A native of Belgium, Mik Emmerechts is director of operations for Keyware, a provider of biometric identification solutions. Biometrics is the technology of identifying individuals based on physical characteristics, such as fingerprints and voice. Emmerechts, 27, works out of Keyware's US headquarters in Woburn, Massachusetts. Previously, he was a management consultant with Ernst & Young in Brussels, Belgium. He earned master's degrees from Arthur D. Little School of Management in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Switzerland's Lausanne University.

Monster.com: What are some of the differences between working in the US and Europe?

Mik Emmerechts: One of the major differences, and this might sound funny, is that job descriptions are in place (in the US). With the job descriptions, you have bonuses and performance evaluations, and everybody works within his or her job description and will take on things for which they're evaluated and might earn a potential bonus. Anything beyond that, I have the impression, they're not always ready to take on. It's completely different in Europe. People do not have job descriptions, and, in general, work more across departments than in one specific department.

Mc: When you first got here, was there anything about life in the US that struck you as very different?

ME: Family life was a lot more absent -- not as strong as what I found in Europe and what you can find in Latin America. After high school, Americans are so mobile. They go to college, and it's maybe a couple thousand miles away, which is surprising for a European. In the US, students tend to be a lot more independent. They need to pay for their own tuition. Everybody works over the summer, because college fees are so expensive. In Europe, the state pays for it, and your parents typically pay for your room or apartment. In the US, students need loans to pay for college. That creates a totally different culture of how you deal with your studies.

Mc: What made you want to work in the US?

ME: I used to work for Ernst & Young in Brussels, and I liked that they were a lot more practical and there was a lot less bureaucracy. In European countries -- and I'm excluding the UK, as it is pretty much like the US -- if you push hard, there are many stumbling blocks because of your age. I would never have been able to have the position I currently have in the US, just for seniority reasons. I'm 27 now. They would say that's unacceptable; you have to be 30 years old to be director of operations, no matter how good you are. In the US, if you're good, you can jump over somebody. In Europe, it's more like a train, one goes away and the next comes in. That's something that made me decide I wanted to come to the US.

Mc: What do you do you in your job?

ME: I'm responsible for the operational management and day-to-day business activities of the biometric software division. We develop voice, face and fingerprint software that allows you to identify people by verifying these physical characteristics instead of a PIN code or password.

Mc: Do you miss anything about Europe?

ME: That Europe is so heterogeneous with different cultures and languages. Where my parents used to live, if I traveled an hour and a half, I was in Germany, three quarters of an hour and I was in the Netherlands, two hours I'm in Paris, and two and a half hours and I'm in London. Here, I travel 4,000 miles and I still see McDonald's and Staples. It's practical, but you're so far away, and it's still all the same.