He once hesitated between laboratory and career before deciding to select his career. Relying on his capacity in research and projects, rich internship experience and unique charm, he has received a special offer from HUAWEI. But he didn’t stop the efforts, resulting in an offer from NI in the United States. 

On an afternoon with comfortable breeze, Zhu Xiaodan enrolled in 2012 in Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering received interview by us, who shared his experience in the 4-year campus life in SUSTech. 

It is important to grasp the opportunities provided by the university

4 years ago, Zhu Xiaodan as a freshman was most excited by the campus life in SUSTech. Opportunities reached him quickly in the environment full of challenges and opportunities at the same time. In the summer holiday in Year 1 in SUSTech, he and his classmates attended the IGEM hosted by MIT and he was elected as the Software Team Leader responsible for building the website foreground. However, at that time he didn’t have rich experience in being a leader or in website foreground. “My feeling is that as an incompetent person, I have to work on both technologies and management”, “My classmates were quite tolerant of me”. A group of enthusiastic and young people would join to produce fabulous ideas. To make breakthroughs at an early stage, he read lots of literature. As the Team Leader, he organized team members to discuss about duty division and they experienced the process of feeling strange to each other, having conflicting ideas, compromising, understanding and making progress. Recalling those days, Zhu said, “Everyone was passionate and ambitious without letting go the slightest possibility.”

After one-year efforts, the team comprising of SUSTech freshmen entered the final in USA and got the Gold Medal. “SUSTech gives its students many opportunities to attend social activities and research competitions. What you should do is to think how to grasp and use these opportunities.”

The homelike laboratories

Just like many of his classmates, Zhu Xiaodan didn’t go home in the summer holiday in Year 3 in SUSTech. He stayed in the laboratory of his tutor to study VLC. In those days, he would spend every day writing codes, reforming bugs and asking questions. That was really a busy summer holiday. The emotionless laboratory made this big boy feel like home. “I was free to use the instruments and there was bed in the lab. Besides, the tutor and experiment staff were willing to help me…” He recalled one time he was stuck for a long time in a bug. Finally, he solved the problem thanks to the help from an experiment staff. In this project, Zhu Xiaodan was responsible for VLC platform receiver. In the 2-week period during the summer holiday, he was the sole one working in the lab. And his tutor gave the key to him, asking him to look after the lab. “SUSTech lab is extremely friendly to undergraduates”, said Zhu Xiaodan.

Thanks to the time spent in the lab, Zhu Xiaodan becomes competent in solving problems in his field. In the China HI-TECH Fair, his team was responsible for demonstrating VLC. And the software part was done by Zhu Xiaodan. Undoubtedly, it would bring great benefits for his future job seeking. “I appreciate most the opportunities presented by SUSTech to the students, such as competitions, labs open to undergraduates, and chance for undergraduates to work for the tutor’s projects. I once talked with students from other first-class universities in China, which deepened my appreciation of SUSTech.”

Enjoy the unique charm of e-research

As a student in Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, Zhu Xiaodan has his own perception of researches in engineering communications. He becomes quite eloquent when talking about it, “For me, electronic researches have greatest attractiveness that can never be replaced by other researches”, said Zhu with smile. He believes for electronic researchers, the most important thing is to endure isolation, show patience and experience hardship. “In the process, you have to consider many things, such as testing of detectors and bugs in the codes. You have to be overarching and detail-oriented at the same time. Meanwhile, direct output ratio of electronic research results is relatively low. It is probable that you cannot publish even one thesis after years of efforts. It is really difficult to find fun in it if you don’t have the spirit of persistence and patience.” 

Zhu Xiaodan smiled, “SUSTech provides a broad platform for students. The labs here constitute a piece of fertile land, which can cultivate all valuable ideas. The gardener-like tutors and brother-like classmates can give you greatest confidence and power”. He believes the unique dual-tutor system in SUSTech can touch more students. And the distinctive experience of getting along with tutors, who are like friends and teachers at the same time, will stay with and influence the students for their whole life. The tutors’ value of life will influence the students to some extent.

The exceptional CV gains him favor from famous enterprises home and abroad

Recalling his experience in getting offer from NI, Zhu Xiaodan looked quite proud. NI is an American company that has been included in the Fortune Top 100 with Best Working Environment for 13 years since 2010. NI has more than 5,000 employees in the world and operates in 41 countries. It is specialized in developing engineering software for virtual apparatuses and electronic testing equipment in the fields of testing, control and design. Its famous products include graphic development environment LabVIEW, C-language virtual instrument application system LabWindows/CVI, and integrated circuit program NI Multisim, etc. Zhu Xiaodan, who had already received the special offer from HUAWEI, was not satisfied. After making further selections, he chose to work in NI.  

“Compared with HUAWEI, NI has higher requirements for English proficiency and can offer greater space for development. And I prefer the technology + management post in NI”. However, one can imagine the fierce competition for the post. Competitors of Zhu Xiaodan included postgraduates from Tsinghua University, Peking University and CAS. However, interviewers, after reading his CV, showed keen interest in this undergraduate because he has exceptional capacity in lab researches, rich experience in projects, and excellent English communications and expressions, which completely meet NI’s requirements for the post. In the end, Zhu Xiaodan outperformed his competitors and got the offer.

In the interview, we felt the eloquence and humor of Zhu Xiaodan. “The residential colleges would organize various activities such as folk music concert and dance balls, speaking contests and football matches. Probably the open and warm environment has made me funny”, said Zhu, “More importantly, the full-English learning environment gives me great help in SUSTech.”

Proposals for younger students: Seize opportunities for self-improvement

Zhu Xiaodan also expressed his expectations for younger students, “I know trimester system will be adopted in this year. And I hope the younger students can grasp the opportunity and plan their summer trimester. They can choose to make internship, take trimester courses or go overseas for exchange based on their interest. All these methods can help them with self-improvement.”