Advice from a College Grad

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College orientations for the class of 2019 have already started and it makes me feel nostalgic thinking about my college years at University of Minnesota. Prior to college, I had spent all my life in China. When I first landed in the US almost seven years ago, I was excited, curious, and frightened about the unfamiliar. Reflecting on my ups and downs of studying abroad and the advice I have received, I summarize the lessons in five points, some of which specifically tailored towards international students:

  • You will go through stressful times, but remember to stay positive and focus on finding the solutions. My second semester in college was a disaster – on top of challenging public speaking class and group assignment with uncommitted teammates, I learned that even freshman was encouraged to have a resume and that I didn’t have much to put on it! For a while, I Skyped my dad every other night and ended up crying. My dad kept comforting me “Just do your best to handle the situation. When you look back five years from now, you would wonder why you made such a big deal out of it”. He was so right. Although I ended up with a bad grade on the class and no internship that semester, I graduated from college with a full-time job offer. Letting my emotions take control not only ruined my mood, but also took away the time and energy I could have used towards finding ways to overcome the hurdle. Don’t repeat my history.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask and try something new. College football, baseball, words such as “legit” and “sundae” were all things I did not know prior to coming to the US. But I made a point to either experience new things or ask others to explain them to me. I had an embarrassing moment when I took “ice cream sundae social” as “an ice cream social event taking place on a Sunday” at a team meeting. Look on the bright side – I picked up a new word! Besides, who would recall that moment later besides me? It is normal to wonder what others would think of you, but don’t let it hold you back from learning or trying.
  • Explore your interests, but develop some focus. Be it college major or student clubs, take the time to find what you are passionate about. You could discover it by taking different classes, talking to professors, going to various club meetings and so on, but once you find “the one”, invest heavily towards it and give up those that don’t matter as much. Quality always trumps quantity. I wish I did not spread myself that thin in student club meetings and put more time in getting leadership experience and developing valuable relationships. What’s more, if you are interested in multiple majors, declare just one, unless you absolutely have to declare both/all. The technical knowledge base is constantly being updated to meet the rapidly changing demand. What you acquire in class could be outdated in the near future. What will stand the test of time are soft skills such as learning new concepts quickly, critical thinking, and communicating clearly verbally and via written words. Thus, intentionally choose classes that are interesting and beneficial than those to merely fulfill major’s requirement.
  • Take advantages of all the resources and opportunities available to you. Academic advisors, career coaches, professors, and teaching assistants are all examples of resources available on campus. They are passionate about their jobs and quite frankly paid by your tuition to help you grow. Make every penny count by turning to these staff when you come across a problem! What’s more, I see college life itself as a golden opportunity – flexible class schedule and multiple breaks throughout the year! My biggest regret in college is spending too much time doing job search and part-time internship rather than traveling. Once you graduate from college, you will have all the time in the world to work, but the chance of traveling for an extensive period of time is very hard to come by.
  • Get a driver’s license sooner than later. This is easier to accomplish and will pay off in the long term. Convenience of a car is a no brainer. What’s more, it will allow you access to more networking events because not all of them take place along the bus route. One student I mentored flew down to Houston for a career fair and she regretted not having a driver’s license because bus system in Houston is not very well developed. Lastly, if you would like to travel to major US national parks for some fun over spring break, how can you get around without a car?! To sum up, you don’t need to own a car, but knowing how to drive will bring you perks.

In closing, I hope you could learn a thing or two from my five pieces of advice – stay positive, be vulnerable and be open to new experiences, focus on what interests you the most, be resourceful, and learn how to drive. Best of luck with college!

If you have already graduated from college, feel free to comment below one piece of advice you would give to students.

Houston Impression

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I moved down to Houston from Minneapolis about one year ago. I first heard about Houston because of NASA, and then the Rockets, for which Chinese native Yao Ming was playing. I didn’t know much about the city and the Oil & Gas industry until the company I have been working for acquired two companies based in Houston.

For the past two years after the acquisition, the office in Houston consistently delivered robust growth that dwarfed any other business unit in the company. I moved down in July 2014, so this was long before oil prices dropped to $50-$60/barrel when the US oil market got hit heavily. Under the influence of Sheryl Sandberg, as she wrote in her book Lean In, “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat”, I applied and got the job to work for the “rocket ship” in the whole company. Though never setting foot in Houston prior to accepting the job and being warned that the city is quite industrial, I bid farewell to friends and the great state of Minnesota where I spent four years of college and two years of professional life and started the adventure in the bayou city.

After three months in the office, I knew I made the right move for myself professionally because: 1) I’ve learned a lot about the O&G industry, which is an area with challenging concepts that I have little knowledge about; 2) I have more responsibilities in the job because the local finance team is running very lean for an almost four billion dollar business; 3) The office culture is pretty laid back and I love the team. We have been joking that the culture was driven by the cowboy spirits.

In terms of living in Houston, I do find my friend’s warning of “Houston being industrial” quite true. The city is very commuter driven, consisting of circles of highways. All this concrete takes over the space for nature. Gone are the days when I could easily access parks, running/biking trails, and lakes. As a runner for more than two years now, I found my outdoor running trails somewhat limited. Memorial Park and the trail circling Rice University are my go-tos now, the latter of which is particularly appreciated due to the shade it provides in the summer.

Despite not being very walkable or nature friendly, Houston still has a lot to offer. Without a doubt, I love the pleasant sunny days three fourths of the year, skipping the three months of hot and humid summer. That’s certainly something to brag about when the northern US experiences snow storms in the winters! It took me a move out of the familiar Midwest to realize how important sunshine is to me, when I get to enjoy it more! What’s more, being the fourth most populated metro city in the country, Houston has a very diverse demographic. I love that people could simply order lunch in Spanish, or that I could easily find authentic Chinese dishes. Further, a lot of people in Houston are transplants just like me, continuously pumping new energy into the city and easing up the friends-making process.

Though people are generally open to meeting new people, I still need to make an effort to reach out. There is someone on my floor that works in a different group that I usually say hi to. One day I asked her out to lunch and found that she was relatively new to the city just like me. She also mentioned wanting to enjoy the Houston classical music scenes, but didn’t know anyone here to go with. By the end of the lunch, we agreed that we would go to Houston Symphony together next time! Now I wish I had initiated lunch earlier. One way I tried to meet people is to use Meetup.com. The website hosts a substantial number of interest groups organized by enthusiastic volunteers. Had I still been in Minnesota, I would have hang out with friends from college and followed my usual pastime routine. The Meetup group usually organizes various events that are not necessarily considered “my routine”. But the goal of meeting people and making friends motivated me to try a lot of new activities, such as indoor rock climbing, topgolf, rollerblading, flag football, etc. I am getting used to trying new things now and not that afraid of failures or being judged, which I am quite proud of.

Within this past year, I have hosted two visitors. At a disadvantage of Houston not being a top destination city for leisure, for each visit, I planned fun events in Houston with diverse points of interests, such as science, art, nature, food, etc. Then it dawned on me that I am no longer new in town and could be just as informed as a local Houstonian. There are still many places on my to-explore list, so I can’t wait to see what else Houston has to offer!