Multicultural Skills

I was only a lowly intern at the bottom of the parliamentary food chain. The expectations of my skills and experience were meager. That being said, I was able to talk to enough people to get an idea of what makes someone a valuable employee in the parliament.

This has been said a thousand times, but the parliament is very diverse. A political institution made up of twenty-seven individual nations is bound to have a lot of diversity. That being said, someone working in that environment has to know how to interact with people of many origins. There wasn't a single person I met that wasn't bilingual. Most people spoke at least two languages fluently, and then another well enough to have a basic conversation. If I was not an intern, I would not have been hired. Knowing an additional language in the United States is always a bonus, but it is not required or necessarily looked for unless you apply for a specific job.

You also have to be familiar with the history and current events in all member states. The action of one nation can affect the whole system, so it is the responsibility of individual workers to have knowledge of what is going on. If someone does not stay up to date, they will fall behind and become a burden to their coworkers. As far as I know, government workers in the states are generally well informed. Like any job, the employee needs to have a lot of knowledge. However, the United States doesn't often worry about keeping up to date with other nations' politics.

Another thing that really jumped out to me about workers in the parliament was their level of education. Almost everyone I know has a master's degree. A lot of people still took courses on the side for various subjects. The parliament had a lot of classes and tutoring available to their workers. My supervisor, Mr. Schneider, was taking a Chinese course with the parliament. Mr. Schneider explained to me that it was prevalent for companies to provide classes or pay their employees to attend college.

I talked about it before in a previous blog, but higher education in the states is costly. Most people can't afford to attend college, and very few can pay through a masters program. Even with abundant scholarships, people graduate with insane amounts of debt. Education is not as accessible as it is in Europe, so there are a lot of jobs that lower educational expectations for those who could not afford higher education.

The work culture and expectations between the EU and the US are very different for many reasons. It makes sense that a multicultural workplace like the parliament would require workers with knowledge of many cultures. However, a lot of their experience comes from being raised in an environment where they are exposed to many cultures. Both countries have an expectation of skills that are reasonable for the individual country.

Kendall Gilcrease