UIC Newsletter

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• Mar. 2018 (Vol. 3 No. 1)

ALUMNI AND UIC COMMUNITY

2018 Global Career Tour in Tokyo, Japan

Witnessing what it takes to become successful in the world beyond college years

The summer of 2018 marked UIC’s 15^th Global Career Tour (GCT), a program designed to give UIC students the chance to travel abroad and learn in a diverse range of fields by means of visiting companies, networking with and receiving advice from professionals, and experiencing the work environment of varying corporations.

This year’s GCT featured a group of 12 students and 3 professors traveling to one of Asia’s most influential business hubs and the capital of Japan, Tokyo. Packing our schedules from the 25^th to the 29^th of June were unique international and domestic industry leaders, including infamous names like Casio, Kirin, Seven & i Holdings, and SM Entertainment.

One of the characteristics of this trip I was grateful for was the willingness of passionate and driven industry professionals to personally introduce us to their roles in the Japanese and global business scene. Each of the many lectures we attended was delivered with complete enthusiasm and confidence. After the lectures, any questions we had were wholeheartedly answered with complete confidence and honesty with knowledge hard to encounter otherwise. The team took this chance to ask and learn about specific aspects of recruitment, product, and services and even covered more complicated areas such as brand imaging and environmental sustainability. 

Another beneficial opportunity we got was meeting up with alumni. Professors Taeyoon Sung, Hyunsang Kim, and Helen Lee arranged a dinner with several Yonsei alumni currently part of the Tokyoite workforce, allowing us to ask personal questions and for advice related to UIC, company recruitment, hands-on experience, and life in a foreign country.

By the end of GCT, it became obvious that the trip had enormous value in furthering our business knowledge through personal insights and guidance offered nowhere else. As a previous exchange student who studied at Waseda University with interests in the Japanese language and in working in Japan, I knew I would gain a lot from this trip. However, little did I expect such great leaps forward in my understanding of each career field through face-to-face meetings with experts. Despite my individual experience and interest in Japan, GCT participants from all grade levels and areas of study also agree that the program helped pave roads leading to their career goals. As a graduating senior, I would highly recommend interested individuals to take part in GCT as it is offered to all UIC students. For more information, visit the announcements page on the UIC website.

 Rosemary Ahn (ECON '14)