I had an opportunity last week to lead a seminar on career strategies for university students from Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The session was part of a 2-week program led by BestTop Career of Singapore, for whom I do some work as a career coach. It was an interesting session for me, at least, because they all have a story, and it was fun to hear them.

One big piece of advice I offered was that they should focus on what they want to do more than on what they want to be. The idea behind that is that some jobs go away (does anyone still train to be a manual typewriter repairperson?) while other new jobs emerge all the time, so they should think about what they want to accomplish, what interests them, and what working style they want more than focusing on a specific job title.

Of course, this is probably very different advice than most are getting from their parents, so they may choose to ignore it, but hopefully some of them took the idea to heart. In any case, there was free food at one of the events, so at least they got that (not to mention all the other great elements of a fantastic program put together by BestTop!).

A fun sharing session with 20 of Asia’s finest students, getting ready for the working world.

Trying to share some useful insights, but why are my eyes closed in every photo?