by Ja Young

On April 29th, twelve Asian American alumni and a distinguished guest spent the afternoon in the Stony Brook Student Union talking to current students about career choices. They also critiqued resumes and put students though a mock interview process. The event was put together by [AA]2, a non-profit organization working with the Asian American community and started by SBU alumni. The event was co-sponsored by the AA E-Zine, ASA (Asian Students Alliance), and VSA (Vietnamese Students Association).
 

Dean of Students Dr. Frank Shih CUNY School of Law

For the pre-law and thinking-about-law students who came, being able to one on one for a few hours with the Dean of Students at CUNY Law was a rare treat. Political Science major Jin Woo Cho thought it was great, and really appreciated how Dean Frank Shih had made them think through what the law was first, and then to analyze why they wanted to be a part of it. But pre-law students were not the only ones to benefit from Dean Shih. As the former Director of Academic Advising at SBU, he was an invaluable resource for other students as well - like the MBA student with a BS in IS trying to figure out how to successfully unite the two.

While Dean Shih represented the more experienced professional, the students enjoyed having young alumni there too. As Maria Ng said, "The alumni were really friendly and helpful. Since they were still young, they could remember and offer their knowledge of their first interviews and job experiences."

And the alumni felt the same. Charles Kang thinks "more alumni should get involved as a way to give back" and he was glad he got to speak to students.

The alumni panelists included:
 

John Cordero, former CASB President, is the Senior Account Executive for Grand Central Marketing. He manages and coordinates local and national promotional events ranging from HBO to National Geographic. CASB is the Chinese Association at Stony Brook and its events include the oldest cultural show on campus, China Night.

Michelle Gong, also a former CASB President, is the Coordinator for Continuing Medical Education at the Cardiovascular Research Foundation. Doctors must take courses for their license renewals and her organization provides them with the most up to date information on current heart treatments, from medications to surgery.

 

Sherry Ha, a former ASA VP, is now an advertising budget analyst for Macy's corporate headquarters at Herald Square. She oversees the budgets for every ad, promotion, and catalog that Macy's does.
		Charles Kang & Sherry Ha doing two on two for shy students.

 

Charles Kang, a former Asian American Journal Editor and ASA Cabinet member, is now a Senior Financial Analyst at JP Morgan Chase's private bank for ultra-high net worth clients. Charles is a perfect example of changing career plans totally. A pre-med Bio major, he came to the realization it was not what he wanted to spend his life doing. Often students decide to be pre-med based on something like enjoying their Bio class in high school, but 3 years of Bio and Chem labs later they realize - hey, I really prefer a,b,c to x,y,z - I need to change direction. If you do not truly enjoy what you are doing, does it make sense to spend the rest of your life never being fully happy?

 

Tuan Le, former E-Zine Webmaster and VSA Cabinet member is now System Implementation Engineer for SITA, the only company "dedicated to providing the air transport industry with the information and communications technology (ICT) it needs to operate seamlessly in every corner of the world."

Lucy Kim, who was helping with the running of the event, did not get her photo taken. The first Asian American Freshman Rep elected in USG's history, she is now an advisor in the Academic Advising Center.

USG, the Undergraduate Student Government, is the current name for Polity, the Student Polity Association.
 

Kevin Quan, standing on the left doing a one on one interview, helped produce the event for [AA]2. Kevin is the former AA E-Zine Editor and ASA PR Rep. He is now in corporate headquarters of New York Life Insurance.

 

			IT two on two interviews
Anson Wong is now a VP of The Yield Book, a division of Citigroup. He was able to speak not only about technology but from the perspective of a financial institution. Now that technology is an integral part of every business, a minor in it, or a major in it with an unrelated minor like BioChem, Business, Eco, or whatever, is a powerful step into a particular industry.

 

Gary Wu is a Comp Sci grad student. He will leave SBU in June for ask.com at close to a six figure salary. He gave students a good perspective on the current interview process in the IT field. With technology, initial interviews no longer need to be on site. Gary's first phone interview with ask.com lasted 5 hours with 5 managers. For his second phone interview, he was given a computer problem to solve in a few hours. Then having satisfied them, he was finally brought in for a face to face interview.

Unfortunately the students who were pre-med majors had the day's major disappointment. Alumnus Dr. Christopher Ng, a local physician and assistant professor at SBU's School of Medicine, was the only M.D. coming. On Friday he cancelled but by then, the flyers had been up all over campus listing the two Distinguished Guests - law school and med school. Although staff in the SBU SOM continued to try to find a replacement through Saturday morning, getting a doctor on short notice isn't easy to begin with, but finding an Asian American alumnus proved to be impossible.   

It was the pre-med students, however, who included the only student who totally frustrated the alumni and they spent time afterwards talking about him - students who are so close minded they are courting disappointment. The alumni said he was like an ostrich with his head in the sand, not only clueless but unwilling to listen to advice. For the IT group for example, they were able to give really one on one valid advice and help to students who, even if they did not know exactly where they were going, were realistically focused.

The ostrich insisted, 100%, he was going to be a surgeon, and he did not want to talk about alternative careers in the health industry. But when they asked him about his grades, he admitted they were not high but he claimed he would get them up. Alumnus Howard Hua, former ASA Cabinet member and currently in law school, talked about a Harvard grad with a 3.8 GPA and high MCAT who got into some really good med schools but still didn't get into all of her choices.

"The AMA controls the process and limits the number of doctors in this country. When the lowest GPA's of students getting into American medical schools - IF they have outstanding scores to offset their grades - is 3.6 - by the end of sophomore year if you aren't above that by then - your chances of getting it up high enough to get in are close to impossible. I'm not saying to give up, but at least open your eyes to what other careers are out there."

His wife, alumna Sawanee Khongsawatwaja, former Nations of Asia Chair and along with John Cordero, Co-Chair of the University's first Diversity Day, is in one of those careers as Finance Coordinator for the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs (ICAP) at Columbia University's Mailman School for Public Health. After getting an Eco degree at SBU, she went on to get her Master's in Health Services Management while becoming the mother of two adorable daughters. Her next academic plan is an MBA. She oversees four grants worth hundreds of millions supporting operations throughout the world.

Sawanee said medicine is a multifaceted endeavor - the best surgeons in the world still need the best administrators - and if you sit on Stony Brook's West Campus looking at the massive architectural monstrosity across the street with its thousands of employees and patients - you know how true that is. 

Those pre-med majors who did make the best of it really felt the one on one interviewing was valuable. One student came out moaning, "Oh my God, I couldn't even answer the general questions. The guy before me was so good but I sounded so stupid."

But sounding stupid was something all the alumni could identify with. They all moaned about their first interview too. "Horrible. I was horrible," said Anson Wong, who only 7 years after graduating is a Citigroup division VP. "It's practice," he said, just lots of practice. Each one gets better."

So for those students who did their first practice one this Saturday - they can all know that at least their first real one will be better.

And for next year, as Gary Wu said when he left, "There were lots of things we learned we should do differently but it was worth it. I will come back to do this next year."

All photos above were taken by Norman 'Nikko' Gan. They are available in large size format on the [AA]2 gallery - http://www.aasquared.org/gallery