Working for the U.S. Commercial Service has its perks and
office work so far has been one of them. Day in and day out our mission is to
help Arizona businesses develop strategic plans towards exporting into foreign markets.
So on any given day I’ll come in at 9am, run through emails for about an hour,
get on a call with colleagues from across the United States to catch up on developments
in international trade, connect with colleagues half way around the world and help
a local arms exporter connect with arms dealers in Nigeria, Egypt, and Pakistan
all by noon. It’s an exciting and fast
paced role and I’m lucky to have gained the confidence of my managers so quickly
to be able to take on such a hands on experience in international economic development.
More often than not, I’ll eat lunch at my desk as quickly as I can so as to get
back to work. Oftentimes, I feel like their isn’t enough hours in the day to leave
feeling satisfied – so I try to keep on task as long as I can.
After lunch, we’ll
typically have a meeting or two scheduled to visit and consult local exporters or
meet up with regional or state economic development groups such as ADEC, GPEC,
or ACA. On days when we don’t have anything scheduled however I’ve started working
on developing company profiles on potential participants to scout for our
office’s Trade Mission to Mexico City. Trade missions are typically two to three
day trips to markets abroad where we take 10-15 companies in specific industries
to meet and develop partnerships with companies aboard willing to import and
distribute their products or services.
Other than these duties, I also handle day to day company
inquires on a myriad of technical issues from export compliance to explaining
trade agreements. All in all, that about sums up a typical day at the office.
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