255. Expert Interview: How Your Students Can Prepare to be Competitive in the Global Workplace

“You have to be very competitive to get the pick of the litter for job opportunities. It’s grown more important in the last 10 to 15 years, especially after the 2008 recession, to really understand what career ends you have in mind, to be able to look backwards from there to better plan what your path will be through high school and college, internships, etc.”

The United States, and certain regions like the southeast, continue to be very attractive to foreign-directed investment (FDI), Green explains. School guidance counselors and teachers tend to be woefully unaware of the scope of this interest and investment, much less of the qualifications needed to seek employment with these global companies.

“There are a lot of opportunities for students in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. to work in their own respective countries and benefit from global opportunities. That’s really the base for understanding the situation now. It’s crucial to focus on the basic level of education you need to be considered for these jobs, not just to separate yourself and be ordinary, but to make yourself extraordinary by mastering some of the differentiators. Some of those differentiators include having an excellent command of English, of basic arithmetic, and being able to think and calculate numbers on the fly, if you’re negotiating deals, for example. Digital literacy—familiarity with Microsoft and Apple products, for example—is also essential. Study abroad programs and internships in the U.S. and abroad are also a key differentiators.” Ben Green’s book, The Global Superstar, can help guide this process.