SNU Begins Student Promotion Campaign

The nation’s top university has developed a “tailored employment program” for students who want to land jobs overseas, under which job applicants can meet human resources personnel of the overseas companies.

The Seoul National University Career and Development Center announced on Friday that, based on the “Hong Kong Finance Program,” part of its employment program, it chose 10 students who wanted to get jobs in the Hong Kong financial industry, made a visit to Hong Kong with them August 20 to 26, and arranged to meet personnel staff of leading financial companies there.

It was the first time that SNU launched a “student promotion campaign” by rolling up its sleeves to pick students and visit overseas company headquarters.

“It’s meaningful that the university began actively helping students get employed at the headquarters of reputable foreign companies. Until now, only a few students have prepared by themselves for getting job at those companies,” said Park Sun-ae, president of the SNU Career and Development Center and professor of the Graduate School of Public Administration.

Strenuous Efforts That Paid Off -

When SNU officials first made contact with financial companies in Hong Kong, and suggested they visit them, they responded negatively by making it clear that a visit for information was allowed, but one for employment was not.

However, SNU has repeatedly sent them company analysis and investment strategy reports that were drawn up by students who survived fierce competition in the university, and their profiles, and prevailed upon personnel managers.

Their ceaseless efforts paid off. Asia-Pacific regional headquarters of world’s prestigious financial corporations such as ING Life, Société Générale, Standard Chartered, and Morgan Stanley responded and said they wanted to verify SNU students’ abilities.

But SNU’s support didn’t stop here. In cooperation with the companies, it chose presentation subjects and managed to give students a three-month preparation period.

Furthermore, it invited alumni working for Korean divisions of target companies as mentors in order to help students draw up reports and presentation materials.

Second and Third Hong Kong Finance Programs Are Planned -

As of now, six students who participated in the Hong Kong Finance Program have obtained opportunities to have interviews from companies they visited last month: Five from Société Générale, a French investment and financial bank, and one from Bloomberg L.P., an information service, and media company.

Nam Yeon-su (22, female), a senior who is going to have a job interview at Société Générale, said, “The University gave me a big help. I had more detailed information and prepared myself more strategically by working with other students.”

“We scored good marks for our presentations. Officials from target companies said the performances and abilities of our students are on par with those at the INSEAD business school in France, who visited there at the same time,” said Professor Park.

The SNU Career and Development Center plans to present the second and third Hong Kong finance program as part of an effort to make the university an internationally acclaimed one, which has been emphasized since Lee Jang-moo took office as president in July last year. Subsequently, it plans to come up with a program aimed at sending students to India’s leading IT firms, such as Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, and Bharti Airtel.

turtle@donga.com