Ascend NY Hosts Career Development Workshop
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
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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
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