I feel that the biggest obstacles for a Vietnamese to move up in the management
ladder are:
1. COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS,
2. Cultural differences,
3. Stereotype of Orientals as a good technical person but a bad manager.
Now my own experience. I came to the U.S. when I was 20 years old. I was too
old to adapt completely to the American culture. I felt like I did not belong to
this land, its people, its customs and languages - cultural shock! But for
economic reasons, I had to work hard, study hard and try to achieve all the
material things that the average Americans have.
I think there is a virtual ceiling imposed on all foreigners who are new to
this country, especially if you do not speak perfect English and your skin is
not white, and you do not share the same cultural heritage's. There are some
discrimination against newcomers, but these are part of human natures and I do
not allow myself to be bothered too much by these. To me what is more important
is the ceiling we imposed on ourselves: self pity, self-defeating attitudes,
lack of confidence, inferior complexes, ignorance's, and lack of the will to
advance.
In my own case, right now I am not holding any management position because in
my company there is not much room or opportunities for people to move up. This
company is pretty much like in Vietnam. You are not supposed to hold any
important position until you are over 45 year old (my 2 bosses are over 50).
Furthermore, in the past 10 years I have not focused on moving up on the
management ladder. But my strategy has always been to work hard enough on my 9-5
jobs to survive and devote 40% of my energy and time to the side businesses and
investments. I've been working as a programmer/analyst for 15 years now. During
this time, I had always run other businesses, like a video franchise, a
landscaping business, convenient stores, and now apartment rentals. I've always
made as much money as my bosses!) so I'm not sure if I want to hold any
management position at all. I guess 5 or 10 years from now when my programming
supervisor retires, if I want to, I can apply for her position. To be able to
call-the-shots is sometimes attractive but it also involves a lot of heartaches
and is time consuming.
I believe that if you want to move up high on the management ladder, sure YOU
CAN DO it. Given that you are intelligent enough, and working hard to improve
yourself everyday in communications skills (if you are not speaking perfect
English), people skills, political skills. But the most important thing is SELF
MOTIVATION. If you WANT it bad enough then you can GET is someday.
For me, moving up high on the management ladder is not my great concern. My
priority is not moving up but moving around, and making as much money as I can
while doing it. My concern is not the ceiling imposed on us at work, but my
concern is the abilities of my tenants to come up with their rental payments
on-time each month at home!)
I am afraid that I won't be able to contribute much to your column ...
because I don't think I've hit the "ceiling" yet!). I had a chance to become a
section manager once and even though I enjoyed the experience of managing
projects, schedules, people, and dealing with customers and upper management, I
found that I enjoyed the technical side a lot more, or at least I feel that is
where I can learn a lot more. So I decided to jump ship and continue on the
technical side.
My observation/guess is that the "ceiling" is somewhere in the upper
management level, i.e. director or division head, and to be a player at that
level on has to have at least a master degree (in my case, I don't have one
(sigh)). Also communications skills is a MUST at these levels. Now let us assume
that I possess these skills and qualifications, I probably still feel "left out"
or not part of the main stream due to my inherent Vietnamese instinct, i.e.
humbleness, quiet, not blowing your own horn kind of thing. Even living here for
almost 20 years and having seen and enjoyed the popular culture, I still don't
really mix in well with my white colleagues. There are still a lot of
jokes/slang that they can really understand each other while I am not, and
vice-versa when I am with Vietnamese friends. It is at this level that I think a
glass ceiling may exists and a Vietnamese will never be able to really mix in
with the natives. As of any good teams, management teams included, a trusting
bonding relationship among the team members is important. A "good working"
relationship here means more that just a "professional working" relationship. A
personal relationship has to exist and at this level, we are talking about
compatibility at the personal level, and I think this is where a foreigner,
especially an Asian, does not mix well with the current white-male dominated
upper management.
On the theory of compatibility, the foreword of the book "Culture Literacy",
by ?? ... explained very well on why common culture roots are very important in
improving communications/understanding among people.
Well, that's my 2 cents of the issue.
I chose the technical ladder in every company that I have worked for. This
was because of my personality, not because I thought that a minority would not
make it to management level. I have seen minority executives at all companies
that I worked for. Having said that, I must admit that the very top spots are
almost always occupied by white males - except only in companies founded by
minorities themselves.
In my current company, there are female and minority executives. A Vietnamese
young man is on his way up the management ladder. A very close Vietnamese friend
of mine is one of the top executives at his small company.
In brief, I believe that Vietnamese can make it to the top. Of course, I do
realize that it would take more for a minority to get there than a good looking
white male.
About advancing in the workplace, this is what I can offer you. I believe
communication skills and an outgoing, warm personality play important roles.
With Americans, my communications skills is not spectacular and my personality
is somewhat introvert (is it a common trait among older Vietnamese?), and
straightforward. I also do not play politics nor know how to socialize with
bosses. Plus the fact that due to circumstances, I changed jobs 4 times already.
All of these conditions should not help me advance!. Even if a Vietnamese got
advanced, I think definitely there is a glass ceiling at some high level.
I guess everybody is waiting for me to editorialize now and try to come up
with some conclusions from all these letters and my own experience.
In general I believe that at the technical level, any discrimination is
relatively minor. When you get beyond the first level of management, there is
subtle discrimination but probably the biggest problem is our cultural heritage
of humility is in our way. Thus for anybody aspiring to move into upper
management, my recommendations are to work on
1. your communication skills - it is never enough!
2. networking with your peers inside and outside the company - again it
appears never to be enough! With regard to the bosses, everything depends on
his/her personality, but when you get an invitation for a party do show up on
time!
3. try to work with a mentor (this is publicity for