy a period abroad at most but also to be able to operate in an international environment, where new and unexpected situations are just around the corner.

Time went by fast and the audience only had a few minutes for questions. We were very pleased to notice that participants took advantage of this possibility and we hope that the testimonials of our guests inspired them.

We remind our USI students that they can find all relevant information about mobility on our page: www.usi.ch/en/university/info/relint or by fixing a personal appointment with us.

We warmly thank our three guest graduates for their availability.