Due to the pandemic, the course 2000 is currently being taught in an integrated approach with in-person classes and over 10 international students attending online from Mexico, the United States, Kenya, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Singapore and other countries. 

The first session on March 10 invited 3 current PhD candidates—Edgar Galan, Ruomei Shao and Yaoxiong Ji—as student guest speakers. Having worked in industry positions before pursuing their PhDs, speakers shared what influenced their decisions to return to school and their future career plans. A Q&A session followed, allowing students and speakers to engage in more in-depth discussions.

Students in discussion

The second session on March 24 featured guest speakers Prof. Jianwu Lin (Finance Professor at Tsinghua SIGS), Mr. An Wang (Director of Job Recruitment, HR department of Tencent) and Prof. Kuang Yu (Assistant Prof. of Nano Energy Materials at Tsinghua-Berkeley Shenzhen Institute). Speakers shared their experiences navigating their careers and advised students to acquire transferrable skills between academia and industry.

Interaction with speakers

The third and final session took place online over Zoom on March 31 with guest speakers Prof. Feng Cheng (Professor at Tsinghua University), Dr. Feng Guo (Machine Learning Manager at LinkedIn) and Dr. Yingfeng Guan (Operational Excellence Manager at Guardian Industries). Hosted by teaching assistant Nana Owusu-Tieku, speakers spoke on the topic of future career development and gave great insights on the importance of finding a mentor, identifying one’s skills and abilities, and knowing the expectations of a profession.

Sharing by Tsinghua Prof. Feng Cheng

Professional Development and Presentation is a course created by Prof. Lin Zhang in 2016, and is currently taught by Associate Prof. Xiangming Li. Under the instruction of Prof. Li, the course has won the award “Course in Excellence in TBSI” in 2019.  

The course focuses on career development and helps students demonstrate their logic and decision-making abilities in the work environment. Apart from talks by experienced guest speakers, the course designs a variety of activities to develop students’ skills in professional presentation, resume-writing, and public speaking. It also uses educational technologies such as Rain Classroom for effective personal evaluation and encourages peer-review assessments.

Writer: Nana Owusu-Tieku

Photos: X.Y. Wen

Editor: Karen Lee