Christoph Schmidt
• Originally from Germany
• Alumni of NTU, England
• Finished Dual Degree Program in NSYSU, Taiwan
The National Sun Yat-sen University offers a wide array of dual degree programs in which students can participate for an additional degree. One of such students was Christoph Schmidt from Germany, who came to Taiwan from Nottingham Trent University (NTU), England. The Students Association met with Chris and asked a few questions about his experience.
-What was your major at NSYSU and why did you choose Taiwan for studying?
My study program at NSYSU was the Global Human Resource Management program. I started at NSYSU in February 2019 and I stayed in Taiwan until the end of June 2019. I chose to study in Taiwan, because I spent vacations in Japan and China a couple of years ago and I have been fascinated with Asian culture since then. Furthermore, I was also looking for a chance to improve and practice my Chinese skills.
-What do you like about the country Taiwan?
Taiwan has a great countryside and I loved doing road trips during my stay there and visiting cities such as Taipei or Taoyuan. I also enjoyed going to night markets and discovering the Taiwanese street food. Other highlights for me were the many different sights to visit around Kaohsiung such as the Lotus Pond or Fo Guang Shan Monastery.
-Why did you choose GHRM MBA Program specifically? Who were your favorite professors and which class did you like the most?
I think the people and culture of a country play such a big part in Human Resource Management, which makes it a particularly interesting program to study abroad. Even though I did not decide to directly go into the field of HR at the beginning of my career, I believe personnel management skills are very important to further someone’s progresses professionally. As for teachers, Professor Ryan and Professor Young were among my favorite professors. They both had an entertaining teaching style and taught me a lot about the business culture in Asia. Talking about classes, I would recommend “Entrepreneurship and Human Resource Management”, because we had the opportunity to develop our own product idea and business model, and the course gave me more self-confidence in my entrepreneurial skills.
-Regarding to your professional skills, do you work now? Which company?
I will start working on the 1st of June and complete a two-year Management trainee program at Agaplesion, which is a large German Healthcare provider.
-Did you do any internships while studying?
Yes, after having completed my semester at NSYSU, I conducted an internship of two months at a consultancy in the area of sales and telecommunication in Munich.
-Was it hard for you to find a job after graduation and did you feel that Degree from NSYSU helped you while job-hunting period?
I realized that application processes need a lot of time and consist of multiple steps nowadays, but overall, I was happy with the amount of positive responses that my applications received. Answering the second question, I could definitely say “yes”. I think once you get invited to an interview, it really only matters what kind of skills you gained and what kind of experiences you made and because of the time I spent at NSYSU I had plenty to tell!
-Would you recommend this program to your friends or future Master students?
I would definitely recommend this program to my friends. During my time at NSYSU I was able to form international friendships, gained lots of intercultural experiences, enhanced my Chinese skills and received a high-quality education.
Respondent: Christoph Schmidt (Alumni of Dual Degree Program of NSYSU, 2019)
Interviewer: Zhanna Samodurova (The President of Students Association, 2020)
Date: 10/05/2020
