Ascend NY Hosts Career Development Workshop

Ascend was pleased to organize a career development workshop titled "Building a Successful Career" on February 5, 2011 at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Midtown New York. It was a rainy Saturday afternoon but 110 students and professionals attended the workshop. The goal of the workshop was to provide a platform for professionals and students to gain valuable insight on how to build and develop a successful and enjoyable career.

The workshop started with a panel discussion and followed by fun games and activities to practice important leadership, communication, and teamwork skills, which are all qualities essential to career building. For the panel discussion, we have invited six successful professionals with accounting, finance, and business backgrounds to discuss their experiences transitioning from college to the workplace and to the various stages in their careers. A recruiter was also on site to offer interview tips and career advice.

Overall, the workshop offered a chance for attendants to network with fellow Ascend students and professionals. For students, starting a new career could be very challenging. The transition from "student life” to "full-time work life” is one of the biggest transitions a person makes in his or her entire life. We have asked a student participant to provide us with his thoughts about the workshop.

"The Career Development Workshop-" Building a Successful Career" provided a chance for students to listen to the insights and advice from the experienced panel, which is very helpful and necessary to those who are ready to start their work life. Also, it was good to mix students and professionals in this workshop because it is a good opportunity for network. Students could get useful information from the real industries and the professionals was able to share their different opinions with each other. The recruiter in the workshop gave students some valuable interview tips and resume advice. The game at last is the most interesting part of the workshop. It not only gave the audience a chance to interact closely with the professionals from the panel, but also was an activity to practice soft skills such as communication, creative thinking and teamwork skills."

- Henry (Yitian) Hu, Graduate Student from Pace University

For professionals of all levels, this workshop offered them an opportunity to evaluate their career path and career goals. The panelists discussed their backgrounds and how they overcame the obstacles throughout their career. Not only did the panelists offered candid career advices during the panel setting, they went to individual tables to play games with the participants and answered any questions they might have. Ascend is created to promote Asian professionals awareness on how to reach to the top and we have asked a professional participant to tell us how he feels about the workshop.

"This career development workshop was well organized and very informative. I was able to gain valuable career insights from all six panelists who discussed about their background, experience and how they developed in different stage of their career. I enjoyed listening to their experience and career advices to other professionals like me. They enlightened me by showing that Asian-Americans can break through the bamboo ceiling and can have a successful career in corporate leadership no matter what background you are from as long as you do everything you can to enhance your competency and try to pursue every single possible opportunity related to your chosen career.

The two activities after the panel discussion were interesting to me. First activity was a good icebreaker for audience like me by asking 10 different people in the room to fill out the survey. The second activity practiced my nonverbal communicating skill in a teamwork environment.

Like all other events I participated, Ascend seems like a bridge to connect me with other professionals and students from around New York metro area. Networking is always one of my favorite parts for every Ascend event I joined, because we can always learn from and share each other experiences by building a professional relationship. Overall, I’m glad to participate in this career development workshop, at the same time, I am looking forward to having more enlightening and successful events in the near future."

- William Lau, Data Analyst, SunGard Financial Systems

At the conclusion of the workshop, it seems everyone had a great time as we have received a lot of positive feedback. To me, this workshop is a success both from a professional level and from a personal level. It was wonderful to organize a workshop that was able to offer valuable career insights to the Asian community. I look forward to seeing you all in future Ascend events.

Sincerely,

Irene Chan

Chair of the NY Ascend Mentoring Program