What is special about Mr. Phelps’s degree?

W: Mr. Phelps. I’m Margaret Smith. Please sit down.
M: Thank you. Good afternoon Mrs. Smith.
W: Well now Mr. Phelps—for a start—and just to set the ball rolling—can I check that you’re applying for the post of Management trainee? And that you’re graduating in integrated Business Studies? Tell me, why integrated? Is there something special about this degree?
M: Yes, in a way there is. The subjects in the program, Finance, Marketing, and Banking, and so on, are taught as aspects of a single study that of Business, rather than as separate disciplines which the student has to relate to each other as best he can. I chose it for that reason.
W: And what advantage do you think it has over a more conventional course of study?
M: I think it’s more coherent and more motivating. Everything we have done, including the study of Economics which can easily seem rather dry and remote, is related to one or more of the sorts of careers that we plan to take up.
W: And what makes you apply for this training position Mr. Phelps?
M: I want to work for one of the premier banks of the world. And I want the training opportunities offered by Citibank.
W: You see long term opportunities as more important than the immediate salary, do you?
M: Yes, I do. And my family agrees with me—and that’s generous of them. I’m looking two or three years ahead.
W: Tell us a bit more about these extra-curricular activities of yours. What exactly did you do when you organized this—what is it now? Orientation camp?
M: Well It wasn’t a camp under canvas with singsongs round a campfire of course! We had a number of students who were going to join us in September living on campus during August, and we tried to give them experience of some features of university life that might be unfamiliar and rather alarming. Not academic classes and lectures, but living together, and making friends and taking part in some outside activities, but not too many. And we tried to show them what we had learned about how to organize work, so as to do justice to a range of different subjects. And to let them know the points at which they needed to make choices. And to know that we students in the year senior to them, were friendly and really wanted them to do well.
W: Sounds good. That kind of responsibility can be mtimidating if you are dropped into it without any sort of assistance, especially if you are the first member of your family to get into university.
M: Yes, indeed it can. That was what happened to me. My parents were entirely supportive, but they simply had no idea what the experience of university study was like. It took me several months to find my feet. That’s why I was keen to get involved in the orientation project.
W: So what do you get out of your involvement?
M: As I said, I learned how to identify the problems, and to talk about them in terms that newcomers to the university could understand—or at least, I got to be much better at it! It’s actually quite a difficult thing to do.
W: Can you tell me, in just a sentence or two, how you see a career in Management?
M: Essentially I see Management as an activity that involves problem solving, and communication. A manager identifies and resolves increasingly complex and significant problems as his career develops and he has to communicate adequately the solutions he finds. He has to be able to find a suitable form of words to communicate to his superiors, his colleagues, and increasingly as he gains experience, with the people junior to him.
W: Yes, I’d agree with you there. And you imply, Mr. Phelps, that he has to be a team worker. Yet you claim that you can work independently. Can you reconcile these two claims?
M: I think so. I don’t see them as contradictory when I say that I can work independently I mean that I’m a self-starter. If I see that something needs doing I like to check first that it does fall within my terms of reference, and then to get on with it. Of course you have to be careful that you don’t tread on someone else’s patch if you do that. I’m afraid I’ve learnt that the hard way.
W: Mr. Phelps, have you any questions for us?
M: Do you think there may be opportunities in future for today’s recruits to work—for a time—elsewhere than Hong Kong? I’m very keen to see something more of South East Asia and I’m especially interested in the possibility of Japan.
W: I think the future prospects for people joining us now are very good indeed. Anything further Mr. Phelps?
M: No, thank you. And thanks for the opportunity of the interview. I do hope I’ll hear further from you.
W: Well. We usually expect to be in touch with successful applicants within a week. Thank you for coming in. It’s been good to talk to you.