It’s been two months since my last blog. Among all the wonderful experiences I’ve enjoyed during this time, I’d like to share two with you.
1. Discovery expedition: Silicon Valley, San Francisco, US
On 24 June, I landed at San Francisco airport with a question in my mind: “Why has Silicon Valley been phenomenal for decades?” It was a fantastic week of my life!
Jim Pulcrano kicked off the trip on Monday morning by encouraging us to ask open questions to a variety of founders and guest speakers such as “Why did you come to Silicon Valley?” We had tours of innovation centers, accelerators, and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and we visited companies across different sectors where we were lucky enough to hear from some amazing guest speakers from healthcare, food, agriculture, and energy who shared their experiences of Silicon Valley.
I had visited America a few times before as a tourist, and I started my career in Shenzhen, a city that is known as the ‘Chinese Silicon Valley’. By the last day of the trip, I understood a bit more about the difference between Silicon Valley and Shenzhen – Silicon Valley is unique and the first of its kind, with a highly developed ecosystem where investors and entrepreneurs are meant to ‘make dreams’ come true.
2. Career development bootcamp
Right after the Digital Analytics Lab, I signed up for an on campus career development bootcamp. It turned out to be an amazing few days! I had two key take-aways.
Firstly, I had a mindset shift about case cracking; before, I thought cracking a case was just about providing solutions, but it is beyond that – it is also about communication and conversation. Now I see the fun part about cracking a case.
Secondly, it made me more aware of ‘presence‘, including breath, tone of voice, and body gestures, which reminded me of what I value the most in my professional and personal life.
While many of my classmates returned to their home countries or started to travel during the summer break, I decided to stay in Lausanne and enjoy the luxury of ‘me’ time in this beautiful city, which reminds me of this beautiful poem by Mark Twain:
Warm Summer Sun by Mark Twain
Warm summer sun,
Shine kindly here,
Warm southern wind,
Blow softly here.
Green sod above,
Lie light, lie light.
Good night, dear heart,
Good night, good night.
Take care, until next time!
