Teaching Students Skills to Advance Forward in Their Career

For the record, the Sixth Asian Career Fair (ACF) held on October 5, 2019 was a huge success and will go down in history as the biggest ACF event. The active participation of more than 220 job seekers and 23 job exhibitors at the Chinese Culture and Community Service Center (CCACC) turned it into one of the most productive job networking events in the Washington DC region. Thanks to the implementation of the Whova application, job seekers this year were better prepared and focused to find jobs despite the challenging market.

This Sixth ACF event was co-sponsored by four non-profit, Chinese community organizations: Chinese American Professionals Association of Metropolitan Washington DC (CAPA), Monte Jade Science & Technology Association, Washington DC Chapter (MJ-DC), Chinese Culture and Community Service Center (CCACC) and OCA-Greater Washington DC Chapter (OCA-DC). The Executive Coordinator of the ACF Consortium, Dr. Edward Wan, acknowledged that the goal of the ACF event is to promote networking and job finding opportunities for Asian American job seekers. The ACF event primarily targets Asian students and Asian American young adult professionals who need help with finding the right jobs. The successful result of the ACF event is also a reflection of how well different Chinese community organizations can work together for a common cause. It was the collective teamwork and voluntary spirit from leaders in the Chinese American community that made the success possible.

The 2019 ACF program was divided into three Sessions. In Session I, moderated by Mary Tom, Barbara Mitchell presented several slides highlighting basic job seeking skills and tools, such as the preparation of winning resumes and successful interviews. Marcia Liu, an experienced Recruiter from ICF, reiterated the importance of preparation and exhibiting confidence in job interviews; job seekers should study and understand the potential employers’ needs. This was followed by an excellent presentation by Richard Chang and his associates on updated immigration laws, H-1B work permit and other VISA requirements.

In Session II, the first group panel discussion, moderated by Steven Chen, posed various job–hiring questions to the panelists whose organizations/companies had immediate openings and were ready to hire. These panel members consisted of Shiew-Mei Huang (FDA), Yun-Fu Hu (FDA), Jeffery Hwang (Pyramid Systems Inc.), Michelle Ford (T& T), Sophia Parker (DS Federal), and Zilong Tan (Dr. First). The potential job openings from these companies totaled over 80 positions. The panel was first asked to provide company profiles and descriptions of immediate openings. They also talked about “what they expected from potential job seekers?” Several indicated that they would consider sponsoring H-1B Visa for foreign job seekers.

The second group panel, moderated by Steve Lin, consisted of several successful young professionals including Wei Sun, Phil Wu, Howard Wang, David Chen, and Xiqian Chen. They talked about their own experiences in finding their first job, and the challenges they faced in staying on the job. At the end of Session II, there was a mentoring session consisting of 13 “one-on-one mentoring” and 2 remote mentors, led by panel members and several role models such as Steven Chen, Charles Chen and Richard Chang etc. In a separate room, Darryl Tom conducted a successful one-on-one “Resume Critique” session for several hours. In Session III, we held a traditional job fair where 23 local companies set up job exhibition tables to connect with job seekers, collect resumes, and conduct job interviews.

All presentations and panel discussions made in Sessions I and II were very well-received. These excellent presentations had a profound impact on the job seekers. In fact, all job seekers stayed in the seminar room for the first two sessions until 3:30 p.m. There were plenty of job seekers who took notes on how to improve their knowledge and better prepare themselves for job hunting skills. The body language and facial expressions of many job seekers and job exhibitors indicated they were really enjoying the energetic interactions.

In terms of job fair performance, there was a diverse group of 23 companies offering potential jobs interviews. These companies offered potential entry-level or mid-level job opportunities in the fields of banking, finance, accounting, real estate, capital management, IT, cybersecurity, data analytics, law, sport, biopharmaceutical R&D, bio-statics, bio-technology, electrical engineering, and technology R&D. Because of the implementation of Whova, we noticed that the Job Fair Session was running much more orderly and smoothly than that of previous years. The longest waiting lines for job interviews included DS Federal, T&T Consulting, Pyramid Systems Inc., FDA (CDER), and Wells Fargo.

In terms of onsite support and logistics, we would like to thank the remarkable CCACC staff Li-Fang Liu, Steve Lin, and Grace Yang for their excellent efforts in providing maps, Whova information and onsite-registration. Thanks to the efforts of Terrence Chen and Brandon Wong, who videotaped the various activities of the event, we hope to put together a photo/video story of the Sixth Asian Career Fair and upload it onto YouTube later

We owe enormous gratitude to the following key organizers, who spent over ten weeks planning this event: Edward Wan (ACF), Steven Chen (PFP Cybersecurity), Mary Tom (HHS), Adam Lee (OCA-DC), Steve Lin (CCACC), George Chang (FDA), Elaine Chang (Law Office of Elaine Chang), YuTing Weng (CAPA), Li-Fang Liu (CCACC), and Grace Yang (CCACC).

We also want to thank the following donors who provided financial support for the sixth Asian Career Fair: Carman Cheng & Steven Chen (Blu Ventures, PFP), Sofia Parker (DS Federal), Michelle Yu (L&F Real Estate), Jeffery & Sheet Hwang (Pyramid Systems Inc.), Sophia Tong (T&T), YuTing Weng (CAPA), Elaine Chang (Law Office of Elaine Chang), Serina Moy (Moy & Cheung Financials), Adam Lee (OCA-DC), Richard Chang (Wasserman, Mancini & Chang) and Intelligence Fusion Technology Inc.

We have already received positive feedback from many job seekers showing their appreciation for all aspects of this program. Most people said they were very impressed with this year's presentations and the effective format for group panel discussions. After the event, many attendees asked the question “How long will our Whova applications last?” The answer is that our Whova applications will last 30 days after the event date. In this way, both job seekers and job exhibitors can take advantage of the existing database and continue interactive communications.

To many job seekers, the Asian Career Fair offered the excellent combination of a job skills seminar, job experience advice, and productive job interviews. Several students from Taiwan commented “I have attended many job fairs before, but this Asian Career Fair gave me the warmest reception and I would come back again in a heartbeat”. Sophia Parker, CEO of DS Federal Inc. also commented “The speakers are very good and the attendance is strong, I am proud to be a participant. You can always count on me to support this event”. We look forward to seeing you all at the ACF event next year!