During college years, students tend to agonize about what kind of career they want to follow. We see hundreds and thousands of jobs out there in the world, but it is truly tricky to find out the most suitable positions. Furthermore, the severely plunging employment rate also puts a heavy pressure on undergraduates. Probably some students already set their goals and are struggling to achieve their dreams. On the other hand, others still haven’t figured out their certain path and might feel lagging behind their schoolmates. However, Soojungs don’t have to worry about toilsome job hunting, since there is a helping hand you can approach anytime you want. On the first floor of Soojung Building in Soojung Campus and the first basement level of Woonjung Campus’ building, the Sungshin Career Center that helps students bolster the motivations for their own dreams. The Sungshin Career Center’s ultimate aim is to raise the overall employment rate of Soojungs. It used to be a Career Development Center before. However, this Center has been developed dynamically since 2016, after being designated to do so by the Ministry of Employment and Labor. These days, it operates a variety of programs that support students who are in need.
The programs encompass career guidance, employment consultation, a resume clinic, and simulated job interviews. The most beneficial program is ‘Sunshine Program,’ which is divided into two section. First, there are classes referring to employment that are included in the official curriculum. Every student of Sungshin has to take these classes unconditionally. Second is Sunshine’s extra-curriculum program. Mentoring, interviews, resumes, job competency, employment, career, and experience are included topics in the program. Under those themes, Sungshin students are eligible for enrolling in any existing programs they want. Sungshin study group, YouTube creative school, and the Earlybird program for public corporations are popular among students these days.
Eun-bi Han, a student who is majoring in Chinese and Chinese Literature took the Sunshine Program’s Marketing Lecture two years ago. She explained that she was satisfied, since she could ask some questions in the free atmosphere to a professional who has been working in the marketing field for a long time. As a 20 year old university student, it was impossible to learn what kind of task is performed by marketers in detail due to the lack of knowledge in that field.Therefore, the Sunshine Program offered a great opportunity for her to meet people who could assist her in practical and effective ways at the same time.
Sun Woo Kim who is currently working as an army program assistant manager in a trade company also registered for one of the courses named JUMP, which is an IBC program that supports students who admire to work in foreign companies. In the interview, she also mentioned that it was such a valuable time since real professionals came to give truthful feedback for students. From bank teller to cosmetic marketers, the fields students hoped were pretty diverse. Though, the professor always struggled to offer practical help by bringing experts into classes. Registrants for JUMP program can get assistance for the entire employment process. That is what Kim was most satisfied with. It just doesn’t stop at the resume preparation, but rather gives more specific feedback in the step of interview preparation.
It does not end there. The overwhelming advantage of Sunshine Program is the strong networking between juniors and graduates. There is Career Network Gathering that attendees of JUMP can participate. In this gathering, graduates and undergraduates can share useful information about finding employment and appropriate qualifications along with it. In addition, there is this program named Special Lectures by Alumna who are working currently in specific fields. For this, the members who used to participate in Sunshine Programs come to give special lectures as mentors. Since they benefited enormously from the program and understand how much students are desperate, they are willing to give a helping hand to students as much as they can. It would be possible to discover that there are even more mentoring lectures given by graduates than those listed above.
The other advantage is that, there are always prepared consultants in Sungshin Career Center. In 2020, it was devastating for students not to be able to come to school due to Covid-19. Despite of this kind of circumstance, the program proceeded successfully last year. According to the interview with youth policy, Sungshin Career Center explained it had much more synergy once the online and offline sessions were combined. The lecture Career Coaching for the lower grades helped students actively by giving lectures face to face and then sequentially having consultations online. They mentioned the consultations were hugely beneficial. Even though they did not go to school physically, they could have deep conversations one by one thanks to the online platforms. Furthermore, consultants assisted them for setting their careers in specific ways. This means, the Sunshine program will be helping Soojungs find every possible progress for themselves. Lastly, the Career Center is also recommended to lower grades students, since they can acquire massive information in the early step of preparation for employment.
“The Sunshine Program is a treasure hunt. If you tried to seek for it, you would be able to find out something valuable.” Professor Kim Jang Wook who is in charge of the IBC program JUMP stated. Sungshin University would be more than happy if you could come back to school as a valuable mentor in the future. Come to the Sungshin Career Center and get your bright treasure. You are the bright future and will be a notable example of Sungshin University.
By Yoon Soyeon Cub Reporter (soyeon5680@naver.com)