Sponsored by the School of Medicine and organized by its Postgraduate Association, the Alumni Career Experience Sharing Session was held as scheduled on the evening of May 29. The activity was based on the employment needs of students near graduation and aimed to help students majoring in Basic Medicine learn from those outstanding alumni and do better in career planning and job skill enhancement through peer-to-peer communication. Four outstanding alumnus representatives majoring in Basic Medicine from different walks of life were invited to make experience presentations.

Xu Jia, a graduate of 2020 with a master’s degree in Physiology who is now studying for a doctoral degree at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, first introduced relevant precautions for admission to the doctoral program from five aspects: information retrieval, email etiquette, contacting doctoral supervisors, preparing materials and applying for assessment. Then, she added that, “When you present your research results, most probably, you will discover your own shortcoming. If so, don’t get down on yourself, but face up to your deficiencies and try to do better in the future.”

Zhang Xin, a graduate of 2019 with a master’s degree in Pathology and Pathophysiology who was admitted as a selected gradate in Changchun City, introduced the process and precautions for Selected Graduates exam and emphasized that it is necessary to timely understand relevant information and prepare for exam since the application and exam time varies from province to province. Zhang suggested that, “Each of us should first explore what kind of work we’re suitable for. No matter what we do, we should be down-to-earth, stay humble, and learn to reflect on ourselves.”

Wang Teng, a Master of Physiology, who became a teacher at the High School Attached to Tsinghua University after graduating from NKU in 2019, talked about her feelings as a teacher. “It makes me happy and fulfilled to watch my students grow, but the job is also far more tedious and complicated than one may think,” said Wang. She encouraged students near graduation to keep calm and try to improve themselves through learning.

Finally, Wang Xiaojie, a Master of Physiology, who joined SINOPHARM National Vaccine & Serum Institute after graduating from NKU in 2020, explained to participating students how to make a career plan, understand the employment layout in the industry and hunt for a job suitable for themselves from the following perspectives: the current medical and pharmaceutical circumstances, confusion they face, specific influencing factors in choosing a job, process for determination of their employment orientation and searching of recruitment information. Wang Xiaojie suggested students to stay positive, prepare the resume seriously and try more interviews during the job hunt. Wang also encouraged them to keep learning, positively face the difficulties and give up those unrealistic illusions. After all, it takes a good blacksmith to make good steel.

At the two-hour session, the four alumni shared their experience and answered the questions that bothered graduate students in NKU, easing their graduation anxiety to a certain degree. Students participating in the activity expressed that they did harvest a lot. In the future, the School of Medicine will continue to pay more attention to students’ needs and issues related to employment and take various actions to help students develop better.