When I was pursuing my degree at a local university, I volunteered in some places where I considered them as my potential future employers. The purpose of doing so was to gain precious working experience, to showcase how pleasant and a great team player I was, and also to demonstrate my understanding of leadership, problem solving skills. Once I was working at a medical clinic as a receptionist responsible for organizing and disseminating certificates to people who came for vaccinations. The tasks were as simple as they sounded like. Of course, I devoted myself to the work and kept the clinic flow nicely, smoothly.
The supervisor of the clinic is my current supervisor, who closely observed my work at the clinic and had a great impression of my working style. By the time, I attended the interview of my current position, she was able to recall my face and the work I had done with her, but I wasn’t able to remember her at all. Minutes after the mingle prior to my interview; we had already established a good rapport between each other. As you could image, the interview went very well and I finally got my job! I love my job and find my passion which had been remained undiscovered for many years.
Another experience is with now an executive director of the human resource department with my current employer. We’ve known each other way back many years ago when she was a HR staff at a private sector and I was a volunteer again with one of the programs. Though we don’t have much personal contacts with each other, we could recognize each others’ name. When I was seeking permanency within the organization, she helped provide interview opportunities to me with the matching programs.
Some thoughts beyond my experience are that we need to have some social ties with others. Not only the friends you make for everyday live, with whom you share common interests and common values, but also someone who can help with your professional development and future employment. In Chinese, it is call 关系，in English it is Guanxi. Because life or career path is such an unknown thing for many of us, we never know where the life will bring us to. But doing the best as you can and being the best as you can, the hard work you’ve done will be paid off and you will find your true passion later on in your life.
