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Gaining a Head Start upon Graduation

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 It’s June again, the season of graduation. It’s a time when university graduates put on the square academic caps and receive congratulations from teachers, fellow students, family members and friends. With mixed emotions of attachment, gratitude and excitement, students officially bid farewell to their university days and embark on another stage of life’s journey—hopefully with a head start. According to a survey, nearly half of last year’s University of Macau (UM) graduates received job offers before graduation, and approximately 20 percent were accepted by top universities at home and abroad for further studies, showing that UM graduates are quite competitive whether they choose to enter the job market or pursue further education. In this article, we interview some graduating UM students as well as several young local alumni who have carved a niche for themselves, in order to find out the reasons UM graduates can gain a head start upon graduation.

 

Accepted by “Big Four” Accounting Firms


Graduating students Polly Lam and Iris Iong, who are also among the first batch of Honours College (HC) graduates, received job offers as early as this April as auditor and tax assistant respectively from PwC and Deloitte, both “Big Four” accounting firms. Upon learning the news, they jumped for joy and excitedly began to envision their future career development. Polly says the interviewers showed great interest in the HC programmes she had taken, such as “Self Discovery”, “Development of Leadership Skills”, and “Leadership from a Global Perspective”, and asked many questions about them. “Programmes offered by the Department of Accounting and Information Management reinforced my professional knowledge, and HC programmes elevated us beyond our chosen fields,” said Polly. “I’ve acquired a broader perspective as well as the qualities, knowledge and wisdom required of a leader, which combined to give me an edge in landing the job.”


HC students are the crème de la crème of UM’s student body, but to maintain their status as HC students, they must work equally hard at their degree programmes and HC programmes. All HC students have the opportunity to study at top universities overseas in the third year. The first group of HC students has returned from overseas studies, where they ranked alongside top local students. Iris studies in the Department of Finance and Business Economics. Early last year she studied at Boston College in the United States for half a year through HC’s “study abroad” programme. She describes the experience as eye-opening. “UM’s academic programmes are highly practical and tailored to market demand, and effectively prepare students for future career development,” said Iris. “My 6-month overseas study experience gave me the chance to build an extensive international network and enhanced my ability to communicate with people of different nationalities. I believe these will pay big dividend in my career development.”
 

Accepted by Top Graduate Schools


Ever since the new campus proposal received support from the country and the SAR government in 2009, UM has seized the important opportunity to recruit international academic staff, in order to enhance teaching and research quality. To nurture first-rate academic and research personnel and enhance students’ competitiveness through a multi-pronged, around-the-clock education, UM has implemented a new “4-in-1” education model that consists of discipline-specific education, general education, research and internship education, and community and peer education. The research ability of UM graduates cannot be underestimated. Among all the graduates who chose to pursue further study, quite a few have been accepted by top graduate schools, including the University of Oxford, the University of Cambridge, the University of Pennsylvania, the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Toronto, the Australian National University, the University of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Among this year’s graduating students, some have been accepted by such prestigious universities as the University of Oxford, Cornell University, New York University and the National University of Singapore.


Yolanda Ding is a graduating student of sociology in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, and also an HC student. A person with clear goals, Yolanda chose UM for its all-English teaching environment and international-quality programmes, and decided long ago she wanted to pursue further studies upon graduation. This February, her four years of hard work was rewarded with a letter of acceptance from Oxford. “UM values every student, and tries its best to provide the best opportunities and new programmes, so that students can constantly improve, both academically and research-wise,” said Yolanda. “I believe UM’s excellent education model, which is on a par with world-class universities, will help me to quickly catch up with Oxford’s academic requirements.”
 

Giselle Zhang is a graduating student of HC and the Department of Finance and Business Economics. She has been accepted by Cornell University in the U.S to study real estate. “UM has teachers from around the world, and these teachers’ international academic backgrounds bring different perspectives to research,” said Giselle. “HC requires every student to independently complete a research project on a chosen subject in the final year, with professorial guidance. Systematic research trainings like this during undergraduate years enabled us to have an early grasp of the methods of academic studies, which I know will greatly benefit our future research activities.”
 

During her undergraduate studies at UM, Winnie Pui majored in English literature and minored in English communication. Later she received a master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction from UM’s Faculty of Education. She is now studying “1+3” master of philosophy in education and doctor of philosophy programme at Cambridge, for which she feels deeply grateful to UM. “I was very lucky to have many great teachers at UM,” said Winnie. “They are not just teachers in my studies, but also teachers in my life. Some of them have had a profound impact on me in terms of academic research practice. To be honest, I didn’t plan on pursuing a PhD degree, but good teachers can always stimulate your potential and help you set life goals early.” Although she is in the United Kingdom, Winnie still keeps in contact with her teachers, which is made easier by an agreement between UM and Cambridge that allows UM teachers to visit Cambridge periodically.
 

 

Young Alumni Shine in Different Professions

UM has nurtured nearly twenty thousand outstanding graduates for Macao. Many of these graduates have carved out a niche for themselves, contributing to the progress of society as educators, entrepreneurs, scientists, management personnel, lawyers, media practitioners, Chinese medicine research personnel, translators, government officials, and so on. Looking back, these young alumni all agree that the education they received at UM has played a crucial role in realizing their dreams.

Specialists-cum-Generalists Get Promoted to Managerial Positions


Eric Chan, who received his bachelor degree and two master’s degrees from UM’s Faculty of Business Administration and Faculty of Education, is now the principal of Sheng Kung Hui Choikou School Macau. He often reminisces about his life at UM, especially the help and advice from his teachers, which he says still benefit him a lot.


“At UM I had teachers from different places, including Hong Kong, Europe, the U.S. and mainland China,” recalled Eric. “When I was pursuing my master of education degree, I met some experts and scholars from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, who helped me gain an overall understanding of education development trends in China and the world. They expanded my horizons, and their classes were closely linked to reality. They have had an enlightening influence on my career in education administration.” One British professor stands out in Eric’s memory. The professor was extremely strict, and always required up-to-industry-standards school work. He often stressed that the business world wants only the best and has zero tolerance for mediocre, run-of-the-mill efforts. “Teachers are the most important asset of a university,” said Eric. “From teachers, students can learn different ways of thinking. Peer interaction is also very important, for it can improve one’s communicative skills. These are the must-have skills of those in managerial positions.”
 

Eric turns what he learnt from his teachers into self-imposed high standards at work, and his passion and dedication have earned him recognition from his boss and co-workers. In 2003, he was promoted from vice principal to principal, turning a new page in his career. Many years ago, he boldly introduced management concepts from the business world into the education sector, making his school the first in Macao to implement ISO9001 standards. He also introduced an international teaching evaluation mechanism. Where did his courage come from? “The various experiments and explorations during my university days,” answered Eric.


A veteran in the business and education worlds, this “senior” alumnus concedes that managing people is the toughest job. “Those with expertise and general knowledge get promoted to managerial positions,” noted Eric. “UM did not just teach me professional knowledge. It also gave me general knowledge across different disciplines and problem-solving ability, and these skills proved very helpful for my career development.”


Growing a Law Firm From Scratch
 

Good at Chinese-Portuguese translation, José Liu joined a law firm as an apprentice after receiving a bachelor of law in Chinese language degree from UM’s Faculty of Law (FLL) in 2004. After two and a half years of efforts, he obtained a lawyer’s license and co-founded a law firm with two other UM alumni.
 

Many of FLL’s academic staff members are former or current legal professionals in Macao. José says these teachers’ rich practical experience as well as the fact that 90 percent of the current Chinese lawyers and judicial officers in Macao are UM alumni who know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and share experince are very helpful for his career development.
 

Lawyers usually give the impression of being just, impartial, quick-witted and silver-tongued. But José has a gentle, graceful, amenable and modest demeanour that seems to defy such a stereotype. Of course, one might change this first impression if one sees him eloquently arguing a case in court.


José describes those start-up days as extraordinarily difficult, but his law firm slowly established a reputation and gained clients’ trust. “Without a solid grasp of professional knowledge, it is very hard for a rookie lawyer to gain clients’ trust,” said José. “This profession is not a short cut to wealth. To be successful, you must have 'knowledge and network', and you must love what you do.” Well, that last sentence certainly applies to everyone, regardless of his profession.


Heading a PR Team at a Large Company


Since graduating in 2002 from UM’s Department of English, Buddy Lam has held jobs in different sectors, including translation, journalism and public relations. Most of his bosses are foreigners, so English has been his main working language, which is certainly not a problem for this top English department student.


With strong expertise and excellent English proficiency, Buddy became the first executive director of public relations at Venetian Macao within just a few years. Later he transferred to Galaxy Entertainment Group where he currently serves as vice president of corporate public relations, leading a team of over twenty people.


Buddy says that during those four years at UM, the systematic professional training provided by his faculty laid a solid foundation for him. “Especially the professors’ guidance, which has had an even greater impact on me,” recalled Buddy. “The best thing about a university is that one has a lot of time to concentrate on studies and access knowledge of different subjects. Knowledge enlightens, whether it is from books or otherwise. For example, I used to attend an elective in Shakespeare’s plays, and once the professor mentioned Shakespeare’s life experiences, which helped me understand that one can’t reap without sowing.” Buddy was an active student, and participated in various activities, like founding an English society, and studying at Southern Illinois University for half a year through a student exchange programme. “During those six months, I met friends of different nationalities and cultural backgrounds, which helped increase my language proficiency and broadened my cultural horizons,” said Buddy. “These are valuable experiences from my university days.” Buddy feels very lucky that he chose the English department, because English proficiency has improved his career prospects.
 

Feel Free to Have Fun—In the Right Way


Due to the similarity in pronunciation, the word “university” was once jokingly translated into Chinese as “feel free to have fun for four whole years”— or maybe it was not simply a joke after all. After breaking free of the tight leash of the secondary school environment, perhaps university students should have fun to their heart's content. Anything less might be a waste of the free environment provided by the university. So yes, go ahead and have fun—only in the right way, like those people mentioned above. Have fun with the degree programmes, general education, residential colleges, student organizations, exchange programmes, the honours college, and so on, so that when the fun time is up, the future will not also be “game over”, and one will gain a head start at a new starting line.


06/07/2012