Vienna Sausages: Last Business Day in Europe...

Today marked the last visits on our study abroad trip here in Europe. It's hard to grasp the idea that in two short days we will being parting our ways for good. On our last professional dress day we visited HP and Prague College. Both visits were very informational.

We started the day off by being able to sleep in, which was amazing! First on our agenda , was to visit HP. Out of the 11 business visits, HP was my favorite. Marta Blachnik, the "Talent Acquisition" or employee recruiter, geared the entire presentation towards us. She started the visit off with questions about us. Out of the businesses we visited HP was the only one to ask questions directly towards us during the entire presentation. Instead of being lectured on the CZ economic situation or history of the company, Marta described the graduate program that HP offers. The HP graduate program is known as "Young Guns", operating in its fifth year, and has over 100 graduates. The program consists of four main points which include; networking, working on interesting projects gathering experience in numerous fields, and opening the door to new career opportunities. Upon graduation, HP offers there graduates position in one of their many fields. HP believes that throwing new employees into their line of work on the first day is the most successful and efficient way of training. When you think about it, they're right. When I started my job back home, I was thrown onto the work floor the very first day but now they have you watch another person work for a week before letting you loose. Another lesson I enjoyed was the mentoring aspect HP offers. They believe that every single person at HP, no matter what the job title is, should be mentored by each other. The seniors mentor the "fresh meat" and vice versa.

A concept I have seen happening a lot in the workplace over here is charity and strong team building programs. At HP, they are given four hours per work month to donate their time to a charity of their choice. Marta said that they don't always take those hours each month, but instead they let them build up and take a few days off to contribute to larger charities. As for the team building aspect, HP provides a party at the end of each fiscal year for the entire company to join in on. Each department has their own teambuilding strategies and sports teams they can play on within the company. I think this is a great idea for every company to be able to build realtionships with your co-workers and potentially increase productivity and energy within the workplace.

As for history, HP gave us a little bit of their background. When hearing the company "HP", the only products I knew that they produced were PCs and printers. Although, the printers and PCs are the most stable product and the hardest to be hired under, HP offers a lot of other products. Some of their other products consist of servers, storage, networking, IT management, big data and analytics, and security. This company is present in over 170 countries world-wide with $120 billion in world-wide revenue. HP employees over 324,000 people.

After our visit, we were able to catch a bite to eat on our own. After returning to the hotel and changing out of our business wear, Ashley, Emily, and I decided to catch a bite to eat down the street. Sherwood's is the place to go in Prague! Emily and I have been there for dessert, lunch, and dinner the past three days. Today, I decided to go outside of my norm (pastas and burgers) and tried the duck. It was actually quite good. The only complaint I have is that I'm still extremely full and miserable 4 hours later. While waiting for our food, we decided to look around the restaurant at the waiters and noticed quite a few things that would not be tolerated in the US. The cooks didn't wear hair nets or gloves while in the kitchen, waitresses were able to wear long, painted fingernails, and you can order a pack of cigarattes right from the bar tender!

After lunch we visited the Prague College. Upon arrival, it was nothing as I expected. I thought it was an actual campus like ours but instead one college was fit into a building the size of Valk. We were able to hear from the dean and the chair of the business department. Prague College is quite a bit smaller than Northwest with only 600 students from 93 countries. Their tuition comes out to roughly $6,900 per year. To finish a bachelor's degree in Prague, it only takes three years. The class sizes are about the same as a normal business class at Northwest with 20-25 students per class.

I can't wait for our free day tomorrow! Emily and I plan on touring the gardens and returning to the John Lennon wall, time permitting. For dinner we would like to go to the James Dean restaurant, recommendations are welcome! As for the night life, we plan on popping into a small 80's place where they play nothing but the oldies. As for now, Emily and I are getting ready to go to dinner at the best pasta place we have ever had by the Museum. Chow for now!

By: Ashley Burnett