On May 8, 2021, the Business School held the "Academic and Career Guidance" Lecture. Students of 2020 International Business attended the lecture. The talk was given by Dr. Insook Lee, Assistant Professor at Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, hosted by Associate Professor Chen Qian.

Dr. Insook Lee received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to that, she received a bachelor's degree in Anthropology from Seoul National University, South Korea, and a master's degree in National Policy from the Korea Institute of Public Policy and Management Technology. Dr. Insook Lee's research fields include: public economy, public finance, public pension, taxation, public debt, etc. She has published papers in related fields in many internationally renowned journals.

In the lecture, Dr. Insook Lee introduced how to cultivate skills during undergraduate studies. These skills are necessary for their graduate study and career development, and answered students’ questions concerning about graduate application and preparation. Students interacted with Dr. Insook Lee actively and got practical guidance.

Photo: Dr. Insook Lee interacting with the students in the lecture

First of all, Dr. Insook Lee explained the research abilities which is necessary for students to conduct academic activities and dissertation, and provided a series of feasible tips for finding suitable research topics. Also, She pointed out that one should look for issues of interest from a wide range of readings, major-related courses, and observations of the business activities in real world. Also, students are supposed to determine one’s research interests from the perspective of future career development, and work hard for this goal.

Photo: Dr. Insook Lee sharing tips for selecting research topics

Then, Dr. Insook Lee gave practical suggestions on how to transform excellent academic reports into successful presentations in response to the problems that students had in the group presentations, emphasizing that communication skills and presention skills can be improved through continuous practice, just like exercising to build muscles.

Finally, for students who are interested in postgraduate studies, Dr. Insook Lee suggested that students should make it clear of their career plans, then evaluate the opportunity cost of graduate studies and prepare as soon as possible once making up their minds.

Photo and text by: Chen Qian