Some of the participants in the first online workshop

With the help of the Education Division in Boston, the Federation of Taiwanese Students Association of New England is holding a series of four online career development workshops. The first two online workshops were held recently, working together with a number of organizations known for their reputation, resource and professionality - the Boston Taiwanese Biotechnology Association, Harvard Taiwan Student Association, and the New England Association of Chinese Professionals. Each workshop had approximately fifty people taking part online.

The first one—called How to Interview Like a Pro? —was held on January 23. Dr. Yvonne Meng, a principal scientist at Johnson & Johnson, chaired the discussion, and three panelists offered valuable insights from the perspectives of both employers and job seekers. The first, the keynote speaker, Ms. Nancy Waggner is a retired career coach from Northeastern University. She provided sophisticated insights, illustrated with practical examples from her abundant coaching experience. The other panelists, Dr. Shian-Huey Chiang and Dr. Ho-Chou Tu, have each had experience working as hiring managers at the major pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer and Alnylam respectively. They talked about what was going on in their minds when they were interviewing people applying for jobs. 
Dr. Yvonne Meng kept the panelists’ opinions and comments as a conversation between the job-seekers and the hiring companies. This gave the workshop participants a whole picture of the recruitment process in industries that a prospective new recruit might find themself confronting. 

The second workshop on January 25 covered a rich spectrum of topics and aspects. It was called Career: Where are we Going from Here? The panelists—Dr. Kevin Pang, Vice President of Global Consulting at Lux Research, Jeffrey Wang, a Chartered Financial Analyst with Macquarie Group, and Penn Chou, Vice President of Insurance Product Research at Openly Inc.—are all senior professionals who frequently conduct interviews for their companies.

They provided information about the qualities valued in their respective industries, which was very practical for the interested audience. They also shared details of what they believe prospective new recruits should be mindful about when preparing themselves to approach a prospective employer. They pointed out that freshmen and freshwomen to the industry should be willing to embrace new and changing things and pursue self-improvement. Junior professionals with this mindset who can adapt to new and changing environments are going to build fruitful careers.