German-Danish BA in Marketing and Sales looking for job

[llBamBamll]

Dear reader,

Let me start of by introducing myself. My name is Bjørn and I am 29. I have been born and raised in Germany, but been living, studying and working in Denmark for the past 15 years. We initially moved to Denmark because of my dad´s changing job situation. My dad is from Denmark, and my mum from Germany - so naturally I have been raised bi-lingual and had the opportunity to see both the danish and german culture and customs as my own during my entire life. All my life I have been interested though, to get to know different kind of cultures and customs. That led me to quite some travelling, which I passionately do whenever possible. Not the kind of vacations that empathizes entire days at the beach, but the more active and dedicated sort of vacation. I have always been drawn to different cultures and have opened up myself to let different world-views affect me, and have made some great and valuable aquaintances and friendships during my trips.

I just recently graduated my Bachelor in International Sales and Marketing Management and am therefore now seeking for opportunities and challenges. I have mostly been drawn to the Asian culture, the customs and the working environment. I have been reading about different countries´history, following their growth and development, pitfalls and differences.

Now, after I graduated I am looking for a more active approach on how to mingle with this culture and to hopefully call China my new home. Hence I now stand here, totally unaware, yet prepared from countless articles and books - without connections, that seems so important to have when doing business in Asia.

I have chosen China as my goal, as the culture, the customs and the working environment fascinated me the most, and because I, as many others, see that it is in China things happen, when talking business.

That leads me to think, that of course I want to offer my newly gained skills, experiences and talent to a fast-changing market that is so different from the stagnant and predictable European market I myself derived from.

I am passionate about Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Sales and Business Development, and through my past year I have been helping SME´s to think out of the box and to make an attempt on different tactics, that they would never have dared because of the risk it might hold. But in a fast-changing market, with technology and knowledge changing every day, also the individual company needs to be able to adapt and change fast, as their competitors definately will.

Hence to my education I have had the opportunity and honor of learning about many fields within the business world of today - yet also understanding the more traditional approaches so many companies still seem to be clinging to.

Let me name a few fields/topics/ courses I have attended:

Marketing, Sales, Business Development, Global Communication, Logistics, Financial Management, Global Economy, PR, Communication, Innovation, Organization, Business Law, Design and Management.

Hence to my passion for Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Sales and Business Development I furthermore have been studying Green Marketing, Guerilla Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Online Marketing, Body language, and Cultural differences.

Forgive me my long post, but to describe my past is not something that can be done in just a few sentences - and so can´t be described how big a value your company would get by believing in the power of new knowledge, and how hiring a newly graduated Bachelor in International Sales and Marketing Management can benefit you as a company.

In my past I have been working in Santiago, Chile and have been working closely with the founders of a great project called Pick a Student. To read more about Pick a Student, please visit www.pickastudent.com.

At Pick a Student I have been responsible for all Marketing and Sales towards the upcoming launch of the company. That gave me the opportunity to prepare Marketing and Sales Plans and Strategies for the company to use in the future. Because of the trust of the founders towards my person and skills I also helped quite a bit with the overall Business Development and the preparation and laid the foundation for finding the right Partners, to back up and help recognize this young company.

As mentioned earlier I since then helped SME´s with free consultations on how to develop or kick-start their businesses and how to plan their Marketing and Sales strategies.

In my spare time, when not studying, I have been working as a Customer Service Representative at a major retail-chain in Denmark (www.bilka.dk). Here I have been the link between the customers and Bilkas administration to solve the disputes they may have about a bought product, and have also been supporting customers with simple issues they faced when using their electronical devices.

I have furthermore been the link from company to authorized work-shop for the individual brand. At Bilka, as a Customer Service Representative I got much responsibility from day one and had to solve issues without the need of other instances, and have therefore grown quite a bit together with this responsibility.

So, what is the conclusion of my post? I am looking for a job in China within Marketing, Sales or Business Development. I am willing to relocate permanently and am already taking classes in basic Chinese.

I am planning a trip to China at the end of May, for the duration of 1 month and would therefore be happy if I could already upfront secure job interviews to attend when landing in China. I don´t want to waste my or your time, as I want to get started working already yesterday.

I have been reading about the Chinese culture, business and working environment for quite some time, how to get a visa, what to avoid etc. so don´t think I am unaware of what I could be facing while there.

I am simply looking for a chance to make an impact and help your business prosper and grow. I want to gain real life experience by working for a company where my opinion and work can help make a difference.

I am quite skilled when it comes to learning new things and especially learning languages has been natural to be hence to my danish-german background. I speak fluently german and danish, which should only surprise a few. Furthermore I speak quite well English, and you will be able to communicate, cooperate and get along with me fine. I am not a native speaker, yet not bad at English at all. It is just not in my power to claim that I speak and write at a professional level. Additionally I also speak basic Spanish, and if things evolve as planned, then I will also soon be able to speak basic Mandarin.

It is time to end my quite long entry here, but if you should have any questions about my person, my skills and experiences - please feel free to contact me at anytime. So, contact me for my application. diplomas, recommendation letters etc. whenever you feel that I might be your next employee.

I am a passionate, well-driven, goal-oriented, hard-working, energetic, motivational, organized, disciplined and fun person to work with, so I would appreciate if you had the vision, or know someone who does, to hire a newly graduated Danish- German Bachelor in International Sales and Marketing Management.

Thanks for reading.

Kind regards,

Bjørn Kristensen

[DeFang]

Warum schreibt Du auf Englisch?

[llBamBamll]

Warum ich auf Englisch schreibe? Da es ja unter uns auch solche geben soll die nicht fliessend Deutsch sprechen oder lesen können, dachte ich mir das es am fairsten und einfachsten wäre auf Englisch zu schreiben. So kann es jeder verstehen.

[blur]

Gibts das auch in Kurzfassung, das liest sich doch so keiner durch.

[llBamBamll]

Die interessierten schon.

[DeFang]

Warum ich auf Englisch schreibe? Da es ja unter uns auch solche geben soll die nicht fliessend Deutsch sprechen oder lesen können, dachte ich mir das es am fairsten und einfachsten wäre auf Englisch zu schreiben. So kann es jeder verstehen.

Unsinn. Jeder versteht hier Deutsch, das ganze Forum ist auf Deutsch! Und du behauptest selber, du seist eine deutsch-dänische Mischung mit deutsch-dänischem Diplom oder sowat. Außerdem brauchst Du wirklich nicht hinzuzufügen, dass Englisch nicht Deine Muttersprache ist. Das merkt man schon.
Am fairsten und einfachsten ist es immer, die örtliche Sprache zu verwenden. Sei es hier Deutsch oder Englisch anderswo. Eller dansk med mig, hvis du vil.
Viel Spaß in China, gute Reise.

[Shenzhen]

Und einmal posten reicht auch! Du hast das schon mal Anfang des Monats gepostet, entweder du addest deinen Kram den du vergessen hast dort oder du machst dir hier keine Freunde.

[llBamBamll]

Schon gut.

Ja, mein Englisch mag nicht perfekt sein, und ja ich hätte hier auch in Deutsch schreiben können.

Auch werde ich nicht wieder einen Beitrag "kopieren".

Nachdem wir die Kritik nun auf dem Tisch haben wäre es schön auch von Leuten zu hören die konkrete Ideen haben wie man auf dem Chinesischen Market einen Job erlangen kann.

Wenn dies nicht möglich ist, dann versuche ich es halt auf einem anderem Forum. Kein Problem und keine Panik.

Wenn man keine Risiken eingehen möchte dann bleibt man halt zu Hause. So einer bin ich halt nicht.

[Shenzhen]

Insgesamt sind die Chancen in Deinem Fachgebiet eher bescheiden - Sales und Marketing lauft nach China-Art in China, der Exportmarkt wird immer uninteressanter fuer die Chinesen und im Binnenmarkt kannst du mit Deinem Wissen nichts oder nicht viel anfangen.
Fuer "die Chinesen" zaehlt einfach was auf dem Papier steht und das muss so niedrig sein wie moeglich - den Rest bestimmt die Trinkfestigkeit und die roten Umschlaege.

[Shenzhen]

naja, Shenzhen, hast ja schon irgendwie recht mit deiner Meinung........aber evtl. hat er doch ´ne Chance bei zentraleuropäischen Unternehmen hier in CN welche hier produzieren.

Warum sollen die denn aus China heraus Marketing in Europa betreiben? Kostenersparnis mit einem Expat=0 - sehe keinen Zweck fuer einen Marketing und Sales "Experten" fuer ein in China produzierendes Europaeisches Unternehmen.

[sanctus]

Grundlegend ist Marketing in China schon sehr gefragt. Das zeigt zum einen die hier bereits genannte Website der AHK. Jetzt kommt aber das dicke ABER: Marketing allein reicht bei weitem nicht mehr aus. Hier fehlen dir sprachliche und kulturelle Kenntnisse, denn die 4 P's laufen hier ganz anders ab.

Weiterhin hab ich mir erzaehlen lassen, dass es viele Personalchefs langsam satt haben die China-Abenteurer einzustellen, um dann feststellen zu muessen, dass diese mit der Kultur nicht klar kommen und meist nach 9 Monaten schon das Handtuch werfen: "Danke fuer die Erfahrung, aber das ist dann doch nix fuer mich!" - Und futsch ist kostbare Zeit und Geld der Einarbeitung.

An deiner Stelle wuerde ich es erstmal mit einem Praktikum versuchen. Allein das duerfte auch schon schwer genug sein, weil auch hier die Konkurrenz mit Sprachkenntnissen bevorzugt wird. Und es ist auch schon lange nichts besonderes mehr, wenn man fliessend Chinesisch sprechen kann.