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Two months after graduating from PC in 2006, Cameron Cook headed to China on a 13-hour flight from Los Angeles to Guangzhou. She was on her way to work after landing a job as home industry mogul Carolyn Kinder’s marketing assistant. Cook would serve as liaison between Kinder and the Chinese manufacturers who produced her lighting fixtures.
Lucky for Cook, her father, Jeff – president and chief executive officer of Broyhill Furniture Industries – had been traveling to Asia for several years on business and could offer sound traveling advice. He recommended that, after flying from Greensboro to Atlanta to Los Angeles, taking a China Southern flight would help her avoid the hassle of flying into Hong Kong’s airport, located on an island, and then having to take a ferry from there.
Jeff Cook also recommended what his daughter should pack in her two pieces of luggage for her new job in China – jeans and short-sleeve t-shirts Cook would wear when she visited the factories, which have no air conditioning; cotton skirts, Capri pants, and cotton tops she’d wear during office days; tennis shoes, that, although not professional, would keep Cook from stepping in the dirty water on the streets in China; and, of course, the necessary beauty supplies. On board with her, she had her briefcase and a gym bag, which contained, among other essentials, an “Introduction to Mandarin Chinese” CD she had loaded on her i-Pod.
Cook first met Kinder at the International Home Furnishings Market two months before graduation. The bi-annual trade show in Cook’s hometown of High Point, N.C., showcases new home furniture product to industry buyers, designers, and manufacturers. It’s a week-long event that attracts millions of people.
“This was in my own backyard,” Cook said. “And for the past 22 years I had been playing daughter at market.”
The one she went to in March 2006, two months before graduation, was different, however.
“I went to market with a resume in my hand and my father’s powerful name in my back pocket. I was there to network and find a job post-graduation,” Cook said. “My father said he would get me to the door, but it was up to me to go through it.”
Cook was accustomed to taking control. She put herself through college on academic and athletic scholarships as a member of the Lady Blue Hose basketball team, which named her captain during her junior and senior seasons.
True to his word, Jeff Cook got his daughter to the door by introducing her to Kinder at the trade show. Taking advantage of the situation, Cook told Kinder that she had a strong interest in the industry and that she wanted to stay in public relations and marketing. Kinder told Cook she might have a job opportunity for her and that she would get in touch with her after the trade show. Two weeks later, Kinder called Cook from China and offered her the marketing assistant position. By that time, Cook had also been offered a marketing coordinator position with Century Furniture. She accepted Kinder’s offer three weeks after receiving it, choosing it because the Chinese experience would set her apart from competition and make her more attractive to the New York City market, where she ultimately wanted to be.
“I took a chance and jumped not knowing where it would take me or what it would lead me to,” Cook said. “But I knew this was my big break, and I could not pass up this opportunity to witness Chinese culture, religion, government, environment, factories, and overseas business development.”
Cook lived and worked in China for 15 months, but life wasn’t easy. Her apartment was located near a KFC, McDonald’s, and Wal-Mart, which was similar to the Wal-Mart in the U.S. Since houses have no insulation in them, though, outside noises filtered through her apartment. For 10 months out of the year, air conditioners in every room tried their best to stave off the heat.
In addition to dealing with China’s heat, Cook also had the language barrier to contend with. Listening to the Mandarin Chinese CD on her i-Pod, she tried to learn as much Chinese and its 25,000 characters as she could.
“At times I would find myself so confused, lonely, or raising my voice to a cabbie saying, ‘Wal-Mart, W-A-L-M-A-R-T,’” Cook said. “It was easy to sort of yell the words at him or speak really slowly, thinking that he would then understand my English.”
When she did shop, she often did not know what she was buying. She said the millions of dollars companies spend on advertising helped her because she was able to pick out the “Herbal Essence, Fructis Garnier, Colgate, and Crest mouthwash just by the labels or bottle shapes and colors.”
Despite being unable to communicate clearly at times, she did have help. When talking to factory workers, she mainly relied on her staff, half of whom had gone to university for English, to translate. She would get to a factory around 8 a.m. and visited two or three factories a day, making sure the factory workers made the changes on the lighting fixtures that Kinder designed. Cook bought a book on business etiquette to help when she met the Chinese businessmen.
“The Chinese really appreciated the fact that an American was taking the time to learn the Chinese ways,” she said.
Cook rode in a van with her staff between factory visits and talked more than business and upcoming events. They often talked about their social lives and the differences in culture.
“They were always asking me about the USA, what words meant, how to say certain things, whether we had certain foods and dishes, what were my school and family and friends were like, how do you get married in the USA, what car did I drive, etcetera,” she said. “They were so hungry for knowledge that I couldn’t feed it to them fast enough.”
Cook’s days ended around 7 or 8 p.m. She would then send e-mails to the Kinder International headquarters in Tampa, Fla., 12 hours behind, detailing the day’s accomplishments and resolving client issues. She worked six days a week, the typical Chinese workweek.
Cook also learned about herself during this time. She strengthened her already strong work ethic, and she fostered her undeniable sense of independence, a trait that her basketball coach at PC, Jessica Vanco, instilled in her.
“I stuck out like a sore thumb in China. I was usually stared at or people would wave,” she said. “But I finally realized, ‘It’s okay for me to be on my own. It’s okay that people look at me strange.’”
Within six months as marketing assistant, Cook was promoted to project manager and handled more than 1,200 products and 20 factories at once. Being project manager allowed the Chinese workers to focus on the factories and Kinder to focus on designing instead of follow-up.
After working as project manager for nine months, Cook decided it was time to “discover a new adventure.” She resigned from Carolyn Kinder International and went back to the home industry trade show near her home in High Point. She was armed with a stand-out resume and was full of confidence that her dream of working in New York City could be within reach. That was all she needed.
At the trade show, she met Deborah Burns, vice president and publisher of Metropolitan Home Magazine. Burns thumbed through her Blackberry and eventually introduced Cook to Lloyd Princeton of Design Management Company, a public relations firm in New York City, where Cook now works as a media relations account manager.
“Many people view my Asia experience and currently New York City as incredible opportunities, and they are. I am loving every minute of my new life here,” Cook said. “But without the support of my friends and family and having the solid background from Presbyterian College, I wouldn’t be here in this particular place in my life right now. I still look back on my four years at PC as the best times of my life. It is an experience that nothing can compare to.”
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