Happiness and Sorrows on the Entrepreneurial Road “Face-to-Face Job Hunting” and the Third Session of Alumni Forum Was Successfully Held
In spring equinox, birds are flying in the long grass and flowers are blossoming under the sun. It is a perfect time for departed friends to get together and exchange sentiments of friendship.
On the eve of spring equinox, March 20th, 2015, “Face-to-Face Job Hunting” and the Third Session of Alumni Forum was held in Room 217, District A, Yingdong Building, by the School of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University. This forum, with the theme of “Entrepreneurship”, invited two precedents, Jia Tao and Zhou Ning, who graduated their undergraduate education in 2002, to share their happiness and sorrows in the pursuit of dream on the entrepreneurial road. Dean of the School of Systems Science, Di Zengru, and around forty teachers and students participated in this forum. The presider was Li Xiaomeng, who took responsibility for student management of the school.
Jia Tao graduated from the project of System Engineering of the Department of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University in 2002 and graduated from the project of Software Engineering of the School of Information Technology, Peking University, in 2008, with a PhD degree. In the same year, he joined Kuwo Firm. He worked as back-stage technical director and technical director of wireless department. He resigned in August 2004, and established the website “51 Guess” http://51caijia.com/.
Zhou Ning graduated from the project of System Engineering of the Department of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University in 2002 and then got MBA degree from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. She is now the co-founder of LeTour Science and Technology, Ltd. and COO. She has six-year entrepreneurship experience and accumulation, seven-year business experience in large-scale industry and listed company, and thirteen-year business experience in IT industry and safety industry.
Firstly, Jia Tao made a speech named “Future Road”, analyzing choices of life in front of graduates and vividly unscrambling, with tree structures, opportunities and risks of employment, entrepreneurship, postgraduate education home and abroad. Jia Tao told us that the choice should be in accordance with one’s goal of life. Practical work in different fields could bring different life experience, serving as a scientist, an entrepreneur, a teacher or in other positions. Whether it is correct depends on whether it conforms to one’s characteristics and preference. Jia Tao especially emphasized that, in comparison with employment, entrepreneurship and scientific research were of high risks and high profits. No choice is definitely correct and success can be found on every road! Jia Tao also shared how to organize his own entrepreneur team, what projects to choose and advantages and drawbacks of technical personnel with participating teachers and students. He believed that entrepreneurship was not an individual activity and it needed an excellent and cooperative team; meanwhile, one should not start his one business blindly, because it needed a full understanding or deep research of relative fields. He said that at the very beginning, the entrepreneur team usually was not on a large scale and it was comprised of familiar classmates, friends and colleagues who worked together before. As a technical entrepreneur, one should communicate with other people instead of being isolated by oneself. It also needed complementary members in the team. Besides, students consulted Jia Tao about what preparations they should make in advance to sharpen the edge of competition. Jia Tao encouraged the students to accumulate experience and enhance the competence of communication and cooperation through internship, if time permits.
Then Zhou Ning made a speech themed “LeTour, My Entrepreneurial Road”, telling possible difficulties of entrepreneurship. As the name of the company “LeTour”(a beautiful journal) indicated, the entrepreneurial road seemed beautiful! Zhou Ning told everyone with a smile, “There are both happiness and sorrows in entrepreneurship and today’s focus is sorrows!” At the beginning, Zhou Ning’s team only had a narrow room of 7-8 square meters. Apart from the necessary equipment, there left no space for other things. However, a good memory of that time was that there was still a window in the office. Zhou Ning shared all the hardships that she encountered on the entrepreneurial road, which moved the participating teachers and students and inspired the followers. After the wonderful report, students consulted Zhou Ning about how to conduct business negotiation. Zhou Ning told everyone that the point was “Do not fight without being prepared”. A good preparation is the prerequisite of negotiation work. Besides, sincere communication is also an important factor that can lead to an agreement. After listening to Zhou Ning’s experience of entrepreneurship, students were very curious about what caused her to start her own business and persist till now. Zhou Ning frankly said that entrepreneurship was not her dream of a long time and that her characteristic was to love whatever she took up. She set foot on this road by chance and from then on, she loved entrepreneurship and enjoyed the sense of achievements, the sense of value, the sense of responsibility and love gained in the process!
Dean Di Zengru was the teacher of these two precedents. He told everyone that they were classmates then and had quite different characteristics and campus life. However, both of them set foot on similar entrepreneurial roads and gained their own career with efforts. That is because they both have positive attitude to life and practical attitude to work. They are examples and pride of students of the School of Systems Science! Dean Di Zengru encouraged students to foster a correct outlook on life and career and correct life attitude while laying a solid foundation of one’s own major. He encouraged students to be excellent people that could adapt to society and the time, and that could make contributions to family, society and the country. Thus, one’s life could be wonderful and extraordinary!
