Drake Kutz has lived in Taiwan for the past few years, and is a shining archetype of success. Upon graduation from the NSYSU IBMBA program in June of 2018, he quickly secured employment as a technical project manager at Fun Podium, a video game developer, in Taipei. His current job duties in the esoteric tech industry involve a basic step-by-step process: communication with product owners and external clients, then helping them to turn their software needs and designs into technical requirements. Finally, he turns those requirements into a project plan, and leads development and quality assurance teams through a software development lifecycle.
Drake has had a keen interest in software and hardware development since he was a kid, and therefore had some past experience working in game development in his home state of Louisiana, in the USA. He decided to move to Taiwan around 2015 and work remotely. Due to the fact that a master’s degree can increase one’s chances of gaining employment in a management position, Drake decided to pursue his IBMBA at NSYSU.
Studying in Taiwan provided Drake with unique exposure to Taiwanese culture and real-time, practical experience of the way business is done in Taiwan. He really enjoyed classes which linked students with Taiwanese companies in order to gain practical insights; one class he enjoyed the most was Seminars in Business Management, a class in which students interact with local businesses and managers!
One of the most important actions students who are nearing graduation can take is to establish communication connections between themselves and potential employers. A unique method Drake used in order to gain employment was attending the Computex trade-show in Taipei, where he met potential employees face to face and first established relationships, then secured a job. Drake advocates that this is the key to networking: find local industry events, contact people who are in the industry you are interested in and take them to coffee, and figure out ways in which you can gain industry experience! In sum, being proactive like that is much more valuable and effective than throwing your resume into online recruiting sites. I hope you found Drake’s career experience and advice as useful as I did!
