Mini Forum 2019: University Hacks

Mini Forum 2019: University Hacks Report

Introduction

International Business Club has hosted many beneficial activities and new events every year, and this year will not be any different. This year, on the 28th of July, we have conducted another successful event, which was the Mini forum 2019. The main theme of this event was “University Hacks” in which our club aimed to provide some useful tips for college students, especially for those who are soon to be graduated, to enlighten their paths from university life towards career, so that it would be easier and more efficient. Moreover, we also tried to provide information related to skills that students need to prepare and develop in order to have a successful career or getting accepted by good companies. Our event was really honored that we can invite our three potential speakers to come and share experiences related to the theme that has been mentioned above.

Overview

“University Hacks” was led by Ms. Sambath Gechleang who was our project team leader, and it mainly focused on self-discovery, tips to solve some difficulties that most students had faced during their university life, and the criteria to be prepared in order to target their future careers as well as to work well in their workplaces after achieving their bachelor degree. First and foremost, the event was hosted to make sure that all participants gain beneficial information from our potential guest speakers who have already encountered many obstacles and developed themselves to reach their goals. Moreover, as our main topic was broad and the event was created to help the current situation of many university students, many participants were willing to join to get some clues as practical to improve themselves and to get through their university life successfully.

Guest Speakers

The event had a great honor to invite three potential speakers to confer under three different topics. The first speaker was Mr. Kim Dara who graduated from Japan as an electrical and electronics engineer and currently is the Founder of “Start Up Community”. The second speaker was Ms. Tun Helen who was the CamEd Top Scorer in the subject of F1 in 2018 and is currently a junior accounting student at CamEd Business School. The third speaker was Mr. Te Thengkong who was an ACCA graduate and is currently working at FTB (Foreign Trade Bank).

Sharing Session

First of all, the opening remark was presented by Co-President of the International Business Club, Mr. Ly Sophea and followed by the speech under the topic of “Who are you” from our first honorable guest speaker, Mr. Kim Dara, who has encountered many problems before succeeding in his career. At the beginning of his speech, he started by introducing himself and what he has experienced during his study. He said that, after studying civil engineering at ITC for two and a half years, he found out that he had no interest in it; then, he switched to study electronic which he got a scholarship to study in Japan. After that, he came back and realized that he fonds of education rather than that major he had studied. He gave up the job opportunities and chose what he wanted the most, which is to start his current business, the “Start Up Community” to help students to finish their high school successfully. He told that he had failed in his university study and found out that many students did not pass the exam because they did not know how to study and get through their exam, or even they know, but they are too lazy to apply it in practice. All these struggles had made him know himself better. Besides these, he also shared two important things which the first one was how to save money. He suggested that in order to save money effectively, people should know or have some financial knowledge. The second thing was to know when to spend money which is very important for everyone. He pointed out that most people, instead of finding out what they really need, they usually spend money to buy things that satisfy themselves. He said that what people actually need is happiness; people should think about the consequences before taking action. He wanted everyone to know that what they need the most is not money, but something that can make them happy. Furthermore, he suggested us to believe in ourselves, meaning to say that people should be able to decide themselves on what to do, that they think it is the right thing to do. “To begin believing in ourselves, we have to put what we’ve promised ourselves in practice, starting from a small point first”- Mr. Kim Dara.

Next is the speech of our second speaker; Ms. Tun Helen had illustrated on the topic of “How I Overcome the Struggles in University”. She started up by introducing herself to the audience and asked several questions regarding how hard and stressful study can be. As someone who has gone through all of those struggles, she addressed several issues and also shared some of her solutions for everyone so that life can be easier. The first struggle that she had mentioned was “Time Management”. She stated that “If you manage your time carefully, your life will be better, but if you manage your time poorly, you will feel like you are in hell.” With this struggle, she advised us that we should have a clear planned study schedule since the beginning of the semester so that we can work on our assignment and other works efficiently. Another struggle that she has faced was “Suffering Emotionally”. As study get harder and harder, everyone cannot help but feeling stressed out and down, so she suggested that when we feel down, we should not work on too many things, but more likely working on easy tasks, so that we do not get too stressful. Moreover, she also stated that finding an ideal place for studying can also make us feel better and more productive as well. Last but not least, the last struggle that she had addressed was “The Struggles During Final Exam Session”. Final exam week is harsh and difficult, so in order to get a good result, she had suggested everyone avoid the one-night policy and rather focus more on study bit by bit so that it would be less pressured. Another alternative way to make studying more fun is to create a study group so that we can rely on one another rather than study and suffering alone. As a top scorer in CAT exam, F1, she also shared with us on some useful tips regarding the exam. She mentioned that we need to familiarize ourselves to the exam questions by doing mock tests and exercises. She added that in order to do well in the exam, we should understand the theories rather than memorize, so that we can apply it well during the exam. She ended her speech by informed us that even though the study is important, being happy and enjoy ourselves is also equally important and we should take it into more considering too.

The third speaker is Mr. Te Thengkong who would give a speech under the topic of “Ready yourself, Target your Career”. Firstly, he started off by briefing us about his work experiences. After he graduated, he worked in an audit firm for 3 years. Then he switched to become a banker in FTB as he continued to progress and got promoted since then. He has been working for 7 years and is now a regional manager of FTB bank who controls 15 branches of the bank. He added that there was no rule that he followed in order to become a success in both family and work at such a young age, but he introduced 4 values which he thought students should all follow in order to ready themselves for the future. Firstly, he said “Career is a Journey”, whatever work we had chosen, there was no guarantee that we would always be happy, just like his work. There was sometimes he enjoys doing it, but there were also a few times that he wanted to quit. However, those are just journey. If at the end of the day, you ask yourself whether you love it? If the answer is yes, then those are the right thing for you. Secondly, in order to improve ourselves, we have to be equally good as someone or even better than that person. We have to know ourselves, be good to ourselves, find out the thing we have done, whether it is good or bad for us. Then we can find out about the others’ and their strengths, so we can be as good or even better than them. Thirdly, “qualification is important, but what is more important is your passion” - Mr. Te Thengkong. He also stated that “good grade would pass you through the job interview, but it is your passion that will decide if you are going to get promoted or improved or not. We can do anything, but made sure to be the best in it.” Lastly, he finished his speech by telling us to be kind, “Kindness creates friends, knowledge and spread the love. At the end of the day, what is more important is to be healthy and happy”- Mr. Te Thengkong.

After our last speech finished, we also had a Panel Discussion session to give an opportunity to our enthusiastic audiences to ask what they wanted to know related to our three topics. Lastly, we also had a game session through Kahoot app in order to know how much the audiences had gotten throughout this event, which was sponsored by Cam-Ed Business School.

Conclusion

As we approached the end of our agenda, Ms. Sambath Gechleang had given an emotional closing remark by showing her gratitude toward the speakers, the audience, as well as IBC members for making this event happened successfully. After the photo-taking session, we have marked an end to our Mini forum 2019.