J&J: Weeks 1 & 2

There is just so much to share about my first 2 weeks at J&J, I hardly know where to begin! I’m going to instead focus on 3 main topics: Language, Lunch & People.

The Language:

All business is conducted in Chinese. As per earlier post, I do not speak Chinese. I’m fairly positive this fact affects my effectiveness. Therefore every meeting goes something like this:

• Colleague1: “Welcome Jacq. Today we will review the forecast results for SanPro”
• Me: “Thank you. Sounds great.”
• C1: “Ok, We start with the March sales on Stayfree. We did better than expected for top tier.
• C2: “I have a question. I thought we had problem with top tier in South region. I heard promotion did not work”
• C1: “Oh.... Ahh..., yes promo was…. 你还是 我们卡 生日蛋糕卡 生日蛋糕还是 我们卡 你还是 我 日蛋糕卡还是 我们卡 生日蛋 (this is not a real sentence, just for effect purposes)
• Me: shoot.….

My immediate team’s English is actually quite strong. My boss tries to interpret for me when she can, but right now Zoe, the girl I am replacing, her English is the best and she’s incredibly helpful. Unfortunately, yesterday was her last day in the office for transition. The training wheels are off starting next week!

Additionally, I expect my own language skills to take a hit as I need to modify my word choice & sentence structure to better communicate with the team. For example, a sentence that would normally go:

• "I’d like to understand in more detail the results of the promotions you executed last year and what you learned from each of the different platforms.”

becomes...

• “Can you tell me about promotions last year? Good or bad? Which kind did you like the most?” (I still can’t promise this will work…)

I also get to use my imagination more. For example, we went to lunch at Subway and Zoe kept telling me she was going to get me the “recipe.” To which I said, “I don’t need the recipe.” (My mind went… that’s odd, I know how to make a sandwich.) But she said, “Yes, you need the recipe to give to Anna.” Me: “Oh…. You mean the receipt!” And then we laughed. :)

The Lunch:

Hahaha, I don’t even know how to describe the lunch process. There are apparently 3 “canteens.” I have only been to one of them. Our team always eats together, which I really like. Basically, the canteen is one room about the size of half a basketball court. There is one line where you pick up your metal prison lunch tray and the lunch ladies dole out the “dishes” which typically consist of the following:

• Line Part 1:
• Bowl of rice
• Something that looks like egg drop soup or bean porridge but it’s unexpectedly sweet tasting
• Bowl of marinated root vegetables of some kind (typically mushrooms & celery, I think) this is normally pretty good, but also unexpectedly sweet
• Stir-fried veggies plus 2 different options of “meat” on top. Said “meat” in my experience has included: BBQ chicken legs, fried whole minnows, fried fish fillet w/ bone, fried pork, fried chicken bits, tofu and unknown fried substance.
• Dannon Yogurt for dessert
• Line Part 2: (same line but this is at the end where you have to wait because it’s made “fresh”)
• Option 1: Noodles (with or without soup) with variety of different spices, tofu, meat, herbs, etc. Since I don’t know what everything is, I just opt for getting all of it & I pick through what I want to eat once it’s in my bowl. This did lead me to getting the “embryo egg” one time. Once I saw Zoe crack hers, I politely pushed mine to the side of my plate. Other than that, the noodles are actually always delicious!
• Option 2: Dumplings (with or without broth). These are totally normal and are also always quite tasty.

Again, I don’t speak any Chinese so I require a buddy when going to the Canteen to help me translate and communicate how I want my noodles/dumplings. One perk, is that the Canteen food is completely free to employees, however, even the locals admit it gets old pretty quickly and they also steer clear of certain items. I do like to eat with my team, so when we are in the office, I go to the Canteen, "when in Rome!" However, I'm grateful I get to work from home many days as I don't think I could eat there every day. I’m 100% the only white person I’ve ever seen in the Canteen. It’s an adventure!!!

The People:

The people are quite amazing. They are kind and incredibly welcoming. While everyone’s English isn’t perfect, absolutely everyone tries. Which I appreciate more than they know as I completely recognize, that I’m in China and making their lives more difficult by needing things in English. My core team is awesome.

My manager, Anna: She went to Stanford MBA in the states and is incredibly intelligent and interesting to listen to her on her perspective of the business and J&J. While we are the same age, we have an interesting dynamic I think as we both seem to have motherly instincts towards one another? I don’t know exactly how to explain it, but I think she tries to take care of me as I’m thrown into all the crazy at work and then culture differences. Then I also try to take care of her & reassure her about the business pieces, not because she can’t handle it, but just because she is so sweet and I think she worries too much! I’m definitely looking forward to working with her.

My colleague, Allen: Allen is the marketer on the Listerine business. He is about 2 years out of university and he is just a big teddy bear! He is always interested in learning new things about my work & personal experiences and I am the same way about him, plus I just want to give him a big hug all the time because he is just so nice! He is also my critical Canteen buddy. I think I’d starve without him.

My replacement, Zoe: Zoe is simply awesome. Incredibly smart, funny and again, adorable. (Everyone is adorable and I want to hug them all the time. I can’t explain it.) Her English is great and she has been the most helpful in getting me up to speed. I am replacing her on the Women’s Health business and I can’t even begin to say how much I will miss her next week once she’s gone off to training!

Anyways, it’s adventure that I’m incredibly grateful for! I think I will grow as a marketer and individual and just look forward to learning more through the process and hope that I’m able to help quickly! Tomorrow starts the Tomb Sweeping holiday, so I have a couple days off, but Matt is working still so I'll likely try to continue to catch up.

Here are some limited pics. What I really want to take is pics of the canteen but haven't figured out how to do it just yet without looking crazy (although I already attract enough attention to myself there. :) )

The office in Minhang

The cats living outside the office.

The walk from the subway, which is actually quite nice.