Margaret Schimke has been interested in the international scene since she was in elementary school. Her early interest was spurred on by the meeting of a boy from England. Learning about his country, culture and listening to his accent fascinated Margaret. She maintained a pen pal relationship with the English boy through the rest of elementary and junior high school. In high school Margaret spent time in Hondorous as an exchange student. She realized there that she had not been taking her Spanish class seriously enough. Although she'd been studying Spanish for four years, she couldn't understand a thing! This was a turning point for Margaret. She decided it was time to get serious about studying!   Margaret continued to quench her thirst for international happenings in college. She studied International Relations and Spanish at University of California, Davis. She spent a summer in Mexico and her junior year in Barcelona, Spain. Margaret had also always been interested in Japan so after graduating from UC, Davis she decided to find a job that would pay her to live there. She taught English to junior and senior high school student in a small town called Komatsu-shi near Kanazawa (can you find that town on in your atlas?). This town's big claim to fame is the Komatsu tractor.   After Japan, Margaret moved back to California and was offered a position with APL (a large international shipping company, www.apl.com) in the Seattle sales office as a Sales Support Representative. In this position she learned a lot about APL’s service capabilities in and out of Seattle. Margaret then spent a year and a half at APL Corporate offices in Oakland, CA in the pricing department. As a Pricing Analyst, Margaret learned a lot about what APL could do as a company and about overall costs, markets, and competition.   These positions were great stepping stones to her all time favorite job as an Account Executive back in the Seattle office handling APL’s refrigerated commodity shippers. Refrigerated commodity shippers include the orchards or trading companies that export produce from the state of Washington. Washington State produce includes onions, squash, apples, cherries, pears, lettuce, celery, broccoli, eggs, potatoes, meat, dessert toppings, ice cream, and french fries.   Margaret loves her job. "Everyday I learn something", states Margaret. "My job is to make sure my customers are happy. To accomplish this, I read emails from Taiwan, Dubai, Hong Kong and other countries about my customers shipments to those countries. I work to solve any problems which may arise. I check in with my customers to let them know if there is new information relevant to them, for example new rate or service information. I go to coffee with customers to learn more about their business and more about how APL can better meet their needs. I go to lunch with customers to celebrate good business or to help them forget about a mistake we've made!   "To stay informed I typically read newspapers and watch news. The international transportation industry is information driven so it's very important that I continually stay current on world happenings. My customers look to me for advice about international issues which may impact their business. For example, when riots broke out in Indonesia, my customers called me to find out what might happen to the apples they had just shipped to Indonesia. The Asian Economic Crisis has influenced my customers business quite a bit. The more uncertainty and change overseas, the more uncertainty and change here, so it's my role to explain situations to my customers to help them feel more informed and more at ease with doing business internationally. It's important for me to know when other countries holidays are, how changes in currency may impact the buying and selling of produce, and political situations. But not only do I give a lot of information to my customers, they also provide a lot of information to me which I pass onto our corporate offices so they can make well educated marketing strategy decisions.   "The favorite part of my job is talking to the different people and learning about what they do. I've realized that even people I didn't think I'd be interested in talking to are interesting once I start learning more about them. I've realized that everybody is interesting. This was a major realization for me! I love continuously learning and sharing information. It's almost like teaching. I like driving around, checking out the orchards in Eastern Washington. I love the variety — every day is different. And my customers are great too!   "My advice to students K-12 is to remember that there is a whole world out there not just the city you live in. Also remember that differences are not bad, just different. Differences make things interesting and when it's interesting it's fun! Don't be afraid to try new things and, last but not least, eat your fruits and vegetables!!" Home Journey Log Trade Topics People Profiles Index Ask the Eagle