INS Practitioner Talk Series: Bridging the Gap between Campus and Corporate

On 10^th April 2026, the Department of International Studies welcomed Mr. Ai Dong (艾东) for a practitioner talk. Mr Ai is a seasoned HR professional who shared his knowledge about a topic many students are worried about. His lecture was part of Dr. Ilja Viktorov’s International Communications class (INS208/INS312). The session offered students practical, actionable insights for navigating today’s job market, making smart use of artificial intelligence, and understanding the continued value of human skills.

Students in the lecture hall started with an interactive exercise reflecting on the skills and strengths they already possess. The message was clear: disciplinary knowledge, combined with AI literacy and soft skills, is a powerful career asset.

Drawing on his extensive experience in human resources, Mr. Ai Dong shared some of the real-world stories from his career about the questions and considerations that shape hiring decisions. He emphasized that networking is not a distant professional obligation but an immediate opportunity. He pointed to some practical starting points, like XJTLU’s membership in the British Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.

Practical Tools for Today’s Job Search

Students left with concrete, usable strategies. Mr. Ai introduced several AI prompts for generating and polishing CVs, and recommended resources such as the GitHub platform “career-ops.” He pointed to the importance of not only reading and producing text with AI, but actually talking to it. He demonstrated how to use AI as a mock interviewer with tools like Doubao (豆包) to “build muscle memory” for spoken English interviews – have you tried this before?

The session closed with four memorable takeaways:

1. Check your personal branding: Google, Baidu, or WeChat your own name.
2. Define your domain of expertise: know what you bring to the table.
3. Activate your existing networks: start with friends and family.
4. Train with AI: use it as a practice interviewer for fluency and confidence.

The event highlighted the International Studies Department’s commitment to bridging campus learning with corporate reality, equipping students not just with theory but with the human and digital skills to thrive.

Contributed by the Department of International Studies

Edited by Yiyi Gu