The Gap between Ideal and Reality Offers Room for Self-Improvement
Yijie Zhang is probably one of the GTSI graduates with the most diverse range of internship experiences. In August 2022, he started his first semester as an MS Electrical and Computer Engineering student at GTSI. Two months later, he was already interning for a company, believing this would be the best way to figure out what he wanted as a career. Through multiple internship opportunities, it was becoming more evident to Zhang that he would be a good product manager. In the meantime, the courses he’s taken at GTSI has helped to broaden his scope of knowledge, while the highly integrated and flexible academic environment here also enhanced his skills in communication and critical thinking, all of which contribute to his becoming a better product manager. In June 2024, Zhang will graduate from GTSI. He’s ready to turn a new chapter, and this time with a clear vision for himself.
Hundreds of Options, Four Criteria, Voila GTSI
Zhang majored in Computer Science at Wenzhou-Kean University during his undergraduate studies. In his junior year in the university, he worked under the guidance of his mentor on a program for a resume-recommending system. Yet, after he published the conference paper, he realized that he would prefer to work in the industry over a research-focused track. Therefore, in the second semester of his senior year, he devoted himself to internship and career exploration and soon decided to “work as a product manager” in the future.
Meanwhile, in order to raise his competitiveness at the workplace, Zhang developed a further study plan and began to apply for different graduate schools. Due to his excellent academic performance, he received offers from several universities, including an offer from the MS Electrical and Computer Engineering Program from GTSI. He believed this would be his best choice.
“I think GTSI is the best match for my career development,” Zhang said. During his undergraduate studies, he took part in a competition on campus, in which he compiled a list of hundreds of universities and used the data to develop a school recommendation system for overseas studies application. It was also through this process that he’s come up with his own criteria for choosing an ideal school.
“First is the reputation of the school, which is valued by every student when choosing an ideal school. This may be the precondition for me to land a good job after a period of study. Second, the resources available in the school to every student, as well as the availability of the school’s academic and employment resources for every individual. Third, the cost performance, including the tuition and daily living costs. Fourth, I emphasize the value of the city. I wish that the city in which the school is located could offer sufficient opportunities for my internship and job hunting plans.”
These four criteria have led Zhang to GTSI in the Fall Semester of 2022. He set out with this expectation of mastering professional knowledge and skills and seeking sufficient space for his career development. Arriving at the GTSI campus the very first day, Zhang sent himself a postcard to encourage the future Yijie Zhang.
As he threw the postcard into the mailbox, Zhang was ready to enter this “fully-loaded” stage of both academic and internship pursuits, in which he was able to manage his courses and assignments in an orderly manner while gaining industry experiences through hectic internships, trying to craft a clearer path for his future.
Growing through Learning and Practice
In finding his goal, Zhang believed in trial and errors. During the two years of his studies at GTSI, he spent nearly half the time working as an intern with several internet big-techs.
“In my view, a product-related position is close to the actual condition of the business, so the best way to get in contact with it is to find a company and have a try,” Zhang said. In the first month, he began searching for related opportunities and submitted his resume, and for three ongoing semesters he has subsequently interned with internet companies including Futu, SHEIN, and Baidu, almost seamlessly in between.
“I was under heavy pressure due to coursework at school, so I tried to arrange my time for online classes. When I went back to the campus to attend the class, I would see to my campus recruitment arrangement simultaneously.” Zhang said he could strike a balance in his academic and career plans because of Shenzhen’s geographical advantage and GTSI’s integrated and flexible environment.
“GTSI has given us a great space of choice, reflected in the combination of online and offline classes, the selection of available courses, and the arrangement of extracurricular activities for career development.” Among them, he believed the core course of software development mechanism has fostered his technical strength, the comprehensive courses of technical innovation have trained his innovative thinking skills, and the company tours and exchanges organized regularly have allowed him to optimize his job hunting strategy from the perspective of employers.
“All these experiences are helpful to me in product management, but they also allow me to develop a more comprehensive understanding of everything, train and improve my business sense, and help me adopt a user-oriented thinking and take initiatives.” Along the way, he kept thinking independently, regrouping his thoughts and internalizing his experiences. The conversation has also led him to mention his interest in broadcasting and hosting.
Before finding his career goals as a product manager, he tried broadcasting during his undergraduate studies. He worked with the campus broadcast station and as an anchor with the program “Reading Wenzhou” of Zhejiang Daily. He remembered that in his first attempt to broadcast, he found his own voice strange coming from the recorder: “I feel that it is not my own voice. The effect is quite a big gap from what I have imagined.”
After overcoming the awkward introspection, Zhang realized that playback was useful, “unclear articulation or illogical expression can’t be discovered unless they are played back repeatedly, so that I can adjust and improve them.” Perhaps reflection and playback have become his habit from that day, which has continuously influenced his other choices and actions.
Zhang is about to graduate this June. He has decided to go to Nanjing, a new first-tier city near Wuhu, his hometown, and join McDonald’s as a product manager to optimize and upgrade its internal information system in line with the company’s corporate strategy.
“At first, I was thinking about working with an internet giant since I believed it could urge me to move forward,” Zhang said, “However, after working as an intern with several internet giants, I realized their working environment cannot allow me to spend enough time reflecting on and internalizing my own experience, though it could let me grow quickly. Therefore, considering the long run, I changed my mind and chose a direction more suitable for myself.”
When talking about his plans for the next three, five, or ten years, Zhang has a clear vision in his mind, “In the short term, I hope to learn about the industry and related business and get familiar with the upstream and downstream businesses; in the medium term, I hope to master a complete set of product management methods and have enough knowledge and understanding of the market; in the long term, I hope to secure my right to choose and avoid being discarded by the industry, and create bigger values with my capabilities, experiences and resources.”
With a passion for reflection and practice, Zhang got fully prepared for the gap between his ideal and the reality, which was also an impetus for him. He said, “Actually, it offers room for self-improvement when I realize the existence of the gap. It allows me to see more clearly and steadily approach my ideal.”