Despite the current high demand for M.B.A. graduates, many international students still struggle to get a job offer——-or even an interview. At Kenan-Flagler, for instance, only about 40% of the recruiters will meet with foreign nationals. The chief reasons for such resistance: the limited number of U.S. work visas and language deficiencies.
Business schools cant do much about visas, but they can try to overcome language barriers. North Carolina is sending audiotapes of its international students to recruiters and counting on their feedback to establish benchmarks for English proficiency for specific industries. For example, students might receive a rating of five out of nine on the English test and learn that they must raise it to seven to be hired by a technology company or to eight to satisfy a banks requirements.
Kenan-Flaglers career-services office finds that English fluency is especially important in investment banking, consulting and consumer-products marketing. But other industries expect fluency in English as well. Were a global company and we look to foreign students for their international business knowledge and cultural experiences, says Clive Pinto, human- resources manager for W.R. Grace, a chemical manufacturer. But our ability to capitalize on their knowledge depends on their English proficiency.
In the HEELS classes at North Carolina, students are grouped by their native regions, such as Western Europe, East Asia, South Asia, Africa or Latin America, because they tend to share similar problems with accent and pronunciation. The program also addresses nonverbal communication and body language, which may vary from culture to culture. The classes attempt to change behavior that might be misinterpreted by U.S. managers, co-workers or clients. For example, a U.S. recruiter would expect direct eye contact and a firm handshake, says Mindy Storrie, interim director of Kenan-Flaglers career management center, but that isnt a universal norm in other countries business dealings.
