For the past 8 years, Miriam van Ingen-Pinckaers (39), née Pinckaers, has been living and working in Switzerland with her husband and four-year-old son. She is a senior organisational change manager at Roche, an international pharmaceutical company. “My work is all about cultural differences. To implement a change, you must understand the behaviour and underlying beliefs of others. For example, we used to sell only diagnostic products, but we’ll be introducing digital products. I’m in charge of managing this internal change.”
Cultural differences were extensively covered in her International Business (IB) programme, but it was during her exchange to Budapest in 2006 that Van Ingen-Pinckaers – who is from a village called Gulpen in Limburg – truly learnt what they meant. “In Hungary, people live to work. In the Netherlands, it’s the other way around.” Today, she has colleagues from Budapest. “We immediately connected, talking about their hometown.” And she doesn’t just have colleagues from Hungary; Van Ingen-Pinckaers works with people all over the world, starting her workdays in calls with colleagues in Asia and ending them in calls with the United States and Latin America. “I’m reminded of [the late UM professor] Geert Hofstede’s cultural dimensions every day. He developed a model describing global cross-cultural differences. The Dutch are individualistic, whereas Asian cultures are collectivist. When they throw a party, they don’t single out one person – it’s a team effort. With Dutch people, you can always tell who the party is for. We know how to claim the spotlight.”
Chameleon
Fellow IB alum Ties Peters (24) encounters these same cultural differences in his work. He is currently doing an internship at Amazon in Luxembourg. His team consists of five people, each of a different nationality. “Southern Europeans talk a lot about their feelings and prefer more physical contact. The other day, they all sent me “We’ll miss you!” messages when I was off work for a little while because they know it annoys me”, he laughs. He used to find this kind of behaviour “odd”, but he has learnt to “adapt like a chameleon. If they want to talk more about their feelings, I do the same.” Peters hasn’t completely abandoned his Dutch identity in the workplace, though. “The Dutch are direct and less hierarchical. I have no problem approaching someone in a higher position if I have a question, to the surprise of some of my colleagues.”
Implicit assumptions
During his time at Queen’s University in Canada in 2022, Peters also became more aware of his own “implicit assumptions”, he says. “When Dutch people agree on something, it’s set it in stone. That’s not the case for everyone.”
“In Asian cultures, ‘yes’ doesn’t always mean ‘yes’”, remarks Van Ingen-Pinckaers. “Some people don’t know this, which can cause delays. Sometimes I use my network [e.g. a European colleague who works in Asia] to find out if a ‘yes’ was really a ‘yes’. Achieving goals quickly is crucial for us at Roche – patients are waiting for medication or a diagnosis.”
Positive work environment
While studying at a university of applied sciences, Pepijn Saraber (25) from Maastricht completed several internships abroad. “I built up a good CV. My experience working in a research lab in Vancouver led to a similar position in Leuven, which paved the way to Oxford.” He went there for his research internship as part of his master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences in 2021. At the time, working in a “highly regarded lab” was important to him. “It helped me secure my PhD position at Maastricht University.” But his priorities have since shifted. “A positive work environment is much more important to me now.”
Personal growth
All three alumni say that the time they spent abroad has contributed to their personal growth. “I’ve become much more independent”, explains Saraber. “I was given a lot of freedom in the labs abroad, more than my fellow students in the Netherlands at the time. I now have the same freedom during my PhD. Many of my colleagues struggle with this and need more guidance. I don’t.” Peters says he matured emotionally. “Before, I never quite realised when I wasn’t in a good place emotionally. Others would notice before I did. I’d dismiss it as ‘just having a bad day’. I’ve learnt to be comfortable getting in touch with my emotions.” He attributes this to his time in Canada. “I was on the other side of the word, with only myself to rely on.” “That’s true”, says Van Ingen-Pinckaers, “but you also make new connections easily. Wherever you go in the world, you’ll always find people you like.”
Have all three of them caught the bug for living and working abroad? Peters says yes, while Saraber is currently content in Maastricht: “I have plenty of international colleagues and attend conferences abroad.” As for Van Ingen-Pinckaers, she’s happy where she is in the Swiss Alps for the foreseeable future. “It’s so enriching to work with people from different cultures. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”