In class today we met US diplomat Yuri Arthur. I found her to be very nice and approachable, which while I was not necessarily expecting her to be mean, I did not expect her to be so welcoming. She talked to us a lot about what her job actually was and how absurd some of the things she covers in her day to day schedule are, but all these tasks are important although they may seem trivial. She told us about all the places she has lived for work which I found interesting, because I am not sure I would be able to uproot myself and resettle somewhere completely foreign every four years. I was glad to hear that the government provides her with the things she would need to live in foreign places. 

     She also gave us a lot of advice when it came to our future careers and what we should be doing now to prepare ourselves. Although I am not necessarily interested in the career path of a diplomat, she gave a lot of good career advice that applies to every field. I found it interesting when she said that we should take advantage of being students now as most people are more willing to speak to students and tell us about what we do and give us advice. Additionally, when she was talking about interviews she told us how we should always just apply to a job even though we may be told we aren’t qualified, it is always worth a try as that is what she did when she got her job as a diplomat with little experience. 

     I found it interesting to listen to someone who is so well traveled, especially when she talked about the cultural differences between countries, and how she always stresses how important it is to make sure that the country a business is looking to bring their product into makes sense. For example, she spoke about how certain higher end products would not be sold into a lower income country because there is not a large market as no one could necessarily afford it. 

       I am grateful for the opportunity to hear from her and her colleagues as they all were extremely intelligent and seemed to have passion for their jobs which is something that I hope I will be able to achieve one day.