The session began with opening words from current Student Council President, Ms. Holly Chen, where she gave a brief introduction and proceeded to hand over the lead to Ms. Pan. She got right into the topic with a disclaimer to help candidates get into her perspective, “not getting a job isn’t always your fault, it’s likely a mismatch between you and the company’s culture, personality, managers, internal processes, etc.” She said “70% of getting a job is attributed to hard and soft skills, the rest is uncontrollable,” meaning that external factors will play an important role into influencing a candidate’s eligibility.
However, there is that 70% of getting a job that candidates get to build on to better position themselves, and what’s most important is: how we stand out to an HR manager among hundreds of other applicants. When making a career change or jumping into a new market, it’s important to focus our resume on transferrable skills like critical thinking, teamwork, diversity, leadership, professionalism, communication, ethics, etc. This will help the interviewers understand better how someone’s experience abroad, in other position, industry, or market, will translate into helping their company solve a problem that will lead to the company reaching its goals.
Furthermore, the linkage between the candidate, the company and the position, is one that must be examined closely. The reason why is because the aspects that all three of these parties have in common is what the recruitment process will be about, and the goal is to showcase the strength of these links. Additionally, passion is an important piece at getting that new job. Ms. Pan made it clear that appearing passionate about the job is not the goal, but rather to explore your own passions and find the ideal company and job that are aligned to them.
Finally, Ms. Pan answered several questions regarding the cultural and bureaucratic procedures with the recruitment process in Taiwan. Although the talk was online, it was dynamic and helpful for all candidates looking for insightful answers. Later, she encouraged students to stay motivated not just for this mundane process that most people go through, but to stay motivated for your passions, goals, and aspirations. Looking within to find an organization and a place at that organization was the ultimate goal of this talk. We look forward to hosting Ms. Pan.
