Baltimore

Adjusting to Cultural Norms of United States

Author: 
Satinder Mullick

Category:

Satinder Mullick received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University in 1965 in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, with a minor in Economics. He was Director of Economic Planning and Research for Corning Inc., where he worked on different consulting assignments for improving growth and profitability for 30 years. Later, he helped turn around Artistic Greetings (40% owned by American Greetings) and doubled the stock price in four years. He received Lybrand Silver Medal in 1971 from Institute of Management Accountants.

I left India in April 1960 for West Germany after getting my engineering degree, and a couple of years of experience working for Rourkela Steel Plant construction. There were some differences between Germany and India in foods and cold weather, which were challenging but not drastically different.

However, when I moved to the United States of America, I ran into different norms that took a while to fully adjust to.

First was the language. British English is different than US English, especially in Industrial Engineering.

Words like Schedule threw me off completely in first few days. I kept asking what is Scheduling Technique but after I saw it spelt out, then I realized what my professor was talking about.

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