To assist local students in creating their long-term career goals and encourage international students to learn more about Taiwanese working culture, the Student Association organized the Career Networking event on Friday evening, November 18th, 2022, at the 73 Step Cafe on the NSYSU campus. At least 20 participants participated in this event, including local and international students, three IBMBA and GHRM MBA graduates who joined as guest speakers, and Kang Nguyen served as the event host.

The event started at 17:30 with Kang's welcoming speech and the organizers' introduction. He also welcomed the three alumni who would lead the round tables for the rest of the event. Additionally, during the introductory session, all speakers were granted a Certificate of Appreciation delivered by our Canadian professor, Wil Martens. The alumni then introduced themselves, their background, and their present employers so that the students were well aware of their current careers. Right after, everyone was welcomed to the buffet table to partake in a delicious vegetarian spread. After the meal, the attendees split up into three tables. There were three rounds of 20 minutes, where the students talked to each speaker one by one in a group of 5 people, and thus, the conversation was more private and entirely based on student inquiries.

The first table was led by IBMBA alumni Trent Prestegar from Australia, who is currently a Product Marketing Manager at Supermicro. He mainly discussed the Taiwan Employment Gold Card, a way for foreign talents to get a work permit and ARC in Taiwan based on their field of interest. He also described the Taiwanese working environment and provided career tips, such as getting started in Taiwan, growing your career, and overcoming challenges in the workplace.

The second table was led by GHRM MBA alumni Mayya Achyldurdyyeva from Turkmenistan, who is currently pursuing Ph.D. studies in Human Resources at NSYSU. She addressed questions regarding graduation requirements, ranging from the years to pursue Ph.D. studies to the number of publications required to graduate. She also spoke about the advantages and benefits of being a Ph.D. graduate and described the reach of this degree in terms of working in academia. However, she also discussed the drawbacks and negative connotations, like how employers see Ph.D. holders deemed overqualified for many jobs due to their high level of education.

Last but not least, the third table was led by GHRM MBA alumni, Hkawn San from Myanmar, who is an International Marketing Specialist at Synbio Tech Inc. She outlined the importance of studying Chinese for employment in Taiwan and how it helped her set professional objectives. In addition, besides describing her workplace's environment and relationship with coworkers, she also provided advice on how to start one's career as a new graduate as well as how to smoothly address the Taiwanese culture while being a foreigner.

In conclusion, on all three tables, the speakers performed admirably. The students genuinely enjoyed the exercise, and they made good use of the guest speakers' time. Finally, this session was effective since all of the students were able to assess their present situation and rethink and develop their long-term career goals.