The World Trade Council is an international research and consulting firm with a strong educational and financial services component. You can find more information on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Tumblr.
1. How did you get started in the industry? How can someone who is interested in your work get started?
Marc V. Romano, President of the World Trade Council
Marc’s entrepreneurial experiences span five continents over three decades. Some of his earliest entrepreneurial experiences took place during his tenure at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he majored in Hospitality and Business Finance. From 2007 to 2009, Marc Romano, president of the World Trade Council, was employed at the World Trade Center Chicago. As head of business development, he completed three trade missions. They included the Philippines, Africa, and Amsterdam. Although he enjoyed his time working there, one of the main reasons he decided to leave the company was that he felt that they were limited in their vision on how they could benefit the business and educational community. In disagreement with the limited vision of the World Trade Center, which led to their ultimate demise, Mr. Romano left to begin the World Trade Council.
Marc Romano believes that the best way for someone who is interested in working at the World Trade Council (or seeking similar employment) is to gain as much experience as possible. An internship provides students with a structured exposure to a variety of experiences within the business world. In addition to confirming a realistic career goal, an internship provides an opportunity to match your abilities, aptitudes and interests with job availability in the current business world. American students, serving internships in foreign countries, can achieve goals similar to those sought by the World Trade Council, provided those internships include a serious exposure to the business world.
2. What’s the future of your industry or job?
The World Trade Council is unique in that it constantly evolves in response to the ever changing business and political climate. Therefore, as an organization rooted in an entrepreneurial culture, the WTC, by definition, has an unlimited future with unlimited opportunities.
In the past few years, the World Trade Council has grown to offer a variety of services for both domestic and international businesses seeking to expand their business plan. Primary among those services are research and marketing. The World Trade Council operates a large number of different projects. Past projects include collaborations with Lemko Corporation, Nove International LLC, Crate & Barrel, Grupo Axo, Sigarenmagazijin Bom, Tabacalera Cigars, Tanduay Distillers Inc, and casinos in the Dominican Republic. Current projects include providing and marketing of student housing for foreign students, manufacturing and marketing of electronic cigarettes from China, managing the internship program in conjunction with the major Chicago area colleges and universities, collaborating with Intrax Chicago English School in the design and implementation of entrepreneurial experiences coupled with the development of communication skills, conducting retirement seminars, managing real estate properties in Illinois and Indiana, and researching current articles for the World Trade Council blog. As for future projects, the World Trade Council plans to launch a satirical web series that sums up the year’s biggest political issues as well as continue all current projects.
3. What do you look for when you hire an intern or entry-level candidate?
The World Trade Council brings on new interns every Fall, Spring, and Summer. Potential employees and interns of the WTC, regardless of their major or interests, must possess an aptitude to identify business opportunities.
While all candidates for internship are given consideration, students pursuing degrees in Marketing, Communications, Law, Information Technology, Information Management, Business Administration, Web Development, and Political Science, are encouraged to apply to the World Trade Council’s Internship Program.
Requirements for all interns include:
- Excellent written and oral communication skills. For foreign students, this translates to a strong commitment to hone their business communication skills to a competitive level.
- Talented multi-tasker who can work independently
- Detail oriented and extremely organized
- Passion for researching problems and offering possible solutions
- Exceptional follow-up skills
- Strong computer application and internet skills
4. What is one thing an intern can do to make a favorable impression?
In addition to the requirements mentioned above, and the standard qualifications sought by all employers, an intern can make a favorable at the WTC by demonstrating a willingness to take on tasks outside and beyond their in initial level of expertise. An important goal of the WTC is to engage students, as a group or individually, in new experiences that test and enhance their skills.
5. Can you share a positive intern story and an intern horror story? No names needed…
A number of interns at the World Trade Council were hired by other companies or government agencies (both domestic and international) during or after completing their internship program. There are instances of some WTC interns had achieved gainful employment long before their graduation from college. We expect that their WTC internship, while still in process, had contributed to their achieving an early employment offer. Further, students failing to achieve employment, because of their lack of communications skills, did achieve gainful employment as a result of the business communication skills they honed during their WTC internship. While there are no horror stories, the diversity (language and otherwise) of the staff and the interns they serve does have communication barriers, which led to miscommunications that could be described as embarrassing, if not laughable. Overall, the intern experience at the WTC under the guidance of Marc Romano has had significant positive results.
Interested in interning for the World Trade Council? They are currently looking for interns! Apply now.
The first thing we look for is someone who loves travel and has a passion for discovery. Without that, they will not understand the philosophy behind TRUFFLE. Candidates have to have a positive attitude and love life! Detail is very important in the content business, so being detail-oriented is essential. Out-of-the-box thinkers who have an entrepreneurial spirit. Equally as important is finding a self-starter who has the drive to make their mark in the world and who thrives on the grind of building a startup.
Monday – the most productive day of the week! Here are some links to go along with your second cup of coffee:
