Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Business > The American Way...Napo's way !

I’ve been working with Americans for almost ten years now, and it’s been a very rich, challenging as well as rewarding experience.

How did I end up working with the Yankees?... It all started 12+yrs ago (aged 22) when I left the mother land mainly to study abroad.

I was an ISG grad who had the option to continue school in France, Germany or English Canada. My family & friends recommended that I stay away from Europe although some schools are pretty good there, but Europe was getting crowded, and opportunities were scarce compared to North America, especially in the technology field.


I first landed in Toronto, the economic capital of Canada & the largest city, a city where Canadians are now a minority. It didn’t take me too long to obtain a master’s degree from U of T in Computer Science, to start another one in Algorithmics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, commonly known as M.I.T, and that’s where I first started interacting with Americans, learn about their culture, speak their language (the American language) and then head to work for Corporate America.


My first assignment as an Engineer was at the Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA) in Maryland, it was short but extremely rewarding, got to work with double Ph.D engineers and scientists, and ultimatly peek at the engines that once propolled the lunar module into space (I always dream of going to space one day…with a Tunisian flag on my sholder) .

Around the 97s, the economy started to boom and the dot-com phenomena started cooking, that’s when I joined Andersen Consulting (renamed Accenture), one of the largest consulting firm in the world. As a Consultant I got to learn and practice -never read before- innovative methodologies, best practices & concepts that could in theory be valid for another 100 years. I was truly amazed how progressive and creative the people working for such a partnership could be. They were landing million dollar contracts with ease and confidence to follow up with delivery of state of the art solutions..., even to date, I still leverage those skills on a daily basis, sometimes crossing onto my personal life.


Around the 2000s, I had no option but to jump into the dot-com boiling market before i miss the train, i had to work the crazy hours, the weekends, build something from the scratch, live the ups and downs of VC shortages, the positive and negative press releases, the down-sizing, the NYSE listing, the good and the ugly. We were a bunch of multi-national team of engineers and techies that worked around the clock to envision an idea, build a market niche/need for it, sell a product and make profit out of it….THAT WAS REALLY TOUGH…but we prevailed at last…


Working with Americans, has no boundaries for creativity, initiative, challenges and innovation. These folks are focused, task oriented, delivery aware and business conscious, no wonder they’re number one the world stage and will probably remain as such for quite some time.


Nowadays, with family onboard, I’m more or less settled as part of the Management Team of a yet another American startup which future looks ‘so far’ promising (crossing my fingers). Needless to mention that concepts such as Job Security, steady stream of income and employment for life are things of the past in this continent. Very few do care about security, since opportunities of cashing out half a million dollar were at some point more likely to occur then loosing own job.

24 Comments:

Blogger SNAWSI said...

Well, I got the chance to interact with Americans in different ways and levels and I do agree with you. I love their workstyle, their respect for everything, especially the individual.

I also agree that life becomes more intersting when you're challenging yourself everyday and not just seeking for a boring stability.

All the best Napo ;-)

5:13 AM  
Blogger SNAWSI said...

@Tarek: America works despite everything --> that's the hint.

5:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hope to fill at least half of your CV napo :-) thanks man for being tunisian ;-)

1:50 PM  
Blogger Na Da said...

tu connaitrais un czertain prof. Ben mrad à U of toronto?

7:33 AM  
Blogger Napo said...

@snawsi, thanks alot, you deserve to be here..

@tarek, marhbé bik khouya fi Toronto, walla fi massachussets.

@swifty, i truly hope you get the chance to spend at least a couple of months in north america.

@EDJ, nope, quel periode?

2:51 PM  
Blogger Zizou From Djerba said...

ya t'il eu d'autres tunisiens au MIT napo ?
t'as pas pensé au PhD?
pkoi t'es revenu au canada ?
mnt que tu m'as mis l'eau a la bouche ... j'ai plein plein de questions !!
Aya c'etait le premier jet !!

6:09 PM  
Blogger Napo said...

@zizou, ti haw questionnaire !!!

concernant le tunisien, oui,il y avait un qui finissait durant mon epoque...il faisant de la robotique si je me rappele bien.

Quant au phd en technologie, c'etait une perte de temps pour moi, de plus c'est plus difficile de trouver un poste avec phd qu'avec un master, a moins que tu cible des postes tres particuliers (NASA, science centers, ou se caser en universite) Ph.d. c'est rewarding mais c aussi 4 ans de ta vie ou tu marques un stop de longue duree...y a aussi le cote materiel.

pkoi le canada? c simple, la qualite de vie est bcp meilleure ici, c'est plus calme, mois polarisé surtout apres 9/11, criminalite incomparable, tout le hrajj quoi. mais en realite je passe bcp de temps la bas, voire la moitie meme.

6:33 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

napo, I'm planning to spend more than 2 months ;-)

6:47 AM  
Blogger SNAWSI said...

Napo, I deserve to be "here ", win ???
If it's USA, I'll end up going back there, hopefully by the end of 2006 after the expiration of the J1 visa restriction (= 2 years resident at the native country ;-)

6:42 AM  
Blogger Napo said...

@um zayd, thanks for dropping by. i hope zayd is doing well. canada is indeed nic and it's people are even nicer..

@swifty, as long as you can !

@snawsi, sara inti J-1? aya inshallah la prochaine is F-1 walla H1-B quoi que l'H1b est presque une mission impossible tawa. well, see you in a couple of years there.

7:08 AM  
Blogger SNAWSI said...

Aleh a couple of years, ech mazel fiha 2006 ?
If things works as I want and hope, I'll drop there by March 2007 and I'll probably be living in DC or NY ;-)

7:23 AM  
Blogger Curieuse de tout said...

récemment, j'ai reçu des propositions de Houston, South Carolina et de Laval. Elles représentent quasiment mes rêves sur le plan professionnel. Le problème, c'est que je reste très réservée sur la question d'aller vivre dans cette partie du monde....

1:49 PM  
Blogger Napo said...

@snawsi, aya behi, enfin tu vas comprendre pkoi je reponds a tes email ton apres midi qui est mon matin ;)

@curieuse, wallahi tu ne rates rien si tu essaye au moins, gnere une ou 2 années. khtak min laval, c'est francophone et plein de tunisien w'mak ta3raf 3ada... houston c'est trop republican et moins cosmo.
south carolina est le milieu je dirais mais ca depend de ce qu'est 'professional' dans ton monde.

6:06 PM  
Blogger The Tunisian Star said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

7:06 PM  
Blogger The Tunisian Star said...

@Napo: ichnowa tu nous fais de la mauvaise pub, je plaisante. Mais c vrai, Laval c'est plein de tunisiens (au moins on se sent pas seul ) c'est même la plus grande concentration des étudiants tunisiens qui font 3 eme cycle dans tout l'Amérique du Nord. Mais pour venir, il faut voir qu'est ce que tu veux faire exactement, car sa varie selon les facultés et aussi selon les départements dans chaque faculté.
Il faut aussi voir si tu as du financement ou non, car ici si tu viens à tes frais c'est pas cher

7:07 PM  
Blogger Imperator said...

salut napo,
belrassmi comment tu as fait pour entrer à la MIT? désolé je connais pas beaucoup des américains mais je lis beaucoup de magazines made in USA!!c'est tout!!
qu'est ce que tu me conseilles mon frére ?
leur créativité etc sont dus à la liberté totale qu'ils ont. c'est culturel.
A+

11:54 AM  
Blogger Napo said...

@imbratour, simple demande, de plus c'etait la continuation de mon autre master..
pour conseiller, il faut savoir ce que tu veux faire, houwa rahou sans bourse walla grant, l'access aux universite nord americaine a part laval et uqam est vraiment difficile. moi sans bourse, c m'aurait ete impossible comme la majorite de tout le monde

12:35 PM  
Blogger Imperator said...

merci napo,
pour étudier aux states commençons à améliorer l'anglais et parés on verra lool. et de plus j'ai cessé de rever depuis longtemps.
sérieux moi je désapprouve bcp de choses de la politique américaine et de leurs mode de vie mais personne ne peut nier leur avance sur tout le monde et leur réussite insolente.
A+

4:15 AM  
Blogger Napo said...

@imbratour, wallahi quant a desapprouver, je suis d'accord avec toi, l'important est vraiment d'apprendre ce qui est bon pour nous et ignorer le mauvais..
aya in boca al lupo !

8:32 AM  
Blogger Peter Shea said...

Napo,

Do you ever get involved in e-learning?

5:07 PM  
Blogger Napo said...

@21st, niet !

5:45 PM  
Blogger Imperator said...

Salut,
on attend tes critiques sur l'USA pas toujours les compliments!
A+

6:20 AM  
Blogger Napo said...

tu peux trouver les critiques partout dans tous les sites web, les journaux et les blogs...pour commencer un des inconvenient des USA est le manque de soin publique, c'est a dire si tu tombes malade et t'as pas une assurance a travers ton employeur t'es foutu.

8:12 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

je croit qu'aussi parmi les points négatifs est que les employeurs peuvent licensier facilement un employé donné sans indémnité des fois ,pas comme en europe par exemple.

12:52 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home