On May 24, the fifth grade of Puxi campus carried out the Career Day activity! We were honored to invite four parents of our fifth-grade students to share with us their unique and awesome working experiences and thoughts. The lectures were useful as well as fun, broadening the horizon of students at a young age and guiding them to hold a positive career mindset.

Roy’s dad from class 5-2 shared his inspiring startup experiences. Since freshmen year in college, Roy’s dad actively participated in various school activities and built startup working experiences. In college, he founded the first college-based entertainment media company in China called Fmaker Cultural Media. After graduation, he and his team kept chasing their dreams and established IMC “Xiyou” entrepreneurial team. IMC is based in colleges in China, providing meal ordering services, dormitory grocery shopping services, and so on. Moreover, the team aims at providing an integrated and new ecology platform affecting global youth. Thus, IMC continues promoting career education in college and guiding students’ startup businesses, which has assisted college students to realize their dreams.

“Never be tight with your diligence for every effort promises greater rewards.” Roy’s dad delivered an uplifting lesson with his own startup business experiences. He further encouraged students to dream big and live their dreams. No matter what industry you will be in, always maintain your entrepreneurship, perseverance, and diligence so that you can realize your dreams.

Lydia’s mom from class 5-3 has rich working experiences in human resources. She mainly answered three questions: What does HR do? How is HR related to me? How can I be selected by HR in job interviews? In the lecture, students came to understand the job description of HR is not just about recruitment but also about employee development and company culture. Lydia’s mom used the example of class monitoring elections to clarify that company management and HR are not just looking for the best candidate since the standard of what is good varies from person to person. What HR is really looking for is the best fit for the position who can also work well with the team, meets the company’s requirements, and agrees with the company’s values. Lydia’s mom also provided interview tips for students.

In the end, Lydia’s mom reminded all the students that the result of an interview is attributed to a lot of complex considerations whether it’s rational or emotional, so there’s no need to be frustrated if you failed an interview. If you want to promote the opportunity to be recognized in your future career, the most important thing is to equip yourselves with lifelong learning abilities and a growth mindset, which can lead you to a more stable and progressive career path.

Nowadays, thanks to delivery apps, our lives are much more convenient, and Lucas’s mom revealed the huge and complex system supported by the unseen IT infrastructure. Every day, the supportive system is like playing a game with millions of orders occurring in one second, and it also needs to direct the thousands of delivery guys. This powerful AI and IT system ensures the promises that all the packages can be delivered within 27 minutes on average.

Lucas’s mom presented a simple reason that a great career often starts from solving small problems in our daily lives. She hopes her lecture encourages students to reflect on their lives more often, identify the unmet needs around them and think about the solutions.

Are fifth graders able to understand the compulsory course in junior year from the Central Academy of Fine Arts? As the author of the CAFA textbook The Color of Interior Design, Frank’s dad from class 5-8 introduced how to observe color, how to sense the emotions behind the color, and how to use color to design unique space experiences with vivid pictures and examples. The lecture was also closely related to the students’ recent science class in order to help them understand the principles of visual imaging and color temperature.

Beauty is everywhere. It’s not that she’s lacking to our eyes, but our eyes which fail to perceive her. When you are equipped with keen observations and imaginations, everyone can be their own life designer who makes life richer and the world better.

In the lecture, Frank’s dad explained the profound in simple language and students found the lectures in college were not as mysterious as they thought. Frank’s dad hopes students do not become hindered by their age and grade but fearlessly absorb knowledge and expand their horizons.

Four parents delivered meaningful lessons to our students with their rich work and life experiences, inquiring about: What is work? And What is a career? The value of work is not only promoting one’s own life quality but also benefiting more people and energizing the whole community!

Written by｜Wu Yin

Pictures by｜Parents and Teachers

Edited by｜Huang Shiyuan, Kristjan Butler