Washington Metro Chapter Career Networking Night at Johns Hopkins University

Career Networking Night, sponsored by the KSEA Washington Metro Chapter, was held on Friday, March 26th, 2021 with graduate students and post-doctoral researchers at Johns Hopkins University. The event was organized by KSEA and Johns Hopkins University Korean Graduate Student Association (JHU KGSA) to provide networking opportunities for current graduate students and post-docs. In addition, the event aimed to recruit new KSEA members and introduce various KSEA events. This was the first collaborative event between JHU KGSA and KSEA Washington Metro chapter.

The event commenced with a brief introduction from the host, welcoming the attendees for joining the event and thanking the speakers for sharing their career experiences. The event featured four speakers from KSEA, each representing a different career field that could be pursued after graduate school. The first speaker was Youngsul Jeong, Ph.D., a primary patent examiner with the United States Patent Trademark Office (USPTO). As a patent examiner, Dr. Jeong specializes in examining patents in the areas of petrochemical technology and renewable energy. Before joining USPTO, Dr. Jeong served multiple chief engineer positions, consulting engineering projects and managing engineering teams in Virginia and California. During the event, Dr. Jeong explained the role of patent examiner in the field of intellectual properties (IP) and how his background in engineering had helped in developing his career in IP. Dr. Jeong also provided useful and practical information on government job search.

The second speaker of the event was Yong Chan Kim, Ph.D., the founder and the CEO of TeraImmune, Inc. TeraImmune, Inc. is a start-up company located in Gaithersburg, MD, developing immune cell therapeutics for curing autoimmune diseases. With its vision in eradicating autoimmune diseases from the world, the company has been expanding ever since its establishment in 2016. In the talk, Dr. Kim shared TeraImmune’s patented technology as well as current research goals. He also gave considerate advice for those who are interested in entrepreneurship.

Following the presentations of the two speakers, a short intermission was followed for the KSEA membership drive. A representative from KSEA briefly introduced KSEA and explained the benefits of membership as graduate students and post-doctoral researchers. The attendees were encouraged to sign up for the membership.

The third speaker was Eugene Yu, M.S., a principal practice manager in the Security and Enterprise Solutions Division of Amazon Web Services (AWS). Eugene spoke about his responsibilities as a principal practice manager and shared his insights on information security and policy management. The talk was especially informative for computer science as well as cyber security students who hope to build a career in the industry.

As the last speaker of the event, Sang Mok Chung, Ph.D. presented his insights and expertise in regulatory sciences. As a pharmacologist, Dr. Chung has been involved in regulatory science of various drug development at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). With decades of experience in the FDA, he additionally gave out practical and invaluable tips for joining the FDA.

The event ended with a 20-minute social and networking session for both speakers and the attendees. To ensure a private and casual environment, each speaker was assigned to different breakout rooms, and the attendees were free to join the speaker of their choice. During the networking session, students as well as post-doc researchers actively asked questions about the professions and the career. Some exchanged their contact information for future connections, and heartfelt advice and warm encouragement were common in conversations.

With over 30 attendees, the event ended with fruitful results. Even though there were some difficulties in providing more private settings for socializing as the event was held online, many students found the event extremely helpful in planning their careers. It is often the case that graduate students are not exposed to life outside of academia and are unsure of the career after their studies. One of the attendees, Daniel Choi, a Hopkins Master’s student majoring in Security Informatics, said after the event that the Career Networking Night provided him a great chance to see a glimpse of the work life in his prospective industries and allowed him to realize what to expect in his future. In his short interview, he said, “It was great to chat with people who are currently in the field. And the most helpful thing that I got out of this event is that I learned what to prepare and how to plan for my future career. They gave us detailed, step-by-step stories of how they arrived at where they are in their career. And even though my steps would not be exactly the same, I could better prepare myself for the journey.” He further mentioned, “I even received advice for my job interview for a specific company. This is such invaluable information for students like me who hope to find a job.” 

Following such promising results, JHU KGSA hopes to make the Career Networking Night an annual event featuring KSEA speakers. Students and post-docs thanked KSEA for the networking opportunities and are looking forward to attending the future events as well.