Glee from Gleevec

Earlier this week I was feeling very apprehensive about the prospect of spending week after week doing a 9-5 job in something like HR. Only two weeks into my internship and I was already feeling a bit stifled by the lack of room for creativity in human resources. Everything just seemed laid out already- very cut and dried. Over the past few days, though, things have definitely improved, starting from when I was browsing the company’s Intranet and came upon an article about a cancer-fighting drug called Gleevec.

To most people, Gleevec may not seem all that noteworthy—it may not even so much as ring a bell. However, for those of us who sloughed through Life Sciences 1a during the fall semester of our freshman year, Gleevec is incredibly significant. It was one of our professor’s favorite drugs, and it followed that we sat through many a lecture about the revolutionary binding mechanism. As it turns out, Novartis is the producer of Gleevec! Learning this illuminated the amazing and cutting-edge work that the researchers here at Novartis are doing. (Wikipedia goes so far as to cite Gleevec as “an example of pharmaceutical industry innovation that justifies the high cost of drugs”!) It is very, VERY cool to think that the researchers searching for medicine’s next magic bullet are right down the street at Building 8, and all of the work we do in support functions such as HR enable the company to function, and the scientists to discover and create.

The next day, after making dozens of copies of packets for a managers’ workshop, I was invited to go to said workshop and to get a glimpse of another HR function. Needless to say, the change of pace was more than welcome, and it was really interesting to hear the advice being given to managers, as well as see the cultural differences between Chinese managers and American managers. (There weren’t any American managers at the workshop, but I have an idea or two about what American managers are like.) What struck me the most, was when one of the workshop’s participants brought up his concern that the mid-year performance review style being taught didn’t “put it on the table.” He thought that the Westernized-style of review was a bit too circuitous and wanted to be more blunt with his associates. No sugar-coating here!

This week I also went to my first Toastmasters’ Club meeting. TC originates from the USA with the goal of improving members’ communication and public speaking skills. There is a club based at Novartis Shanghai so Chinese associates have the opportunity to practice giving presentations in English. As one of the few native speakers here, I was asked to go participate. I was struck by what an encouraging environment they foster. Seeing them step outside their comfort zones and pour so much effort into mastering the English language was very inspiring, and the way all of the other members support them was touching. Every meeting has a work of the day, which members as supposed to incorporate into their talks as much as possible, and this time it was ENTHUSIASM (“in honor of the new visitors here to support the club,” aka me). All of the members embodied the word, even if they may have neglected to use it often.

As I coach others in the finer points of English (including proper usage or idioms and nitty-gritty grammar corrections), I’m still striving to master my own foreign language: Mandarin. It can be difficult in a city that is so international, in that I am very infrequently pushed to use Mandarin, and spend a good deal of time with non-Chinese speakers. I finally got thrown into a situation where I was finally forced to rely on whatever Mandarin I could muster. Since the smog here isn’t QUITE strong enough to kill all of the bugs, I’ve gotten a number of very itchy bug bites, one of which got infected. I made appointment with the company’s on-site doctor, and managed to communicate my problem and what I thought the cause was to her, and then also understand her replies. It was a short appointment, but I came away with two small vials of medicine and one huge feeling of satisfaction.